As the Pac-12 conference came to a close, there was potential of college basketball powerhouses Arizona and UCLA never playing each other again and thus putting an end to one of the nation's best rivalry games. However, the two team came together and came up with a three game series over the course of the next four seasons to keep the tradition alive.
Saturday was the first game of the three games with Arizona (4-5) facing No. 24 UCLA in Phoenix at the Footprint Center. Both teams struggled to find their footing on offense but UA managed to build up a 49-36 lead with around 10 minutes left in the game, looking to be in good position for a win.
But that didn't happen, like some many other times this season, Arizona's offense went ice cold and couldn't find the bottom of the net scoring just THREE points in the final 10 minutes to fall 57-54 to the Bruins.
The Wildcats' offense was so inept that it could make a basket in the final 8:46 of the game gong 0 of 7 from the field. In all, Arizona shot 45% from the field but went a horrific 2-for-16 from the 3-point line.
Not only was it poor shooting for the Wildcats, but keeping control of the basketball was once again a major issue with a total of 22 turnovers, which led to 27 points on the other end for UCLA.
Everyone who played more than five minutes in the game for Arizona had 2-plus turnovers listed on their stat line. That is eight players on the roster that coughed up the ball multiple times.
The majority of those turnover came in the frontcourt with 11 combined turnovers from Tobe Awaka, Trey Townsend and Henri Veesaar.
Keep in mind, Arizona was without center Motiejus Krivas, who is out indefinitely due to an injury suffered in practice to the same foot he had surgery on during the off-season.
However, it wasn't all bad for the frontcourt as Veesaar played a career-high 27 minutes and scored nine points on 3 of 8 shooting to go along with his seven rebounds.
In all, the only really efficient player on the team against UCLA was guard Jaden Bradley, who scored 12 points on 4 of 7 shooting from the field while collecting seven rebounds and six assists.
Outside of that, it was an offensive coaches nightmare as the team fumbled the ball and took head scratching difficult shots early in the shot clock.
In the four seasons Lloyd has been the head coach, he has had an offense that finished in the top ten of nearly every metric all three previous seasons. Right now, Arizona ranks 73rd in assists per game (16), 68th in fastbreak points (14), 262th in 3-point percentage (31.6%) and 117th in field goal percentage (46.6).
The offense isn't clicking and is completely out of sink and so is guard Caleb Love, who struggled again with just seven points on 3 of 10 shooting from the field while going 1-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Right now, Arizona looks like a far cry from its usual self despite having the talent to be a high-competitive team. Furthermore, the Wildcats don't meet the billing of an NCAA Tournament team and they are below .500 in the non-conference for the first time under Lloyd and just two games away from opening up Big 12 play in what is considered the toughest conference in the nation.
The Wildcats will look to rebound come Wednesday night as the team faces Samford at on with a 7 p.m. (MST) tip off time with the game streaming on ESPN+.
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