First the good news: No. 24 Arizona scored 113 points in sweeping Arizona State this season.
The bad news? It gave up 100 points in doing so, beating ASU 113-100 in front of a loud crowd that saw the Wildcats for the final time in McKale Center this season.
If you liked points, well, you enjoyed the game. Not since 1973, had both teams scored 100 or more points in the same game.
The good news is Arizona is now 20-10 overall and 14-5 in the Big 12, and will likely be the No. 3 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament.
The bad news is Arizona has played inconsistently the last few games as it prepares to finish off the regular season vs. Kansas and Saturday and then head into the postseason.
Oh, again, Arizona gave up 100 points. The defense, your honor, rests.
Tommy Lloyd even joked on his postgame radio show, saying: “Defensive battle.”
More like a battle to play defense.
“We don’t want to give up a hundred, it’s got to be better,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said in his postgame interview.
He talked about playing in a similar game two years ago vs. ASU, and losing on a last-second shot after the Sun Devils hung around long enough to win it.
Tuesday night, it was a little similar, give ASU stayed close until it couldn’t.
“I just kept telling (his team), ‘Hey, there’s lots of ways to win a game. You can win a game with a huge run in the first half,” Lloyd said. “Obviously you want to win at the end, but you can also win with 16, 12, eight minutes to go.’ So we just need to keep finding that opportunity. When was it going to be our moment, we were going to make the push to win the game.”
Arizona made its move with five minutes left – after ASU closed to within 89-86 – and pulled away for the win.
“I’m proud of our guys for hanging with it and not letting it come down to the last possession,” Lloyd said.
Style points aren’t important. To the fans, maybe, but to Lloyd they aren’t, and winning surely beats the alternative.
Still, there might be – well, is – cause for concern when it comes to Arizona’s defense, just a couple of weeks after thinking – and seeing – UA had become one of the better defensive teams in the Big 12. It gave up 96 against Brigham Young and 84 against Iowa State – both losses.
“Obviously it’s three out of four games where teams have played pretty well offensively against us,” Lloyd said, talking most recent games. “So, we got to figure out, is there a code that’s been cracked? Is it a little bit the code has been cracked and a little bit of bad luck? Sometimes they just make the shot right? So, we got to dig a little deeper and look into it.”
Tobe Awaka said the “effort was definitely there” short of a thing or two that needs to be corrected.
Well, time is running out. Kansas looms and then two tournaments, one more important than the other. Seemingly, Arizona has locked up nothing worse than a four-seed in the NCAA tournament, given its play – although inconsistent at times – in the Big 12. It was projected to finish fifth and will finish third.
Now, as Lloyd said, is the time to make a push to the postseason. He said they’d take Wednesday off then prepare for Kansas.
“It’s not complicated,” he said. “I’m happy we secured a top four spot, which basically allows us that double bye. That’s something that should be commended, especially the way our season started. Now, I’m not disowning my responsibility for how the season started, but sometimes it starts that way, and our guys dug deep and fought their way back. So, to have a double bye in the Big 12, we’ll be one of the top four teams. It’s pretty impressive, and I’m proud of our guys for that.”
The good news is it has a chance to get better on defense, or at least find what it had just a few weeks ago.
