STANFORD, Calif. β Courtney Ramey has been a starter for nearly five full seasons of college basketball, and heβs never made 3-pointers as often he did Saturday.
That was the problem.
It wasnβt just that No. 4-ranked Arizona lost to Stanford 88-79 at Maples Pavilion on Saturday despite Rameyβs career-high eight 3-pointers. It was also that Ramey felt he had to hit those eight 3s, had to throw up 16 long-range attempts, on a team that is normally powered inside-out. Not outside-and-maybe-in.
Something was wrong, and Ramey knew it. Arizonaβs potential Pac-12 Player of the Year, forward Azuolas Tubelis, was in foul trouble and the Wildcats werenβt able to find him or normally efficient center Oumar Ballo very often, either.
Ballo and Tubelis combined to take just seven shots.
Ramey took 18, including the 16 from beyond the arc.
βWhen you have the player of the year and you have Oumar, whoβs first-team all-conference, why not see what happens?β Ramey said. βWhy not put pressure on them? We got some bad whistles but theyβre our two best players, so why not try to get them going?
βYeah, I hit eight 3s. But Iβd rather see them going and getting layups and fouls, than me shooting. I donβt know how many 3s I shot but thatβs something I will fix.β
Well, Ramey probably doesnβt need to fix the percentage. He did hit half of those 16 3s, after all.
But the volume bothered Ramey and UA coach Tommy Lloyd, too. Kerr Kriisa threw up 10 3s and hit three of them, while Cedric Henderson was 2 for 6.
Overall, Arizona was 14 for 35 from 3, setting season highs for makes β and attempts β from beyond the arc.
Arizona guard Cedric Henderson Jr. shot from close range here, but he also took six of UAβs 35 3-point attempts in the loss.
βI just donβt know if thatβs a winning formula for us,β Lloyd said.
Ramey agreed. When he was asked in the Stanford media room about what kind of zone he was in as a shooter, Ramey flipped the question over.
βThey did a good job of taking away our bigs,β Ramey said. βI just shot the ball. (Teammates) did a good job of finding me in open spots. But being a leader, I should have just told everybody to get the ball down low. We shot 35 3s and thatβs not going to win us a lot of games.β
Both Ramey and Lloyd said Stanford did a good job of switching defensively, with their many similarly sized big wings able to guard multiple positions, and there was no doubt that made things tougher for Ballo and Tubelis to break away.
While Stanford coach Jerod Haase noted dryly that his game plan βdid not include 14 made 3s from them,β his strategy ultimately paid off. Stanford outscored Arizona 42-24 in the paint and outrebounded the Wildcats 34-26. The Cardinal also scored 14 second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds, scooping up more than half of its 18 missed field goals.
Stanford ultimately became even more efficient than one of the countryβs most efficient offenses, shooting 61.1% overall and hitting 10 of 18 3-pointers.
βI thought we really did a nice job most of the game keeping the ball out of the paint,β Haase said. βLook, they have big-time players and on the inside, if they get paint touches thereβs nobody in the country thatβs going to stop those guys. So youβve got to find a way to way to limit the touches inside.β
While Ramey and Lloyd gave Stanford plenty of credit, Ramey said he could have helped by reacting more effectively to it.
βMe being a leader, I could have just gave them one extra post touch, or just told them to keep sealing or tell then to keep rebounding,β Ramey said. βThatβs something I will fix next time.β
On the other side of the court, the Wildcats also found some things to work on Saturday. Although Ramey is one of the Wildcatsβ best defenders, he wasnβt able to help stop the Cardinalβs big wings from getting inside and also shooting over the Wildcats. While Arizona made many of Stanfordβs shots difficult, the Cardinal still made many of those and took advantage of the few open looks it got.
βIβm not going to take credit away from them but we had some (defensive) breakdowns,β Lloyd said. βWe just made some crazy decisions at the end of a shot clock and gave them a shot or an advantage when I didnβt think they needed to have that.
Moreover, while the Wildcats kept Stanford forward Spencer Jones scoreless in the first half, Jones reverted to the same guy who poured in 28 points against them in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals last season.
That is, Jones scored 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting after halftime.
βI could tell early on their their game plan was trying to just not let me get the ball,β Jones said. βIβll look at the tape and see if I could have been more aggressive. But we were rocking on offense, so I didnβt feel the need to (score). But in the second half, I knew I was gonna have to put up the performance to maintain our lead and win this game.β
Stanford finished with five players in double-figure scoring while Arizonaβs unbalanced offense had Ramey with 26 points, three others with double digits and, again, only seven total contributors.
After the game, Lloyd said he was comfortable with just his usual seven guys, even when asked if he considered inserting freshman bigs Henri Veesaar or Dylan Anderson to help out inside.
βI feel like we played the right guys,β Lloyd said. βI wish βZu would have got to play a little bit more. Weβve just got to play better. Weβve got to play smart.
βI think we go back and watch that film, and weβre gonna see a lot of self-inflicted wounds and Stanford was good enough to take advantage of those.β
