Arizona Basketball: Three things we learned from Gonzaga loss

Arizona Basketball suffered their second loss of the season against No.6 ranked Gonzaga 84-80 and plenty of things can be learned from this one, we cover the top three.

In one of the most anticipated games in college basketball games this year it did not disappoint. In the first half, it looked like Arizona Basketball was checking off all the boxes to come away with the win. Up 16-7 early on Wildcat fans got excited.

Gonzaga though showed why they are one of the best teams. They stayed poised and executed on both ends of the floor to come away with the rare non-conference road win in McKale Center. For Arizona, there were many things that they learned in this one and three of the top ones we will go over.

Anytime you are facing one of the best teams in the country, at home or on the road, 40 minutes of almost perfect basketball has to be played. That did not happen against Gonzaga. After being down the majority of the game against Baylor, it was important the Wildcats came out more focus right from the tip. That they did, but not able to sustain it.

When you unpeel the layers of this one, there are certain things this team can learn from going forward. Especially when they face the top Pac-12 schools like Oregon and Washington, they will want to use this Gonzaga game as a good learning experience.

Everyone will have their opinion on what went wrong or what they did well in, but here are our top three: shooting, effort, and consistency.

Against an average opponent, a college basketball team can get away with not playing a consistent 40 minutes of efficient basketball. In a game against a top-ranked opponent like Gonzaga, 40 minutes of consistency is required. That the Wildcats did not do.

They started off strong building a 16-7 lead, but then they started to lose the edge and momentum. Mental lapses, poor decision making, not closing out on three-point shooters led to the Zags taking control.

Play solid offense and defense for 40 minutes is a challenge, especially in today’s style of college basketball. For Arizona to take that next step and be one of the great teams this year they will need to find a way to play from beginning to end elite-level basketball.

In the last two games against top-ranked opponents, the Wildcats fought to the very end. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off, but in both games, they showed the willingness and effort to try and make the comeback. Eventually, their hard work will start to translate into wins.

It could have been very easy for this team to give up against Gonzaga, but they didn’t due to effort. If they had shown that same effort that they displayed in the last two minutes the entire game, the outcome would have likely been different. Still, was great to see this team give it everything they have, being down double digits with not much time left.

There are certain players on this team though that showed a lot of effort against Gonzaga, including Zeke Nnaji. He brought the energy right from the beginning and it showed. Nnaji would finish with 16 points and 17 rebounds!

He knew how important it was that the Wildcats rebound to have a chance and that they did. As a team, their effort on the glass gave them a 44-43 edge on the glass. It wasn’t enough to get the win, but definitely a good sign going forward as this team showed it can rebound with the best of them.

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!