Something has got to give.
That's the consensus this week in the UA men's basketball camp, not to mention those in Westwood, Calif., and downtown Los Angeles.
No. 16 Arizona finally returns home this weekend, fresh off a pair of losses to the Pacific 10 Conference's Bay Area contingent, for a pair of games with Southern California and UCLA, two schools who are also trying to rebound from tumbles down the Pac-10 ladder.
The Wildcats, Trojans and Bruins all enter the weekend with the same goal in mind: stopping the skid.
"We've got our work cut out for us," said UA head coach Lute Olson, emphasizing how strong USC looked during its 99-90 victory over the Wildcats in Los Angeles last month. "USC totally manhandled us. There shouldn't be any feeling of security coming home, because we gave SC a lot of confidence by the way they handled us."
Arizona (14-6, 6-5 Pacific 10 Conference) finds itself in unfamiliar territory, having lost three of its last four games for just the second time in 19 years. However, the Wildcats' situation isn't as bad as that of the Trojans (9-11, 4-9), who have lost five of their last six since that Jan. 15 victory over Arizona.
"We haven't been consistent," USC head coach Henry Bibby said. "We've played hard, we've been in some ballgames, but we just haven't finished ball-games. We have some streaks where we're playing well, then all of a sudden we just lull ourselves to sleep."
Olson echoed Bibby's sentiments when asked about his own team's struggles.
"You have to have five people busting their tails every second. If not, it kills you," Olson said. "That's been the problem. We can look at three positions and say we've been consistent defensively. You look at the others and we've been inconsistent.''
Olson said he was impressed by the way his team played offensively during the losses last week to California and Stanford, but lamented his team's lack of both defensive effort and experience.
"This is still a team made up of two juniors and the rest, underclassmen. That's a problem," he said. "The maturity is a problem. The only way you can get experience is through experience."
The Trojans' problem has been the production of their more experienced players, according to Bibby.
"My older guys really haven't played at the level I would like them to play," he said, noting that only senior Desmon Farmer, currently third in the Pac-10 in scoring at just over 20 points per game, is playing up to expectations.
Olson said containing Farmer this time around is vital for Arizona to get back to its winning ways. Farmer scored a career-high 40 points during the teams' first meeting.
"Farmer is a kind of guy where once he gets going, he's hard to slow down," Olson said. "We have to do a better job of getting back defensively and getting to the boards. The guy can score. He's going to get his share of shots."
The Bruins (10-9, 6-5) open their Southwest road swing at Arizona State tonight with a goal similar to those of their Southern California counterparts - to halt a skid of five losses over their last six games.
UCLA head coach Ben Howland said he isn't overly disappointed with his team's play as of late, but did pinpoint his major concern heading into the weekend.
"We're 9-1 when we out-rebound an opponent, 0-6 when we don't," said the first-year Bruin head coach. "It still comes down to those pretty simple things."
UCLA is currently tied with Arizona for fourth in the Pac-10 standings, behind Stanford (11-0), Cal (7-4) and
Oregon (6-4).