Arizona's loss to UCLA on Saturday night had plenty of similarities to its loss to USC just a couple days earlier. The end result was the same with the Wildcats dropping both games to the Los Angeles schools quickly changing their standing in the Pac-12 rankings. Arizona's issues centered on the defensive end of the floor with foul problems also playing a part in the team's inability to pull ahead against the Bruins in the second half.
Ultimately, UA just couldn't string together enough stops to get over the hump in what ended as an 81-76 loss to UCLA. It was the fourth straight victory at McKale Center for the Bruins and the fourth consecutive win against the Wildcats overall.
Arizona was able to receive 40 points combined from starting point guard James Akinjo and starting power forward Azuolas Tubelis, but the team's inability to slow down an aggressive UCLA offense that reached the free-throw line for 32 attempts proved costly by the end of the night.
"We are a horrible defensive team," UA head coach Sean Miller said. "We played against two very good teams, but that's who you judge yourself by, right? You judge yourself by programs like UCLA and SC, and unfortunately for us we had a lot of great moments on offense. This team has learned how to score, we can do it inside, we can do it off the dribble, we have guys coming in off the bench that are scoring for us and we're not turning the ball over.
"... We can't get the value out of that because we just have no answer on defense. Straight-line drives, in and around the basket, and the fouling is just off the charts right now. We have a saying undisciplined teams or players are coached by an undisciplined coach. Fouling is discipline. Fouling it might be sometimes you're outmatched or outmanned, but for the most part if you have a problem as a team fouling that's something that we or I have to correct."
Overall the Wildcats had four players finish with four fouls and another two players finish with three fouls apiece, so the problem is not limited to one or two players on the team.
UA was able to do enough offensively to remain in the game with the team leaning on different players at different moments in the game. The one most consistent player on the floor was Akinjo who bounced back from an 0-for-9 performance against USC with a 25-point explosion on Saturday against the Bruins.
He made 50% of his shots from the floor and knocked down four 3-pointers and all five of his free-throw attempts. The redshirt sophomore also had a game-high eight assists in an impressive performance.
Miller said he had a talk with his starting point guard after Thursday's loss to the Trojans and reminded Akinjo that he is the engine for the Wildcats and has to do other things when he is not shooting the ball well.
The message was received and Akinjo was more focused in Saturday night's contest albeit in another loss.
"We lost so it's hard to really judge my personal performance in a loss," he said. "Overall I think my energy was better, my activity was better and I think I was just more engaged this game."
Miller might be forced with making some changes to his starting lineup with freshman wing Bennedict Mathurin continuing to play well off the bench and a couple of UA's perimeter players continuing to have struggles. Mathurin is the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week and his head coach believes it's time to give the Arizona wing a bigger role.
"Now that we've played the games that we've played we gotta get him a bigger role," Miller said. "We have to get him in there more, and from a defensive perspective he's gonna make plenty of mistakes but being that he's 18 years old and a freshman I have great faith that two weeks, four weeks from now there's some things Ben's gonna be better at than he is now. Just because he's so young."
The other part of that equation is that starting shooting guard Jemarl Baker Jr. could have a broken hand. Miller said the team will do some more evaluations, but he missed most of the second half of the game because of a hand injury he suffered in the opening 20 minutes.
"I don't know if it's broken, if it's sprained," Miller said. "We're gonna find out more over the next couple days on his situation."
The Wildcats will now continue through the difficult stretch of games that started with this week's homestand against USC and UCLA as they head to Oregon to face Oregon State and Oregon before traveling to meet up with Arizona State in Tempe.
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