Garth Brooks had “The Dance.” Arizona will forever have “The Foul.”
Real or imagined, it will always be talked about given the circumstances in McKale Center thanks to Tony Padilla on what appeared to be a bad call on Trey Townsend who was defending Ritchie Saunders in the final seconds of Arizona’s 96-95 loss to visiting Brigham Young.
“It’s a bad call. Whatever,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. “What am I going to say? You hate for a game to be decided by that. Trey, I felt horrible for him. Guy didn’t play (a lot) in the second half; we tightened the rotation. He played good defense. Guy is pivoting, pivoting, pivoting, throws his shoulder in him, throws up a shot and falls down,”
And that was it. It gave the Cougars two shots at the free throw line and a chance to win.
“It’s the Big 12, that’s what I’m told,” Lloyd said. ”The guy who called it’s one of the best refs, so we got to live with it.”
Arizona is now 18-9 and 12-4 in the Big 12.
And must live with it … it has no other choice.
It’ll sting for, um, ever likely. And have the same debate as the Loren Woods’ goal-tending call vs. Connecticut in 2000 and the “he touched the ball” call vs. UCLA under Sean Miller back in the day.
Stuff happens.
Called fouls that may not have been but …
“Let’s make it a good thing: play better. Play better,” Lloyd said. “That’s the best Arizona solution, not complaining about one call, play better. There’s 39 minutes and 58 seconds before that call to play better.”
Lloyd was upset, of course, but pragmatic about the last-seconds turn of events, given that for 39 minutes Arizona played well enough to win – well, kind of – but didn’t. Arizona had taken a fall, but will they fall apart with just four regular-season games left and the all-important postseason still there.
The disappointment came at how bad it played in one of its staple areas – defense. And in the comfort of McKale Center – no less – where they’ve lost two consecutive games for the first time since 2021.
BYU hit 14 of 31 3s, and 55 percent of its shots. BYU picked Arizona apart in what felt like every possession.
“(We’ve got to) take a step back,” Lloyd said. “They scored (94) points up to that point on our home court. That’s the problem. That’s the problem … the officials. It would have been great to steal a victory, if they don’t call that but still, don’t put yourself in that position. That’s the problem.”
As Lloyd put it, Arizona got casual for whatever reason. Caleb Love hinted maybe because UA had already defeated the Cougars at their place. Maybe, maybe not.
“Maybe a little complacent,” Love said, although adding he doesn’t see that coming from his team.
Still, it happened – after a couple of months of establishing an identity of tough, hardnosed defense. That doesn’t happen with Arizona basketball much, but this season has.
“Here’s the deal on defense: you gotta do it every night,” said Lloyd, getting more stern with every word. “You gotta do it every night. The other team has a great coach, and they’re great players, and they’re trying really hard, too. So, you can’t just show up and think you have great defense. You have to make it happen. And our guys didn’t make it happen.”
But they’ll have to the rest of the way. In explaining his “casual” comment, Lloyd said it went beyond the game. And he didn’t like it, even before the final outcome.
“(They were) a little casual at shootaround, maybe little casual showing up on time, and that stuff don’t work,” Lloyd said. “It don’t work so Monday, I better see the most focused group I’ve seen all year.”
The alarms have been sounded, after all, in a few days it’s March … And everything matters in March.
