First-round loss caps sluggish hoops season
It wasn't supposed to end this way.
But for everyone close to the Arizona men's basketball team ÷ from players and coaches to every UA student who bleeds cardinal and navy ÷ is it ever supposed to end like this?
"We just didn't get the job done," said UA head coach Lute Olson following his team's second-half collapse against Seton Hall Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
A promising season that began with a No. 4 national ranking and the centennial celebration of college basketball in Tucson concluded after just one round of NCAA Tournament play, and with a 20-10 final record.
Arizona failed to hold onto a 14-point second-half lead in the loss, a breakdown that will ultimately ask more questions about next season than it will answer about this year.
To Olson and his players, failing to play a complete 40 minutes of basketball against Seton Hall summed up the team's problems throughout one of the most tumultuous seasons of the coach's tenure.
"I think we played like that the whole season," junior shooting guard Salim Stoudamire said after the loss. "We were consistently inconsistent, and that showed again tonight."
After starting the season 10-1 overall, the Wildcats' season went awry after back-to-back losses to then-No.4 Stanford in Tucson and unranked Southern California in Los Angeles.
Arizona would go on to lose consecutive games four different times during the remainder of the season, sputtering its way to a 10-9 record down the stretch and the team's earliest tourney exit in five years.
Olson said the way in which his Wildcats lost their games disturbed him almost as much as the losses themselves. He cited a lack of individual leadership among his chief concerns.
"We had a hard time dealing with prosperity because of youth and the absence of a take-charge player," he said. "This is a problem that we have had all year long and were not able to develop from that."
That's not to say the Hall of Fame head coach isn't used to a better output than this season produced.
"(A record of) 20-10 is not acceptable, and one round in the playoffs is not acceptable," Olson said.
Olson said he hopes to see freshman point guard Mustafa Shakur emerge as a leader next season, but was adamant that every returning player has to step up his play heading into next fall.
"We have some good guys coming in, but the returning guys · each of them will have something they need to focus on in the offseason," he said. "Channing (Frye) needs to get stronger. Hassan (Adams) needs to work on his handling. Andre (Iguodala) needs to work on consistency in his shooting. That's more work ethic than anything else."
For the time being, though, the loss will remain on the players' minds as the NCAA Tournament progresses toward its April 5 championship game.
The loss was particularly crushing for reserve guards Fil Torres and Jason Ranne, who wore their Wildcat jerseys for the last time in the loss to Seton Hall.
Ranne said the best piece of advice he can give his teammates is not to forget how crumbling against Seton Hall down the stretch summed up the team's entire 30-game season.
"It was our game, our game to lose ÷ and we did," Ranne said. "You turn it off in the most important game in the year, basically. It's just something you've got to learn from, something that's got to eat at them. Maybe that will provide some fire next year."
Adams, a sophomore forward who led the Wildcats with 17.2 points per game, said while he's certain he won't forget the sting of the way the season played out, the only way to move forward is to start preparing for next season as soon as possible.
"Tomorrow. Tonight. We have to get our minds right," he said.