Takeaways as Arizona Basketball loses its sixth straight to Oregon

The Arizona Basketball team (14-7, 8-7) dropped its sixth consecutive game to the Oregon Ducks (11-4, 7-3) in heartbreaking fashion.

The Arizona Basketball lost their sixth straight to the Oregon Ducks in yet another heartbreaking finish for the Wildcats. Down by two with less than a second left, Kerr Kriisa, who to his credit was playing well all game, missed a game-winning three-pointer, and the Wildcats left the McKale Center with a 63-61 loss.

Despite the freshman scoring 12 points, and Azoulas Tubelis scoring 20 points on 7-11 shooting, here are some of the major takeaways and things to consider when looking at this game.

Arizona Wildcats

The Arizona Men’s Basketball program is young

When a team of mine loses I don’t care what the circumstances are, I don’t enjoy seeing it. But there are always plenty of things to consider, one of those things is how young a team is. In the case of the Arizona Basketball, they’re a fairly young group and are still developing in a year that has been greatly impacted by Covid.

Add to the fact that that they were playing one of the best teams in the conference, and one who has had our number for the last six games, and you’ve got a tough situation. Again it’s never an excuse, and I am sure Head Coach Sean Miller won’t use it, but it is something to consider.

Arizona’s offense was no match for the Oregon defense

Normally, the best offense in the conference, the Wildcats struggled to find any rhythm against the 5th ranked Oregon defense, and it showed throughout the entire game. The Wildcats only shot 38.6 percent from the field as a team, and outside of Tubelis and Kriisa (named after Wildcat legend Steve Kerr, according to Bill Walton on the broadcast), there was not much offensive production out of this team.

And while they are young, if you’re ranked the No. 1 offense in the Conference of Champions, you cannot have a showing like the Cats did today and expect to get wins. Overall, it was a disappointing performance, but let’s see if they can bounce back in their next one. As always, Bear Down Arizona!

Listen to coach Miller following the teams’ loss…