After a week of highs, Arizona Wildcats were 'a little bit casual' in loss at Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — So how did arguably the best shooting team in college basketball almost completely disappear at the Huntsman Center?

In a shocking 81-66 loss to Utah on Thursday, No. 4-ranked Arizona made just 4 of 28 3-pointers and shot 35.2% overall.

Point guard Kerr Kriisa was 1 for 9. Pelle Larsson, who spent his freshman season at Utah, went 0 for 5 on his old floor. Normally reliable forward Azuolas Tubelis missed his first six shots. And the entire UA bench combined for 3 for 13 shooting.

Was it all thanks to the Utes’ aggressive defense? Their defensive switches, including some new schemes Utah coach Craig Smith said he hadn’t previously deployed? A lack of offensive flow that led to tougher looks at the basket? The high altitude?

“Throw a dart on the wall,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “There’s probably 10 or 20 reasons. We’ve got to be better.”

But underlying it all might just be one simple problem: Rat poison.

It’s a phrase that Lloyd borrowed from Alabama football coach Nick Saban last season, when he fretted if his Wildcats might get too comfortable after rising to No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings in mid-January.

This time, not only were the Wildcats coming off a Maui Invitational title by beating two ranked teams Thanksgiving week, but they rose 10 spots to reach No. 4 in the AP poll on Monday, a fast and somewhat unexpected rise for a team that lost three players to the NBA Draft after last season.

“I’m sure it was some of that,” Lloyd said, when reminded of the rat poison metaphor. “In general, every game is going to be hard. When you have Arizona on your chest, you expect the other team’s best shot and obviously their shot was a lot better than ours tonight. We didn’t match it, especially early in the game and we’re a team that likes to set the tone with effort and energy.

“We’re not usually perfect at the start of those games but we’re usually playing our butts off. Today, we were running in quicksand a little bit and couldn’t get out.”

The Wildcats actually trailed for the entire game, missing their first five field goals and trailing by double-digits most of the time to a team that won just four Pac-12 games a year ago.

Entering the game hitting 45% of their 3-pointers, Arizona made just 14.3%. Entering the game hitting a nation-best 67.4% of their 2-pointers, Arizona made just 48.8%.

A team that usually creates good looks and sometimes also hits the tough ones could do neither Thursday.

“Me, Kerr, Pelle, we got a lot of great looks. Everybody,” said guard Courtney Ramey, who was 4 of 13 from the field. “When you shoot a lot of 3s they go in sometime and sometimes they don’t. Credit to them – they were aggressive. They really they kind of knocked us back. I think we just got to do a better job of just responding early.”

While center Oumar Ballo hit 10 of 12 field goals for a team-high 22 points, he was an outlier. And while Tubelis finished with 20 points, he was 7 for 19 from the field, with he and and several teammates missing close-in baskets that didn’t exactly have the sort of execution Lloyd was looking for.

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They need to “get easier shots,” Lloyd said. “Get 1-inchers. Don’t settle. Put it in the basket. I mean, it’s not more complicated for that … (it was) guys being a little bit casual. They want it to be easy. We’re not a program that wants things easy. Because the harder it is the more advantage it is for us.”

After trailing 42-25 at halftime, the Wildcats took things seriously in the second half. They hit their first three shots, getting layups from Ballo, Tubelis and Kriisa to cut the Utes’ lead to 45-31. The Wildcats later went on an 8-0 run by going inside, including on a entry pass from Ramey that Ballo converted into an easy layup that made it 49-37.

Then, still trailing by 15 entering the final five minutes, the Wildcats turned to a full-court press that produced some immediate results. They forced a Utah turnover that led to a 3-pointer from Ramey with 4:51 left and Ramey came down for another 3 off a missed 3 from Utah’s Gabe Madsen 36 seconds later that cut the Utes’ lead to 73-64.

But the Wildcats never came any closer the rest of the way.

“We have comeback defenses and stuff like that, but we haven’t had to use them much,” Lloyd said. “We were digging deep in our arsenal and trying to find a way to disrupt them a little bit and had a little bit of success with it. But then we also got really sloppy with it at the end and gave them a lot of easy layups.”

The Utes polished the Wildcats off in the final 71 seconds with a layup from point guard Rollie Wooster — who had 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists — then a final dunk from veteran center Branden Carlson, who hit 5 of 9 3s when he wasn’t causing problems inside.

When it was over, Utah’s Smith ran giddily into the stands to high-five fans, and spoke afterward about how much “you have to crave” opportunities like the Utes had Thursday, hosting the No. 4 team in the country.

The Wildcats didn’t crave it. Maybe they will Sunday against Cal, and in every other game this season.

Lloyd certainly hopes so. Asked what his team can learn from a game like Thursday’s, he answered tersely.

“Get better,” Lloyd said. “Listen. Respect the game. Respect to your opponent.”

And watch out for the rat poison.