Double-digit Pac-12 losses rare for Arizona Wildcats

LOS ANGELES — During the Pac-12 Networks’ postgame show Thursday, analyst Don MacLean noted of Arizona’s 23-point loss to USC that “you don’t do that to Arizona.”

Historically speaking, that's been pretty accurate.

Arizona has been beaten by double digits only nine times in the Sean Miller era, including four 20-plus point games. The Wildcats have lost 11 times outside of Pac-12 play by double digits — including beatdowns from Purdue (89-64) and Buffalo (89-68) last season — but seven of those losses came against the rebuilding Miller teams of 2009-10 and 2011-12.

If there’s any consolation for the Wildcats, it may be worth noting that they were blown out twice in 2010-11, when they won the Pac-10 title and went on to reach the Elite Eight with Derrick Williams and MoMo Jones.

Here’s a list of UA’s double digit league losses:

Feb. 6, 2010: At Washington State, 78-60

Feb. 25, 2010: At California, 95-71

Jan. 20, 2011: At Washington, 85-58

Feb. 26, 2011: At UCLA 71-49

Jan. 24, 2013: UCLA, 84-73

Feb. 14, 2013: At Colorado, 71-58

Feb. 27, 2013: At USC, 89-78

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Feb. 4, 2017: At Oregon, 85-58

Jan. 24, 2019: At USC, 80-57

Miller has been talking a lot about how the Wildcats may be best off if they can cut down their turnovers — considering their other limitations — and they had only seven against USC. But they also fell apart in nearly every other area.

“Usually when you go on the road and it doesn’t work out, you can say ‘man, 20 turnovers or 15 turnovers,’ but seven turnovers is excellent,” Miller said. “That’s the one thing we can feel good about but we just couldn’t make shots and it wasn’t one guy it was everybody.”

High-level guys rarely stick around more than a year or two in the Pac-12 these days, so Miller can probably be forgiven for his memory about USC’s four-overtime win over Arizona in 2015-16, when Allonzo Trier broke his hand and a big freshman named Bennie Boatwright had 15 points and three rebounds.

Boatwright had 12 points and 12 rebounds in Thursday's win.

“We lost in triple overtime and he really hurt us on that night,” Miller said. “Eight years later, he hurt us again. He’s been a fixture at SC.”

Things remain a little rough at UCLA after the Bruins lost to ASU at home on Thursday. But at least the Bruins are good at gymnastics.