Inside-outside attack led to Arizona Wildcats' sweep in Washington

After shooting just 23.8% from 3-point range over the five games entering last week, Kriisa hit a combined 11 for 21 3-pointers to help the No. 6-ranked Wildcats (19-3, 8-3) pull off a weekend sweep over Washington State and Washington.

The difference?

“These two games, I didn’t play with compression shorts,” Kriisa said.

Um, OK, then.

By all accounts, this choice was not an act of superstition, nor anything his coaches were aware of.

“I’m definitely not,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, saying of questions about “Kerr’s fashion, that’s your guys’ deal. I’m out.”

What Lloyd did discuss, for the umpteenth time this season, is that Kriisa is a player he believes in.

No matter how his shot is looking, no matter what anybody says. No matter what he’s wearing.

“Kerr’s one of the best point guards in the country, bar none,” Lloyd said. “He’s my guy. He’s had a great look about him here these past few games and he’s competing. It’s just let it rip, shoot with confidence, trust your work. He’s a great player, and we’re lucky to have him.”

On Saturday at Washington, Kriisa’s 6-for-11 3-point shooting proved an especially potent complement for the damage that Arizona bigs Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo were doing inside. Tubelis had 25 points and 10 rebounds while Ballo had 21 and 12.

They attracted defenders inside, creating several good looks at the basket for Kriisa. And when Kriisa attracted defenders, the bigs had more room to operate inside.

“Whenever Kerr is hot, it just frees me and ’Zu,” Ballo said. “They gotta worry a lot about Kerr, so me and ’Zu have a lot of time inside to go to work. And when they collapse, we kick out and make 3s.”

Together, the three did enough damage that normally upbeat Washington coach Mike Hopkins spent most of his seven-minute postgame news conference looking frustrated. Hopkins even apologized to Washington fans.

“Went man-to-man, couldn’t stop them. Went zone, couldn’t stop them,” Hopkins said. “They’re a tough team because they can hurt you inside without even shooting 3s and if you take away the inside, they shot maybe 11 3s tonight. Hats off to them.”

Arizona was 11 for 26 for 3-point range, with Courtney Ramey going 4 of 10 from long range and Cedric Henderson chipping in another 3 off two attempts.

Except Washington didn’t really take away that Arizona inside, either. Ballo and Tubelis combined for 46 points and 22 rebounds, the third time this season they have both recorded double doubles after also doing so against Cincinnati and Oregon State.

They were especially efficient Saturday, working through the Huskies’ mostly zone defense with little trouble. Ballo was 9 for 9 from the field after going 0 for 3 Thursday at WSU, while Tubelis hit 10 of 17 shots.

Playing against “the zone is just based on movement and me and ’Zu, we do a really good job moving from high to low post,” Ballo said. “Once we get the ball, we look for each other and look for the guards. If we have a wide open pass, we pass. If not, we just attack the basket.”

They’re players, and analysts. Sometimes in the same split-second of an Arizona possession.

You need “good players that have a feel for the game” to beat the zone, Lloyd said. “That’s what it is. I mean, you can draw up all the plays you want and scheme and stuff like that, but it comes down to concepts.

“You have to give your players some concepts that can be a little bit loose, and then they have to function within that. We did a much better job moving the ball, passing the ball, making penetrating passes. And when our bigs got it, they were they were really efficient scoring and passing today.”

The Wildcats have turned this trick before. A combination of outside shooting and inside dominance, after all, led them to a 14-1 record until their loss to WSU on Jan. 7 at McKale Center.

It’s just that, on Saturday, they did it over a zone defense, and one that rattled them on Jan. 5 at McKale, when they trailed Washington by 14 points early and won by only 70-67.

This time, Kriisa helped Arizona shoot 42.3% 3-point shooting as a team, while Ballo and Tubelis helped the Wildcats shoot 52.3% overall, only the second time in 11 Pac-12 games that Arizona has shot better than 50% from the field.

“It’s just a little different rhythm to the game” against the zone, Lloyd said. “You always tell your guys that if you’re gonna play against a team that basically plays 40 minutes of zone, it might not always feel comfortable, but at the end of the day, if you play the right way and do the right things, your efficiency will usually be about where you’re usually at.

“For the most part (at Washington), I thought we were probably more efficient than we’ve been offensively lately. And that’s a good sign.”