For 36 minutes or so, Arizona was a fishing bobber that floated on the water meandering through the day. Looking just good enough to stay on top.
Then, Houston started nibbling.
Bloop.
And starting biting. And started biting.
Bloop, bloop.
Eventually, Arizona turned into a bobber that couldn’t take anymore and went under. Houston’s rush on the waters proved to be too much for No. 13 Arizona, 62-58, in McKale Center.
Arizona is now 17-8 overall and 11-3 in the Big 12. Houston is 21-4 overall and 13-1, taking full control of the conference race.
Arizona, which fell for the first time in back-to-back conference games in 77 conference games, blooped late. Or was Houston’s bite just too much?
Perhaps a combination of each.
“We’re playing guys a lot of minutes, we could have gotten worn down a little bit, and they could have been worn down a little bit,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “But those are hard fought games. Those are battles. It’s a battle. It’s a war. Whatever analogy you want to use, it is.
“We’re at where we’re at, and we’re putting the players out there (where) we think (we have) the best chance to be successful to win the game. Maybe they’re a little bit tired, but I know this: if you want something bad enough, there’s always something left in the tank. I know that.”
Arizona, in fact, was thatclose in pulling off a big win on Saturday afternoon in front of a national television audience. From my view it was the best performance in a loss this season – for whatever that’s worth although it puts it in perspective.
But, it didn’t win. Houston did what it has been customed to do all season – heck, the last few seasons – wear opponents down the stretch to get wins. Saturday was another.
“Arizona is a good team,” Houston coach Kelvin Simpson said. “We’re a good team. We just happened to come of here (with a win).”
And, Arizona didn’t.
The reasons?
Too many missed free throws for a team that is an excellent free throw shooting team. It missed four in the final minutes, after hitting 10 straight but finished 13 of 17.
It needs more help from Trey Townsend, who went 1 for 5 for three points.
Tobe Awaka, who had been unbelievable the last two months, went scoreless, but finished with four rebounds.
Jaden Bradley went 1 for 6 from the floor for four points.
Anthony Dell’Orso had five points on two of three shooting but still wasn’t enough.
And Caleb Love, UA’s on-again, off-again scorer went 1 for 8 from beyond the 3-point line but still finished with 17 points.
That’s just a snapshot of what the issues were.
And, of course, Houston is a premier team in the Big 12 as well as college basketball. Arizona, even in this great stretch where it’s gone 13-3 in the last 16 games, is still finding its footing.
“Houston’s a great litmus test to see where we’re at,” Lloyd said. “We want to play that way (aggressive, tough), too, our own version of it, and I think we did in long stretches. We just gotta figure out a way to play better offensively, against a great defensive team.”
Houston found its offensive just in time, being down midway through the second half before going on a 12-0 run. Basketball numbers guy Evan Miyakawa calls them “kill shots” or runs of 10 or more. Houston is the second best team in the country for those.
And Arizona couldn’t stop it.
“You can’t give their best shooter a wide open 3-point shot at any time,” Lloyd said, referring to Houston’s CJ Cryer, “but especially when you have a lead.”
Lloyd said his team made “a few mistakes and they made a few shots” while going through all their “Rolodex’ items. Houston found ways to attack UA near the basket and peppered it with 3s in a couple of others.
Still, he said, “we played well enough defensively to win the game, we rebounded well enough to win the game. You got to play better offense, and that’s easier said than done against Houston, but we’re more than capable of playing better offense than we did today.”
It went 5 for 23 from beyond the arc, continuing to struggle with it. It finished hitting 37 percent of its shots overall.
Against some teams you can get a win. Against Houston, that won’t cut it. Lloyd knows that.
“I think (Houston) had a little more certainty where they were gonna get their shots from, and kind of hung with it a little bit better,” Lloyd said “I didn’t like some of our possessions at the end of the game. They’re obviously a great defensive team; we just have to have a little more wherewithal on offense. A critical stretch in that game we get a lead down the stretch, you want manage that a little better.”
He said that a couple of times in the press conference. Then, he got a bit, um, defensive when there were a couple of questions about being tired, maybe with Baylor (another tough team looming on Monday).
“You guys (media in the room) all think we’re going to go get our ass kicked at Baylor,” he said, in a voice as stern as he’s ever been while at Arizona. “You guys do, you guys think we’re gonna get our ass kicked at Baylor because we’re tired. We’ve been on a long stretch. We’re gonna play a road game. Our heads are gonna be down. Let’s see. Let’s see what team shows up. We might. We might get our ass kicked Monday, and then we gotta keep moving, but we might not.
“I want to see what we have. I want to see what our guys are made of. I want to see how they respond. Our season is not going to be determined today by what happened. How we respond might have a lot to do with where we go.”
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