Arizona Basketball: Three things we learned from Gonzaga loss

Of course, the No.1 thing that we learned from Zags loss is shooting and when shots don’t fall it makes everything so much harder. As a team, they shot 38% from the field and went 8-30 from three. Those type of stats doesn’t win lots of games.

Yes, the Wildcats only lost by 4 points, but that margin of defeat doesn’t do justice how poorly this team shot. Now it’s easy to place the blame on certain players, such as Nico Mannion, but even great shooters have a bad night. That’s all it was.

Several of his threes were in and out and were good shots. They just didn’t fall. Sean Miller could have made the adjustment to have Nico pass the ball more, but then someone else could have missed shots.

This team is one of the best shooting teams in the country and they are going to have off nights. Have to give credit to Coach Mark Few and the Zags, they mixed things up well on defense.

Everyone needs to understand that this is a young team and we are still in December. They are 11-2 on the season, have one non-conference game against St. John’s, take a short break and then begin Pac-12 play in January against ASU. Those two losses were against top-ranked schools by a total of 9 points, that’s isn’t bad.

The one thing that you can’t take away is Nico’s passion for the game and always wanting to improve. Yes, he had bad shooting game, but that didn’t stop him from getting his shots in after the game:

There is still plenty of basketball to be played. This team will figure it out, everyone just needs to be patient. Arizona Basketball is still a great team with a lot of talent and will find a way to get it done this season. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!