Connor Doyle

If you ever wanted to know what emotional expense major college sports require, you needed to look no further than Luke Walton in the Arizona locker room after last night's loss to Stanford.

The guy who usually answers questions with a little bit of a grin on his face looked like he was about to break down. The guy who usually stands tall was slouched. The guy with the booming, bass-heavy voice was almost at a whisper.

"I played like crap. I shouldn't even have been on the floor," Walton said. "It's real difficult. We worked hard to get where we were at, and we had the opportunity.

"And to come out and play the way I did tonight, well, it hurts pretty bad."

After that, he didn't really say much. Everyone eventually got the picture and bolted.

Another one of the three juniors on the team, Rick Anderson, looked just as hurt over the loss.

"I wanted it. I'd never really won one playing a lot. It kind of sucks," he said.

For the more composed Gardner, who scored a game-high 33 points in what may have been the best individual game of his career, the words were basically the same.

"Losing on your home court and losing your chance at the title hurts a lot," Gardner said. "I would have rather have had five points and win the game."

It would have been pointless to remind these guys that they played one of the best teams in the country close tonight, close enough that one rebound could have ended up making the difference. It would have been pointless to remind these guys that they were all but left for dead, as a team, before the season started. It would be pointless to mention to these guys that it's very likely they'll be the highest-seeded team coming out of the Pac-10 for the NCAA Tournament.

Perspective is a difficult thing to find in athletes most of the time. But it's even more reclusive in the losing team's locker room.

So now the focus for the team shifts from a Pac-10 title (which they would not have won anyway because Oregon defeated USC) to the conference tournament and later the NCAAs. Well, if you ask associate head coach Jim Rosborough, they're just looking ahead to the NCAAs.

"I really don't give much of a damn about the Pac-10 Tournament," he said. "What we're playing for is getting the best seed possible in the NCAA Tournament."

He went on to say he thinks Arizona will bounce back against Cal, and even went so far as to say the loss of a shot at the regular-season conference title might be a positive.

"We've had tough losses before. I expect we'll show up and play well (Saturday)," he said.

And that's the thing about perspective. It shows up in the morning after the semi-sleepless night. It shows up at 11 on a Saturday morning, when a tough loss is far from the mind and the game at hand is at the fore. It shows up a week after the season is over.

And, at that time, Walton, Anderson and Gardner can be reminded that the loss against Stanford wasn't so bad after all.