EDITOR NOTE: AllSportsTucson.com is running a feature this basketball season highlighting what happened 25 years ago on that particular day commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Arizona Wildcats’ national championship. The next in the series is what occurred and what was written concerning the developments of Feb. 2, 1997, when Arizona lost to Washington 92-88 at Seattle. The information gathered is through articles written by beat reporters Steve Rivera (Tucson Citizen) and Javier Morales (Arizona Daily Star), who now are writing for AllSportsTucson.com
You can access previous stories in this series by clicking on this link.
DATELINE: Feb. 2, 1997, Seattle
Just when it looked like Arizona’s defense was fast becoming its staple for victories, Washington comes aolong and shoots it down like a Todd MacCulloch 2-footer.
The 10th-ranked Wildcats were primed for a win today, scoring the first seven points of the game, which seemed like a comfortable lead considering the way Arizona’s defensive pressure had rattled five straight opponents into more than 20 turnovers.
Washington, prone to turnovers, because it doesn’t have a clear-cut point guard, looked like it could be in for a long game. But in the end, Arizona was more unsettled in a 92-88 loss to the Huskies before a sellout crowd of 7,113 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
“They were able to break our press effectively and get a lot of good looks at the basket, and that created problems for us,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “We had trouble stopping penetration, and they were able to find their big guys.
“That, along with our (42.4 percent) shooting, forced us to play catch-up. You don’t play catch-up on offense. You play it on defense, and they just kept beating us down there.”
The Wildcats (13-5, 6-3 Pac-10) out-rebounded Washington 46-34, but their interior players — Bennett Davison, A.J. Bramlett and Donnell Harris — only had one defensive rebound in the second half.
And Jason Terry, Mike Bibby and Michael Dickerson accounted for 60 of Arizona’s 88 points, meaning Davison, Bramlett, Harris and Miles Simon were practically non-existent offensively.
“We just couldn’t get anything going,” said Davison, who was assessed a technical foul for protesting a foul in the second half. “Their big guys were a little more aggressive. We didn’t do a good job of keeping the ball away from them.”
The 7-footers, MacCulloch and Patrick Femerling, combined to shoot 11 for 12 from the field.
Remember the problems on the L.A. trip, when centers Jelani McCoy of UCLA and David Crouse of USC combined to make each of their 11 attempts?
“We told our guys before the game that they had to come out with a take-charge attitude,” said Arizona assistant coach Phil Johnson, who oversees the interior players. “We’ve stressed that all along, that the guys have to be tougher. That’s our weakness. That’s our weakness as a team.”
Olson was quick to point out that Arizona had 27 offensive rebounds to Washington’s 10, “but I’m willing to bet they scored more poitns off their offensive boards than we did. We just couldn’t get it done.”
Washington, whick kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive at 12-5 and 5-4, committed 18 turnovers, 13 fewer than it had the other day against ASU. Jan Wooten, Donald Watts and Jamie Booker entered the game with almost as many turnovers as assists, but the finished with 18 assists and only eight turnovers.
And if they were getting the ball to MacCulloch, who was 8 for 9 from the field, they were finding Mark Sanford, who was 9 for 18 and finished with a game-high 26.
— Javier Morales
Arizona Wildcats 1996-97 Men's Basketball Schedule
| Date | Rank | Opponent | Result | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11/22/96 | 19 | 7 North Carolina Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic | W 83–72 | Springfield (MA) |
| 11/26/96 | 11 | Northern Arizona | W 88–70 | McKale Center |
| 11/30/96 | 11 | 19 New Mexico | L 84-77 | Albuquerque (NM) |
| 12/7/96 | 15 | 3 Utah John Wooden Classic | W 69–61 | Anaheim (CA) |
| 12/9/96 | 15 | 13 Texas | W 83–78 | McKale Center |
| 12/14/96 | 8 | Jackson State | W 111–83 | McKale Center |
| 12/21/96 | 6 | 4 Michigan | L 73-71 OT | Auburn Hills (MI) |
| 12/28/96 | 9 | Robert Morris Fiesta Bowl Classic | W 118–54 | McKale Center |
| 12/30/96 | 9 | Penn Fiesta Bowl Classic | W 93–51 | McKale Center |
| 1/2/97 | 9 | California | W 81-80 | McKale Center |
| 1/4/97 | 9 | 21 Stanford | W 76-75 | McKale Center |
| 1/11/97 | 7 | Arizona State | W 92-84 | Tempe |
| 1/16/97 | 6 | USC | L 75-62 | Los Angeles |
| 1/18/97 | 6 | UCLA | L 84-78 OT | Los Angeles |
| 1/23/97 | 11 | Oregon State | W 99-48 | McKale Center |
| 1/25/97 | 11 | Oregon | W 88-66 | McKale Center |
| 1/30/97 | 10 | Washington State | W 87-78 | Pullman (WA) |
| 2/2/97 | 10 | Washington | L 92-88 | Seattle |
| 2/5/97 | 14 | Arizona State | W 87-71 | McKale Center |
| 2/9/97 | 14 | 21 Tulane 7Up Shootout | W 81-62 | Phoenix |
| 2/13/97 | 11 | 24 UCLA | L 66-64 | McKale Center |
| 2/15/97 | 11 | USC | W 101-77 | McKale Center |
| 2/20/97 | 13 | Oregon | L 78-72 | Eugene (OR) |
| 2/22/97 | 13 | Oregon State | W 74-64 | Corvallis (OR) |
| 2/27/97 | 15 | Washington State | W 100-86 | McKale Center |
| 3/2/97 | 15 | Washington | W 103-82 | McKale Center |
| 3/6/97 | 12 | 23 Stanford | L 81-80 | Palo Alto (CA) |
| 3/8/97 | 12 | California | L 79-77 | San Francisco |
| 3/13/97 | 4 | 13 South Alabama NCAAT 1st Round | W 65-57 | Memphis |
| 3/15/97 | 4 | 12 College of Charleston NCAAT 2nd Round | W 73-69 | Memphis |
| 3/21/97 | 4 | 1 Kansas Sweet Sixteen | W 85-82 | Birmingham (AL) |
| 3/23/97 | 4 | 10 Providence Elite Eight | W 96-92 OT | Birmingham (AL) |
| 3/29/97 | 4 | 1 North Carolina Final Four | W 66-58 | Indianapolis |
| 3/31/97 | 4 | 1 Kentucky Championship | W 84-79 OT | Indianapolis |
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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