Arizona Basketball: Wildcats stay close but end up falling to Utah

Arizona Basketball lost what ended up being a close game in Salt Lake City against the Utah Utes.

The Arizona Basketball team fought hard and competed deep into the second half, then came back after Matt Weyland and Jake DeJardines subbed in. If you were an NCAA basketball fan covering a non-storied program, a seven-point loss to one of the better Pac-12 teams would seem a good loss as the team wasn’t dominated and showed signs of improvement.

But if you are reading this post, the chance is that you are not, you are a fan of A Players Program. And you may or may not be upset with the players or the coaches or both. Either way, losing two coaches and three players, one to injury and two to departure, and losing five straight games has had an effect on this 2018-2019 team.

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The Cats stayed even with the Utah Utes through halftime looking confident ahead by one point, 32-31. The Utes pulled away behind a combined 38 points scored by just three players: Sedrick Barefield (11), Timmy Allen (10) and Jayce Johnson (17). The Cats made 41.4% of their shots in the first half and 48.5% in the second half. That’s pretty good! But the Utes shot 40% in the first half and 59.3% in the second half.

It all came down to their offense and lack of time-outs left at the end of the game. Miller called a time out after his team fell by around 16 points, and put in Matt Weyland and Jake DesJardines. It was his last time out with 6+ minutes left. He could have just made the subs, talked to the players first, but he was trying to make a point. The camera caught Miller getting on Chase Jeter’s case, he had only one foul left to commit.

What was wonderful for me personally, was that what I have been preaching for quite a long time, to play everyone because you never know who can become your spark, worked. The came within single digits and Sean Miller got out of his chair and started screaming, his normal “We have a chance to win” mode.

But then Jeter fouled out and without a time out left, Miller had to rely on Utah to call some time-outs, and they obliged. Ryan Luther showed what he is capable of and defended a three, then made one, a six-point turnaround.

But it was a little too late, and Arizona lost its sixth game in a row, 83-76 to the Utah Utes.

There were some fun highlights such as another statement dunk from Ira Lee, but the loss of Brandon Williams in the lineup is showing.

Here is a stat to feel good about: The Wildcats turned over the ball only seven times while Utah turned over the ball 10 times. Basically, the Utes out-shot the Cats, making two more three’s while Arizona shot 10 more shots.

The Wildcats were in this game as they have in the last few games, but the offense, making their shots have become their Achilles heel. Brandon Randolph has just lost his touch and is struggling to make his shots scoring only two points making only one of five shots taken. Randolph can shoot, he has shown us he can, but he’s been in a slump and it must be really hard for him. When Williams and he played together, they were a formidable duo.

It’s not easy to watch, but it will be sweet when the team wins another game. The Wildcats are improving, and that’s a good sign heading into the end of the season.