Pathetic! That’s how you could sum up the performance for Arizona Basketball team (7-4) as they faced Baylor inside McKale on Saturday.
Hoping to rebound (this will be a big theme from the Baylor recap) from a rather lackluster performance at Alabama, the Arizona Basketball team returned to the ‘friendly confines’ of the McKale Center.
As Arizona basketball fans, there are a few things we’re accustomed to; winning, effort and toughness. However, coming into 2018-19, we knew things may be a bit “different” compared to what we’re accustomed to.
Arizona Wildcats
Dropping some tough games early on in the season already, I think I (we) took for granted too much with this team heading into their match-up on Saturday against a middling Baylor team.
From the tip on Saturday, something was just off. Our first clue should have been when the Wildcats were unable to score for over three minutes after it started. Much of that first half looked like the score to an SEC football game.
Marred by poor shooting, an ineffectual offense, and god-awful rebounding, somehow the Wildcats were winning. Ahead by a mere three points, the biggest concern was that the Wildcats were outrebounded by the Bears by a 27-11 margin.
Brandon Randolph and Emmanuel Akot led the team in scoring with five points each.
Hoping for a better effort in the second half, after all, that’s what we’ve grown to know from this team this year, is that we are a second-half team. Alas, Baylor opened the half on a 17-8 run over the first seven minutes of the half, to go up 37-31.
Things would only get worse from there. Over the next nine minutes, the Wildcats would score just eight points. EIGHT. Baylor would extend their lead to the largest of the game at 50-39, ultimately sealing Arizona’s fate.
Despite their best attempts to try and get back into this one, it just wasn’t in the cards, as the Wildcats’ 52 non-conference home winning streak came to an end with a resounding thud of a performance. Baylor won 58-49.
Perhaps more embarrassing than the 49 points the Wildcats scored (their lowest total in I don’t know how long), was the fact they were out-rebounded by a 50-19 margin. Hell, Baylor’s Mark Vital had almost as many rebounds as Arizona had as a team.
Arizona was outplayed, out-hustled and out-physicalled in every facet of this game.
You would think that nearly a week after being called out for your effort, the team wouldn’t duplicate the same result, but alas, from the start they looked un-enthused, flat, and lifeless.
Instead, we played like we didn’t deserve to call ourselves Arizona Basketball.
Listen to coach Sean Miller as he talks about Arizona’s struggles against Baylor’s zone defense.
Sean Miller says Arizona had a “deer in the headlights look” against Baylor’s zone defense. pic.twitter.com/MNvXyBezqq
— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) December 16, 2018
At Zona Zealots, hopefully, the team won’t duplicate what we saw tonight, but then again we thought they would have learned their lesson versus Alabama. Bear Down, Arizona!