Cover 5: Bruce Pascoe's most memorable games on the Arizona beat (No. 2)

This summer, each member of the Star’s sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona games they’ve covered since joining the beat. This week, Bruce Pascoe will reflect on five UA basketball games.

Pascoe’s No. 2:

Honda Center horror show continues in 2014 Elite Eight loss to Wisconsin

What went down: No. 2-seeded Wisconsin edged top-seeded Arizona 64-63 in overtime in the 2014 Elite Eight at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., continuing the Wildcats’ string of four straight Elite Eight losses in that building dating back to Utah’s shocking 1998 win over the defending national champions.

The loss ended an otherwise successful season for Arizona, which held the No. 1 overall ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for eight weeks until after losing its first game on Feb. 1 at Cal, when forward Brandon Ashley suffered a serious, season-ending foot injury.

What we wrote at the time: One possession. One shot. And, in Nick Johnson’s case, maybe one dribble too many.

The Arizona Wildcats knew it could come down to this Saturday, but they were on the wrong side of it, at the wrong time, and certainly in the wrong place.

It was another Honda Center heartbreak for Arizona, its memorable 33-win season ending in a 64-63 overtime loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA West Region final.

It was the fourth straight time the Wildcats had lost an Elite Eight game that kept them out of the Final Four, and the fourth time they lost an Elite Eight game at Honda Center in as many tries.

Johnson, who was called for an offensive foul with 3.2 seconds left before getting a final chance at a game-winning shot after Wisconsin lost the ball out of bounds, was composed afterward.

He blamed himself for not getting the final shot off quickly enough and wouldn’t make an opinion on the foul call he received when he drove the lane. Replays showed Johnson appeared to extend his left arm into the defender, a critical call at a critical time with Wisconsin leading 64-63.

“It was in the heat of the game and I was just trying to make a play for my team,” Johnson said.

UA coach Sean Miller was even more careful when asked about the call.

“I thought it was a really, really tough call,” he said. “I’m going to stop there. I’ve already been fined.”

Of course, Johnson made those type of plays for his team all season. The Wildcats spent eight weeks atop the Top 25 polls, broke a school record with a 21-0 start and won the Pac-12 regular-season title because Johnson was so effective on both sides of the court, and in the locker room.

— Bruce Pascoe

Player of the game: Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky had 28 points and 11 rebounds, forcing UA to bench Kaleb Tarczewski because Kaminsky was burning the Wildcats from the perimeter off screens. “I said to Tarczewski, ‘Isn’t Frank hard to guard?’ ” Wisconsin forward Sam Dekker said. “He said, ‘He’s tough. I’ve never guarded anybody like him.’ ”

By the numbers: The No. 1-ranked team in Kenpom’s defensive efficiency rankings that season, Arizona was playing at a high level in the sort of grind-it-out style that then-coach Sean Miller preferred, holding Wisconsin to 39.3% and turning the ball over just seven times. But Wisconsin did pretty much the same, holding UA to 39.7% shooting and just 3 of 9 in the overtime period while turning the ball over only eight times.

The aftermath: While it was impossible to know it at the time — with Ashley expected to return, five-star guard Stanley Johnson coming in, and Miller continuing to recruit at a high level — the 2013-14 season ultimately represented the peak of the Miller era.

The Wildcats lost another Elite Eight game to Wisconsin the following season, when the then-No. 1 seeded Badgers poured in 10 of 12 3-pointers during the second half of their 85-78 win at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. That made it five straight Southern California Elite Eight losses and five straight Elite Eight losses overall (counting a 2005 Elite Eight loss to Illinois in Rosemont, Ill.) since the Wildcats reached the 2001 Final Four.

More heartbreak continued after that. A first-round upset to Wichita State in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The failure to take advantage of the 2017 Final Four in Phoenix by losing to Xavier in the 2016 Sweet 16 game at San Jose, Calif.

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Then the September 2017 arrest of then-UA assistant coach Book Richardson stemming from the FBI’s investigation into college basketball, followed by a tense 2017-18 season that ended in UA’s shocking first-round NCAA tournament loss to Buffalo.

Three years after that, with UA’s NCAA infractions case still hanging over the Wildcats, Arizona fired Miller.

Personal reflections: So who believes in curses?

What is it about the Honda Center (formerly Arrowhead Pond), where Arizona’s famed perimeter trio of Mike Bibby, Miles Simon and Michael Dickerson combined for 6-for-36 shooting in that 1998 Elite Eight loss to Utah?

Where Jason Gardner (2003) was blocked and then missed a 3-pointer on the final possession of a three-point loss to Kansas in the 2003 Elite Eight. And where Jamelle Horne also had a 3-pointer bounce off the rim at the buzzer of a two-point loss to UConn in the 2011 Elite Eight.

Maybe Southern California doesn’t work because many Wildcats historically come from there, families and friends can provide a distraction (for example, the 1998 game was played less than 10 miles from Simon’s home). Maybe the nice weather destroys their focus. Or maybe it’s just all a stunning coincidence.

Whatever the case, Arizona also hasn’t advanced to the Final Four out of Southern California since doing so in 1994, going 0-5 in Southern California Elite Eight games since then, and also losing a 2013 Sweet 16 game to Ohio State at Staples along the way.

Of the 11 Pac-10/12 Tournaments held in Los Angeles between its resurrection in 2002 and its move to Las Vegas in 2013, the Wildcats won only one.

Even the regular season can be trouble. Since sweeping a 2016-17 trip to Los Angeles, the Wildcats are 3-7 in 10 games played at USC and UCLA.

For the Wildcats, California dreaming mostly has turned into nightmares.

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