TURNING POINT
Outside of their overtime loss to Wisconsin last season, the Wildcats may have had no worse memory last season than when they visited Wells Fargo Arena.
On Valentine’s Day, playing really only six guys, Arizona spent 50 grueling minutes and lost 69-66 in double overtime. Afterward, the Wildcats held a quick team meeting, with no players available for comment and coach Sean Miller only speaking with disappointment for a few minutes.
Yet, in hindsight, it might have been the game that saved the Wildcats’ season. After that game, Miller vowed to go deeper on his bench and the Wildcats learned to play better without forward Brandon Ashley, who had been lost for the season two weeks earlier with a foot injury.
The Wildcats won five straight after that game, and still managed to earn a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed.
“What worked last year — to compare one team to the next — there’s very little relevance,” Miller said this week. “But when you have that pitfall and that loss, so much of it becomes how you respond to it. You learn through trial and error. Players learn the hard way and grow.”
“Our game at Oregon State (UA’s 58-56 loss on Jan. 11), we had a number of different things we are now better at because that loss really got our team’s attention.”
