Arizona Basketball: Five things to take away from a Wildcats season that ended early

The Arizona Wildcats basketball season ended earlier then fans are used to, but there are five things to take away from this season.

That’s a wrap. After a first round loss to the USC Trojans in the Pac-12 Tournament, the Arizona Wildcats basketball season ended. The likelihood of an NIT or CBI invite being accepted probably won’t happen. That being the case, there are five things that can be taken away from this past season, good and bad. Time to review them all.

Heading into the start of the season, many knew this team had big shoes to fill with the talent that departed last season. Combine that with the loss of some potential four and five star recruits due to the FBI investigation, this program already had an uphill battle before the season even started. As the regular season began and then Pac-12 play got under away, it was apparent this team would need to play together as a team for 40 minutes be successful.

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Unfortunately this team wasn’t able to find a way to sustain 40 minutes of high percentage shooting as well as defense to come away with home and road wins they should of have. For as long as I think of, Wildcat fans have been spoiled with winning seasons, Pac-12 regular season and tournament champions and consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Even though that didn’t happen this season, fans were still out there supporting this team till the very end, which says a lot.

This season we learned a lot about this team and fans. There are five things that stood out this season, starting out with No.5 Expectations.

No.5 Expectations

For those that followed Arizona Wildcat Basketball prior to the start of the season knew the expectations for this year’s team wasn’t as high as in the past. That was due to the fact they only had one five-star recruit joining the squad and a couple transfers. Basically the entire starting lineup from last season was gone and Coach Sean Miller would be starting from a clean slate.

There was a lot of unknowns as well. How will Chase Jeter perform as the go to big man for this team? How will Justin Coleman and Brandon Williams work together in the backcourt? What will Coach Miller’s starting rotation be? Who will step up this season?

Early on in non-conference play some of those questions were answered. They had one of their best games of the year with a win against Iowa State in the Maui Invitational:

This team at times somewhat exceeded expectations during the season, but then at times they played where expected. The combination of freshman, returners and transfers this season required a lot of juggling by Coach Miller. He tried to find the right combination to give his team the best chance to win, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to have a successful and longer season.

No.4 Wildcat fans

The best. This year we learned a lot about this team. We also learned about the fans. About the fans who come out and support their team, even if they were on a seven game losing streak. Incredible! I was actually at that game, at home against California where the turnout was amazing. Honestly, not surprising to see as the McKale Center has been sold out for years for a reason. Coach Miller has even acknowledge a few times this season the amazing support fans have shown.

The team fed off that energy from the crowd against California and gave them the extra boast to snap the losing streak. Not just at home, but on the road. Whether it was during the Maui Invitational or in the road in the Pac-12 or even at the Pac-12 tournament, Wildcat fans defined what it meant to bear down. Losing or wining, doesn’t stop them from showing up and showing up in numbers.

When your team is losing its easy as a fan to stop showing up and supporting them. It’s easy for them to be “in the moment” haters on social media. I get that. But Wildcat fans understand this team needed the support this season, regardless whether they were winning or not. And not just the losing streak, but the other challenges this team faced such as injuries and the FBI investigation, the fans were there.

No.3 Playing together

In prior years under Miller, he has had team with highly skilled players who could create and knock down shots from all over the court with ease. They had strong front and backcourt balance. This season was completely different. They didn’t have the depth that could create their own offense, which required this team to play together, share the ball and make smart decisions.

Playing together requires everyone on the same page in order for it to be effective. Any mental lapses resulted in turnovers, taking bad shots and force shots. The margin of error was small this year, which made each possession that much more important. Once this team got down, it took everyone to play their role with limited mistakes to get back into the game.

There were times when the Wildcats were forced to play isolation basketball. Whether it was Coleman trying to get creative on is own and lay it up or Williams taking it upon himself to create his own shot, which he is more then capable of. There is nothing wrong at all with that style of play, but with the skill level of this season’s team, they needed to play together for all 40 minutes.

No.2 Athleticism

In order to win in any sport you need players that can compete at a high level, for long period of time. They need that certain type of athleticism that will give them that edge over their opponent. This season, there were certain players such as Williams or Jeter who had the athletic ability to take over a game and help the team win. The downside though is this team didn’t have enough of those type of players to compete at the top of the Pac-12 or against top ranked non-conference teams.

With the talent their is in college basketball, in order to have a successful season and make a deep run come March, it requires at least 5 or more players with a high athletic IQ. Come next season, this team will certainly have that. It will be just a matter if everyone can work together as one cohesive unit to cut down those nets!

Even if a team has the athleticism, that isn’t a guarantee they will. Look at last year’s team. They were stacked with talent, including the No.1 NBA Draft Deandre Ayton, but lost to Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA tournament. This season was the opposite as they weren’t fully stacked with NBA talent yet couldn’t find a way to make shots and extend the season.

No.1 Adversity

The one common theme this year, as was the case for last season, was adveristy. There wasn’t a day that went by that another hurdle would be placed in front of this team. Jeter getting injured, Williams getting injured, the on-going Sean Miller “no comment” saga and the Pac-12 refs (sorry, had to throw that one in there) and Emmanuel Akot transferring mid season. With all that, this team found a way to persevere through it all. A real good example would be the buzzer beater win on the road against the Beavers:

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Even though this team lost 15 games, those returning next season will take those as learning experiences into next season. This team even loss against ASU on senior day, which must have not been easy to deal with that. They put that behind them and focused on their next opponent. In what would be the last game of the season against USC in the Pac-12 tournament, this team was down as much as 11 before tying it a halftime. They didn’t give up.

Putting on the Arizona Wildcat uniform comes with a lot a pressure, and then you combined that with the adversity this team faced I say this team did one of a heck of a job staying as positive as they possibly could have been.

At Zona Zealots, we would like thank this team for all the exciting moments they provided. This season ended early then Wildcats fans are used to, but know that next season will be much different. Bear Down, Arizona!