LOS ANGELES — Sunday morning seemed like a good time to look up some Arizona basketball history.
So ... by losing to USC 80-57 and UCLA 90-69, the Wildcats:
• Lost consecutive Pac-12 games by 20 points or more for the first time since the Ben Lindsey season of 1982-83, and for the first time ever during a two-game Pac-10/12 road weekend.
• Lost by double-digits in two straight games for the first time in Pac-12 play since the Russ Pennell season of 2008-09, when they lost 69-55 at Cal and then 76-50 at Stanford.
• Lost by double-digits in two straight games overall for the fifth time since the Ben Lindsey season.
At the tail end of the 2007-08 Kevin O’Neill season, UA lost 75-64 to Stanford in the Pac-10 Tournament and 75-65 to West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Lute Olson-coached Wildcats were swept by double-digits in the Bay area in 1998-99 and to San Diego State and Tennessee during an overall losing streak of six games during Olson’s first UA season of 1983-84.
UA has been swept in two-game Pac-12 road trips six times under Miller. Here are the scores:
2018-19
at USC, 80-57
at UCLA, 90-69
2015-16
at UCLA 87-84
at USC 103-101 (4OT)
At Colorado, 75-72
At Utah, 70-64
2012-13
at USC 89-78
at UCLA 74-69
2010-11
at USC 65-57
at UCLA 71-49
2009-10
at Washington, 81-75
at WSU, 78-60
Miller said losing big makes recovering from the weekend even more challenging than other weekends when his team has been swept.
“If you get blown out, it’s a lot more difficult than when you lose by a tough game,” Miller said. “If you get blown out in both games, it’s more difficult than if you got blown out in one. No doubt about it. Takes its toll. And no one likes to lose big by the score that we lost both games. It’s more difficult to handle.”
MORE: 'We got killed in both games:' Sean Miller reacts to Arizona's weekend in LA
Of course, the positive side to the Wildcats is that their strong history is such that these types of things just don't happen very often.
Overall under Miller, Arizona has lost two consecutive games in Pac-12 play eight times, including one three-game skid in 2009-10. They have lost consecutive games overall 14 times in Miller’s nine-plus seasons, including two three-game skids (in 2009-10 and last season in the Battle 4 Atlantis).
That’s only three skids of three games, and none of four games. But the schedule suggests Arizona could have trouble avoiding three or four straight losses this time, especially if Chase Jeter doesn’t return.
Arizona will play at ASU on Thursday and then host first-place Washington on Feb. 7.
Not surprisingly, Miller was in a pretty tense mood after Saturday’s game. So when I asked him about whether he figured this stretch of the schedule looked worrisome beforehand, he said simply: “Yep, for sure.”
While Miller complimented Brandon Williams for his play offensively in both Los Angeles games, he said Williams still needs improvement defensively.
“Where Brandon struggles right now in my mind is just defensively,” Miller said. “Playing against each team represents a new challenge and for a lot of freshmen, it’s hard, but he’s getting better, he’s got a great attitude and that’s why he’s playing so well on offense.”
Williams finished his brief postgame interview before we could finish our buzzer stories and climb down from the upper-level media seats to reach the interview area, and UA didn’t post video of the interviews with Williams or Miller as of Sunday morning.
However, UCLA’s media relations crew passed out quote sheets that had Williams saying the following:
About positives from this week:
“We’re getting shots that we’re capable of making. We’re just not making them. We’re getting open looks, so we really just have to take advantage of our opportunities.
On scoring 19 points:
“I really don’t care about that because we lost. We have to stay with our defensive concepts. We gotta get ready for Washington State and Washington, [as] they’re really good teams. I think Washington is undefeated, we just have to stick to our defensive principles.”
(It wasn’t clear if Williams also mentioned that UA’s next game is against ASU).
While Williams (27 total points) and Ira Lee (23) had productive weekends during their return home, here were the two-game Los Angeles totals for several other players:
Ryan Luther 6-21 FG, 0-5 3FG, 17 points, 10 rebounds.
Brandon Randolph 8-27 FG, 2-8 3FG, 21 points, 9 rebounds.
Justin Coleman 2-10 FG, 1-6 3FG, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 turnovers
Dylan Smith 3-15 FG 3-11 3FG 13 points, 9 rebounds
Alex Barcello 1-7 FG, 1-4 3FG, 7 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 turnovers
Our game coverage is attached, along with PDFs of the box score and updated stats.
