Desmond Cambridge Jr. etched his name in the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry when the Sun Devils guard drained a half-court buzzer-beater on Saturday to beat the Wildcats 89-88 in the UA’s home finale at McKale Center.
Here are five takeaways from the Wildcats’ latest setback:
1. Shaking up the lineup
The last time Arizona altered the starting lineup, the Wildcats went on a seven-game winning streak. The changes to the starting lineup on Saturday were a way to tip the cap to the players participating on Senior Day.
Beside Arizona’s scholarship seniors Courtney Ramey and Cedric Henderson Jr., walk-ons Matthew Lang and Jordan Mains were installed in the starting lineup; center Oumar Ballo was the Wildcats’ fifth starter; and usual starters Azuolas Tubelis and Kerr Kriisa came off the bench. Tubelis and Kriisa entered the game two minutes in; Arizona trailed ASU 8-7 at the first timeout break.
Amid chasing a Pac-12 regular-season title, making a lineup change like that could appear reckless, but UA coach Tommy Lloyd doesn’t regret the decision.
“That’s stuff you do to create good karma in your program,” he said. “We gave up 2s and 3s no matter who was out there.
“You have to have a bigger perspective than that. It’s about treating people right. It’s about honoring people who made a ton of sacrifices and contributed to your program.”
2. Free ain’t always easy
The Wildcats shot 23 for 34 from the free-throw line; ASU went 6 for 10. Arizona was the fourth-best free-throw shooting team in the Pac-12 entering Saturday.
“You’d like to make one or two more, that makes a difference,” Lloyd said. “At the end, you could maybe argue that Oumar (Ballo) should’ve missed that last free throw. That’s stuff that I’ll wear, and that’s on me.”
ASU was able to cleanly inbound the ball after Ballo made the second of two foul shots to give Arizona an 88-86 lead. Had he intentionally missed, the Sun Devils might not have gotten a decent look at the basket.
3. These things just don’t happen
Half-court buzzer-beaters are a rarity, which is why Lloyd is willing to accept the loss.
“What are the chances a team makes a shot like that? Very slim. … It happens sometimes,” Lloyd said.
Saturday was a historic win for the Sun Devils.
For the first time ever, a ranked Arizona team lost to an unranked ASU team at McKale Center. The last time the Wildcats fell to ASU as a ranked team at home was in 1995, when the 18th-ranked Sun Devils beat No. 12 UA 103-98 in double overtime.
Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis hauls in an inlet pass among the Arizona State defense in the first half of their Pac-12 game at McKale Center on Feb. 25, 2023.
4. Tubelis ‘defensively was bad’
It’s conceivable Arizona junior forward Azuolas Tubelis, who finished Saturday with 17 points and nine rebounds, played his last game at McKale Center. The Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate could declare for the NBA draft after the season, becoming the fourth early departure of the Lloyd era.
NBADraft.net currently projects Tubelis as the second pick of the second round at No. 32 overall by the New York Knicks, while other mock drafts list Tubelis has a late second-rounder.
Tommy Lloyd was critical of Azuolas Tubelis' defensive efforts in No. 7 Arizona's 89-88 loss to Arizona State on Saturday at McKale Center.
If Saturday was Tubelis’ last home game at the UA, here’s a look at some of his best performances at McKale Center:
Jan. 7, 2021: Tubelis had 31 points and eight rebounds in a 87-73 loss to USC during the pandemic-influenced season that resulted in Arizona taking a self-imposed postseason for its NCAA infractions case.
Feb. 27, 2021: Tubelis sunk the game-winning shot from the corner as Arizona beat Washington 75-74; he had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the UA’s home finale of his freshman season.
Jan. 15, 2022: Tubelis put up 32 points on 14-for-24 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists in a 82-64 win over Utah.
Dec. 17, 2022: Tubelis had 19 points and nine rebounds in No. 9 Arizona’s statement win over No. 6 Tennessee, and his block and rebound with 39 seconds left led to Ballo making a pair of free throws to seal the Wildcats’ victory.
Feb. 2: On the same night that Al Fleming, who has the most points (41) by a Wildcat at McKale Center, was being inducted into the Ring of Honor, Tubelis flirted with the record by scoring 40 points in a 91-76 win over Oregon.
On Saturday, Tubelis scored the most points he’s had in over two weeks. But Lloyd didn’t mince his words evaluating Tubelis’ defensive effort.
“I thought defensively he was bad,” Lloyd said. “He didn’t play great defense tonight, and that’s kind of disappointing. I don’t care about overall stats. ... I couldn’t tell you what his shooting percentage is, how many points he scored. I know effort on defense, and he’s gotta play better.”
When asked if Tubelis was hoping to avoid foul trouble similarly to Arizona’s previous three games, where he averaged just 19.7 minutes per contest, Lloyd said:
“Not an excuse. ... It’s high-level basketball. Suck it up.”
In-game host Sarah Kezele gets the crowd fired up from the ZonaZoo student section before tipoff of the Arizona-Arizona State game.
5. Meet the in-game host
This season, Arizona expanded its game-day experience by adding an in-game host to McKale Center to help orchestrate contests during timeout breaks
UA alumna Sarah Kezele, who is among the hosts on Arizona Sports 98.7’s “Bickley and Marotta” in Phoenix, was the Wildcats’ in-game host for most home games this season.
Kezele sat down with the Star to recap her first season:
What did the opportunity to host UA men’s basketball games mean to you?
A: “It’s surreal. It was everything. ... Thinking about being on the court, at McKale Center, in an arena that I couldn’t even get a ticket to growing up, because I grew up in Phoenix. I grew up in an Arizona family, but we could never get a ticket into this building, because it’s impossible. ... To understand how special McKale Center is, and then to think about how I get to be a part of making the environment special, it’s like, ‘Wow, how could you say no?’ “
How do you look back on the first season with the in-game host?
A: “I had a blast. The feedback I’ve received from fans in the stands has always been positive. It’s an honor and humbling to know they enjoyed my addition to the game environment. ... The first few games before tipoff, I’d be looking around, taking it in, the pep band — just all of it. I had to stop myself from tearing up, because it’s just so emotional to go, ‘Wow, girl, look at what you get to do.’ McKale is a special place, and you get to help make it special.”
How was it balancing your role with the morning radio show?
A: “It was so hard. I’m exhausted — wiped. I wake up at 3 a.m., and our show runs from 6-10 a.m., so on game days I’d do the radio show from Phoenix, hop in my car and come straight to Tucson. ... Sometimes, there were 9 o’clock tips, and I’d still have to do the radio show the next morning. It was a lot, but so worth it. I have zero regrets about saying yes to this.”
