Because the Washington Huskies start four freshmen and play six in their regular rotation, they might have had to get permission from their parents to leave town for the weekend.
The Huskies had played just one true road game before checking into the University Marriott, and by the time the clock struck 8 Thursday night, it was lights out, kids.
Arizona’s game plan was as elementary as a bully on the school playground. The Wildcats directed their offense to 23-year-old Kaleb Tarczewski, 23-year-old Ryan Anderson, 23-year-old Mark Tollefson and high school Class of 2012 guards Kadeem Allen and Gabe York.
Early in the second half, the young Huskies were ready for a nap.
“It’s grown men playing basketball,” said UW freshman forward Marquese Chriss. “This isn’t high school anymore.”
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Arizona’s three-point halftime lead grew to 30 with such swiftness that Sean Miller was able to clear what is left of his bench with five minutes remaining.
Make no mistake: The Huskies got Arizona’s best shot. That’s what happens when you open the Pac-12 season 3-0 and arrive in Tucson in first place, with a purple target on your jersey.
And so UA won 99-67, and Washington coach Lorenzo Romar couldn’t think of a single redeeming variable.
“No,” he said, “except that it ended.”
Allonzo Trier, Ray Smith and Elliott Pitts — a recruiting analyst’s total of 13 stars — watched in street clothes on Arizona’s bench. Sports people too often apply “sense of urgency” to any old ballgame, but without those three on Thursday, the Wildcats indeed played as if it was Sense Of Urgency Night at McKale Center.
Knowing that their margin for error has all but dissolved, the Wildcats seemed lost for a half.
“Sometimes it takes a couple of games to adjust to the injured player,” Miller said. “Everybody’s role changed.”
The Huskies had one chance to win at McKale: hope that senior guard Andrew Andrews played the way he played in the Huskies’ 3-0 conference start. Andrews needed to be a triggerman and get Arizona’s guards in foul trouble.
In victories over UCLA and Washington State, Andrews shot a remarkable 36 free throws. But on Thursday, Arizona didn’t bite. Andrews attempted just four free throws, and the UA forced him to his one real weakness: shooting from the field.
In Washington’s losses to Oakland, UC-Santa Barbara, Texas and Gonzaga, Andrews shot 28 percent from the field. On Thursday, he shot 3 for 11, or 27 percent. That’s how you beat Washington while Romar’s freshmen develop.
Stop Andrews and the Huskies stop here.
“They guarded us,” said Romar. “We shot 30 percent in the second half, and they shot 70 percent. You don’t have any margin for error; they make you pay.”
Someday, perhaps next season, the Huskies could be a force near the top of the Pac-12 with emerging power USC. Chriss, Matisse Thybulle, Noah Dickerson, Dejounte Murray and David Crisp appear to be the nucleus of Romar’s next run to the NCAA tournament, his first since 2011.
But that’s still a ways off.
Washington’s freshmen took 52 of the club’s 66 shots on Thursday. By comparison, Miller’s game plan saw to it that the UA’s Men’s Club – Anderson, Tarczewski, York, Allen and Tollefsen – took 40 of the UA’s 58 shots.
Anderson and Tarczewski were such a force inside they were like bouncers at a bar, checking the freshmen for IDs.
“We were breaking down in every area,” Romar said. “Ryan Anderson set the tone early in the game.”
The pressure of a certifiable road game — until Thursday, Washington’s lone true road game was in front of a bare 4,025 at Washington State — wore on the Huskies early.
When it was 14-11, Murray broke loose for a run-out dunk but lost control of the ball and traveled.
When it was 16-11, Chriss threw a routine pass toward Andrews that instead smacked into the Arizona bench.
“We kinda collapsed a little bit,” said Chriss, “and they hopped on it.”
This was one of Miller’s better coaching performances. With Trier, his leading scorer, wearing a cast on his broken hand, Miller had to rig something just to keep the Wildcats moving. It was almost like a car blowing its transmission.
Did you think the remaining players could shoot 60.3 percent against the 3-0 Huskies? Against anybody?
In his post-game summary, Miller spent considerable time talking not about beating Washington but about last week’s losses at UCLA and USC. You can tell that it eats at him. His standards are so high that he doesn’t often shrug and move on.
“We weren’t a struggling basketball team in L.A.,” he said.
More than anyone on the basketball planet, Miller knows how difficult it was to open with a three-game trip to ASU, UCLA and USC. The Pac-12 didn’t drop that kind of an opening handicap on any other team in the league.
Now, back at .500, with the damage done, the Wildcats can move on and do what they usually do best. Move up.
