As Arizona Basketball fell to conference foe to Colorado on Saturday evening, was the loss the best possible result for the Wildcats?
One of my daughters, a three-year forward on her high school team, and a rabid Cats fan like her old man, says that the Colorado loss may have been the best thing that could’ve happened to Arizona Basketball.
When you have won a series of games, several despite being outplayed by your opponents such as was the case in the Oregon game and the first game against the Sun Devils, you can tend to develop a ‘can’t lose’ attitude which is dangerous this time of year.
All games are ‘big games’ this time of the year, especially for Arizona Basketball
Ahead for the Cats lies a tough game at USC on Tuesday, two final home games, and then the big prize, the games of the marathon, the Pac-12 tournament. Complacency at this time of the year is a luxury the Cats can ill afford.
The Trojans have to be looking at their game with us as a chance to elevate their place in the polls, and pad their resumé, always a welcome opportunity for any team. The Cats must guard against any letdown against an opportunistic and hungry USC team.
Then there is the tournament. While the Cats will undoubtedly have a first-round bye, this can be a mixed blessing. It means they will come into a second-round game against a team riding the motivation of a win in the tournament already.
Should they survive the pressure and prevail in the tournament, solidifying their position as a number one seed in a region such as the south, the Wildcats will have the inevitable target on their backs that all high-ranking teams carry into the NCAA’s.
Any opponent they face has nothing to lose as they are already playing the best. They will bring it all to try and gain a momentous upset.
Maybe the loss to Colorado, a team Arizona was supposed to handle, because they out-played us on every front, is just the wake-up call these Cats needed. We can only hope they have learned something from the experience!