TEMPE —
A week ago, Max Hazzard scored 33 points in 33 minutes as Arizona crushed Utah and Colorado. Maybe he didn’t have a green light to shoot from anywhere at anytime, but it seemed like he did, swishing 9 of 16 from extended 3-point distance.
Sean Miller raved about Hazzard’s game-changing ability. And let’s face it, Miller recruited Hazzard for one reason: the possibility of sticking a 3-pointer into an opponent’s heart during crisis situations.
One of those crisis situations arose Saturday night in Tempe after Arizona State expunged a 22-point Arizona lead and ultimately bedeviled the Wildcats 66-65.
But Hazzard did not get off the bench in the second half. He was being punished by Miller for the high crime of rushing a shot on the final Arizona possession of the first half, missing badly with eight seconds on the clock, allowing ASU to hustle down court and score.
Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley said that final possession was a game-changer, trimming Arizona’s lead to “a manageable” 13 points.
Miller got in Hazzard’s face before he could leave the court. It was not a good look.
The UA long ago created the trademark “A Players Program” for men’s basketball. The school painted the phrase on a corridor wall at McKale Center and made it the centerpiece of the program’s Twitter account.
But on Saturday night in Tempe, it was more like “A Coach’s Program.”
You bench a fifth-year senior in the final 20 minutes of a crucial game just to make a point? You simply don’t do that.
It’s unfair to the rest of the team, not to mention the school’s constituency and those who bought into Arizona basketball long before “A Players Program” appeared on the wall.
On Saturday, it cost Miller’s team a game that it didn’t seem possible it could lose.
Arizona State was so bad for so long, missing 10 layups in the first half, that the Sun Devils trailed 37-15 and later 43-24. It was Brick City at the Desert Financial Arena. At one point — with Arizona leading 34-13 — the Sun Devils had missed 11 consecutive shots.
And then a whistle changed everything.
The best player on the court to that point, UA freshman point guard Nico Mannion, was called for what looked to be a harmless reaching foul. It was his second foul. Miller followed the book and put Mannion on the bench.
That’s the last place you want to see Nico Mannion if you are an Arizona fan. Mannion had already made four 3-pointers. It seemed like twice that. The Sun Devils were probably a possession or two from total surrender.
With Mannion a spectator, the game blew up in Arizona’s face. The fuse was lit when Hazzard forced a shot with eight seconds remaining. The trouble was exacerbated when Hazzard wasn’t made available to help mitigate the damage.
Look, lots of Arizona teams more powerful than this one have blown big leads and lost.
The No. 1-seeded Wildcats of 1993 led Santa Clara 46-33 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and lost to the 15-seed. It became national news. And, of course, Arizona had the 2005 Final Four in its grasp, leading Illinois 75-60 with 4:04 remaining, just to lose in overtime.
Those collapses are possibly the two most crushing losses in school history, far more damaging that Saturday’s loss in Tempe.
Those were Pac-10 championship teams. This UA team has lost six of its last 10 games.
Saturday’s meltdown in Tempe is a reflection on what happens when you task three freshmen to lead your operation. It’s almost inevitable. Consistency? What’s that? But isn’t that why a fifth-year senior like Max Hazzard was added to the roster? To fill in the gaps when someone like Nico Mannion gets in foul trouble?
After losing the league opener in Tucson, 75-47, the Sun Devils had become an afterthought.
“A lot of teams got the shovels out and were shoveling the dirt on us,” Hurley said with a tone of defiance. About the only thing he didn’t say in his post-game interview session was “Thank you, Sean, for keeping Hazzard on the bench.”
Now it’s Arizona that is getting buried.
A lot of time this crazy world of college basketball doesn’t make sense. What goes around comes around. Saturday was the 17th anniversary of the 2003 afternoon that Arizona went to No. 6 Kansas and fell behind the Jayhawks by 16 points in the first half.
Then, when you least expected it — especially at legendary Phog Allen Fieldhouse — Arizona shocked the Jayhawks, 91-74, essentially a 33-point turn-around.
That was Jan. 25, 2003. It didn’t matter much in the bigger picture. Kansas beat Arizona in the Elite Eight two months later and that miracle comeback at the Phog was reduced to a trivia question.
The reality this time is that Arizona is 3-3 a third of the way through the league schedule. The future is anything but rosy. It was unable to bury a team that missed 23 of 29 3-point shots and was again ridiculously bad from the foul line, shooting 4 for 9.
When you lose a game like Arizona lost Saturday, you don’t just blow it off as a bad night at the office. You worry. Your fans freak out. This ain’t 2003, with Luke Walton and Salim Stoudamire in the lineup and Andre Iguodala waiting to get off the bench.
Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas any more.
