Early on in an eventual 82-73 win over the visiting Colorado Buffaloes, the Arizona offense was stuck in neutral. Worse, going backwards.
They talk about filling up a stat sheet? Arizona’s was nearly spotless: One point, zero field goals, not even a turnover.
Wait, that’s a good thing.
And for Arizona, a rare thing.
But on a night when much of the offense was laughable, at least it wasn’t gaffe-able: The Wildcats had just two turnovers in the first half and just 11 for the game.
“We did a really good job of handling their pressure,” coach Sean Miller said. “They pressured us more than I’ve seen them pressure some other teams. They have depth, they have quickness and talent.”
Added guard Kadeem Allen, who finished with four assists and zero turnovers: “We were just taking care of the ball. Coach gave us a game plan, told us what they were going to do. He said to stay aggressive and keep dribbling the basketball.”
With 8 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first half, Arizona guard Kobi Simmons went up for a layup and was stripped of the ball.
It was the Wildcats’ first giveaway of the game.
This is not normal.
Arizona briefly reverted to its usual self, which ranks fifth in the Pac-12 with 12.5 turnovers per game.
During an 11-minute span in the middle of the second half, the Wildcats indeed turned it over nine times, suddenly clamming up once they’d built a substantial lead.
Colorado “started trapping and most of us weren’t aware,” Allen said.
“They were trying to split us. Instead of moving the ball, we tried to do things we’re not used to doing. … We still have a young team. We were up 20, and we felt the game was over.”
Miller acknowledged that at times, the team’s youth showed.
“At halftime, that’s why we were winning, because we had so many shots at the basket,” Miller said. “But we hit that one stretch near the end where turnovers led to points. We’ve had that happen a number of times. That’s something I hope we can continue to improve on, but I think sometimes we run out of gas.”
Colorado put together a 22-9 run to cut Arizona’s lead to six. Then Arizona found its control once more.
The good and bad of the UA’s ball-handling wasn’t just reflected on Saturday in one game, but over their last several.
Against Cal on Dec. 30, Arizona turned it over eight times; two days later in a 91-52 win at Stanford, the Wildcats had 19 turnovers.
“Did their scoring happen because of our offense or our defense?” Miller asked. “I’d say a lot of their 46 points in the second half came off our offense, taking advantage of it.”
But then Arizona cleaned it up.
The Wildcats didn’t have one turnover the last 5:11 of the game.
“I would never have guessed that,” Miller said. “It felt like we were turning the ball over.”
