Arizona overcomes hot shooting Huskies 75-72 in comeback win

[WILD]

Arizona overcomes hot shooting Huskies 75-72 in comeback win

Where would the Arizona Wildcats be if Jemarl Baker Jr. hadn't been granted immediate eligibility?

One thing is for sure: he wouldn't have been the reason they won their first road game of the 2019-20 season.

Baker's 3-pointer with 42.6 seconds left put Arizona up for good in a 75-72 win at the Washington Huskies on Thursday night in Seattle.

The victory snaps a five-game road skid for the Wildcats (14-6, 4-3 Pac-12) and gives them a chance for their first road sweep since last January when they play at Washington State on Saturday night.

Baker, a transfer from Kentucky, scored 14 of his career-high 17 points in...

Read the rest of the story on the game below
https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketball/2020/1/30/21116177/arizona-washington-basketball-final-score-recap-wildcats-huskies-highlights-reaction-takeaways

Watch player interviews and highlights of Arizona's win ⤵️
https://playersprogramu.com/index.php?board=2.0

Full Game stats

[MDcAtZ]

Arizona needed this to stay in the hunt for the Pac-12, but more importantly to build confidence that they can win on the road, can win in close games, and can get those 50-50 balls.

WSU will be a tougher test. Hope this game serves them well against the Cougars.

[Naterade]

Even though a lot of people will say that Washington choked in the final minute, the Cats did a lot of things well in order to win. 10 turnovers, great rebounding and I think the biggest thing was limiting fouls. To be able to foul at the end there to stop the play was big.

[talj1@juno.com]

We played a pretty good game but it usually comes down to crunch time where our seniors struggle making shots, free throws, and smart plays.  Hopefully they figure it out soon.  Luckily Washington choked sooooo bad at the end and took sooooo many bad shots and made soooo many bad plays it was impossible for us to loose.

[talj1@juno.com]

The end of this game wasn't about who played the best but about who made the least mistakes.  Baker saved us.

[TucsonTruckStop]

Happy for the win, but there are still so many issues with this team (Yes, you can be happy and still be critical).
1. Millers love for Gettings will be this years downfall.
2. Defense is disorganized
3. Zero pressure on 3 point shooters (and teams know it)
4. Late game tightness/ afraid to take a shot (thank goodness for Baker last night)
5. Taking too many 3's 5 feet behind the arc, which we rarely make (if we take a good 3, it usually goes in)
6. Not enough penetration
7. Stone defending out on the perimeter and positioning/running offense through him (cant have one of our worst players handling the ball the most)
8. Miller needs to coach more and yell/teach less on the bench (draw up plays and counter what the other coach is doing during time-stoppages (teaching is for practice).
9. Execution after timeouts

[TucsonTruckStop]

Even though a lot of people will say that Washington choked in the final minute, the Cats did a lot of things well in order to win. 10 turnovers, great rebounding and I think the biggest thing was limiting fouls. To be able to foul at the end there to stop the play was big.

"a lot of people will say Washington choked"? There is no arguing the fact they DID choke; and so did Arizona as they tried to give the game away.
The score was 72-70 after UW made a 3 at the 1:45 mark. Here are UW's following possessions (and Arizona's):
UW foul / (Ira 1-2 FT) / missed 3 / (Baker made 3) / missed 3 / foul (Smith 1-2 FT) / turnover / foul / (Smith 0-1 FT) / missed 3

[zoescout]

Happy for the win, but there are still so many issues with this team (Yes, you can be happy and still be critical).
1. Millers love for Gettings will be this years downfall.
2. Defense is disorganized
3. Zero pressure on 3 point shooters (and teams know it)
4. Late game tightness/ afraid to take a shot (thank goodness for Baker last night)
5. Taking too many 3's 5 feet behind the arc, which we rarely make (if we take a good 3, it usually goes in)
6. Not enough penetration
7. Stone defending out on the perimeter and positioning/running offense through him (cant have one of our worst players handling the ball the most)
8. Miller needs to coach more and yell/teach less on the bench (draw up plays and counter what the other coach is doing during time-stoppages (teaching is for practice).
9. Execution after timeouts

I was at the game last night and almost none of the things on your list happened (at least last night).
1. Millers love for Gettings will be this years downfall. Gettings was incredibly valuable last night at exploiting the zone at the high post and making shot after shot from the elbow. Zeke couldn't hit any of those shots last night. Gettings has flaws, but also provides value with spacing and also attacking the zone
2. Defense is disorganized. Defense is plenty organized and has shown signs of being very good. Last night our defense was excellent - especially in the post. Defense however is a function of effort and this team doesn't consistently put in that effort.
3. Zero pressure on 3 point shooters (and teams know it)Every defense has a weakness. The pack line defense is weaker against the 3. Sometimes the team needs more effort on closeouts, but it is really more a function of the type of defense. Last night the Huskies (who are not a good 3 point shooting team) just were really hot and hit their outside shots and you have to live with that when that happens - or switch to another defense. However, most zones are also weak against the 3...
4. Late game tightness/ afraid to take a shot (thank goodness for Baker last night). Other than Gettings and Smith missing some late free throws, the team did not play tight and was not afraid to take a shot in the last. In fact, we played far better in the last 5 minutes of the game (unlike the ASU game).
5. Taking too many 3's 5 feet behind the arc, which we rarely make (if we take a good 3, it usually goes in). Mannion and Smith are sometimes guilty of this. I am ok with Mannion doing it on occasion as it helps open up his game if the defender has to extend further. Smith should never do it.
6. Not enough penetration. Washington's defense is built to prevent penetration and it did last night. Josh Green had a subpar game as lanes to penetrate were not there at all and he is not much of a set shooter. I haven't seen this as being a major problem of this team this year (there are a few personnel groups that are not strong penetrators).
7. Stone defending out on the perimeter and positioning/running offense through him (cant have one of our worst players handling the ball the most)The post players defense was great last night. The post defense down low on Stewart was great. The hedging by the bigs including Stone was incredibly disruptive to UW and directly resulted in a number of turnovers and they also did a ton of double teaming and having the guards dig down on the UW post player. Stone was good last night. Yes he is a little bit slow and clumsy at times, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
8. Miller needs to coach more and yell/teach less on the bench (draw up plays and counter what the other coach is doing during time-stoppages (teaching is for practice).see #9
9. Execution after timeoutsMiller did a good job with timeouts last night and the Cats executed well out of those timeouts. He did a really good job managing player rotations, especially in the first half with all the foul trouble.

[Naterade]

Happy for the win, but there are still so many issues with this team (Yes, you can be happy and still be critical).
1. Millers love for Gettings will be this years downfall.
2. Defense is disorganized
3. Zero pressure on 3 point shooters (and teams know it)
4. Late game tightness/ afraid to take a shot (thank goodness for Baker last night)
5. Taking too many 3's 5 feet behind the arc, which we rarely make (if we take a good 3, it usually goes in)
6. Not enough penetration
7. Stone defending out on the perimeter and positioning/running offense through him (cant have one of our worst players handling the ball the most)
8. Miller needs to coach more and yell/teach less on the bench (draw up plays and counter what the other coach is doing during time-stoppages (teaching is for practice).
9. Execution after timeouts

The three point shot is the toughest play to guard nowadays, Yes Washington had some open threes last night, but they hit a lot of threes with a defenders hand right in their face. I agree that Miller loves him some Stone Gettings, and Gettings came to play last night. Despite his missed free throws and a turnover late, he hit a lot of shots and came up with some 50/50 balls that were crucial. He also played great defense on the perimeter late in the game. As far as Miller's coaching, he killed it last night. Basketball isn't a game where the coach can constantly draw up sneaky, crafty plays to beat the other team, I'm not sure why everybody seems to think the games come down to coaching on the fly and making all kinds of adjustments. It comes down to playing tough, smart defense, regardless of what the other team does, and moving the ball and taking good shots. Period. The Cats did that last night. 2 turnovers in the second half, 4 fouls until the last 30 seconds. They rebounded well. And they took  some serious blows and got back in the game. A win is a win. Period.

[ichi]

it always takes two to dance, and its true that Washington lost this game on some bad shots and turnovers late

but it's also true that the 'Cats were in it, unlike some earlier road losses they hung in there so that a few good shots would win it

there was that 5 minute war early in the second half where we missed 4-5 solid shots, no one could be criticized for taking any one of them, while the mutts were dropping every 3, in the previous road losses we never recovered from those game segments where we went cold while the other team had their best shooting night of this season

that shows some development, we came close in Oregon but this time we held on

the most interesting thing to me was the reality that if we had lost last night's game (or if we lose against wazzou) the chorus of doubters would have been pretty loud

but just because we won last night doesn't mean Miller is a great coach, this is just as true as if we had lost, would not mean CSM is a failure and needs replacing

Bear Down, beat the Cougs!