LOS ANGELES - During a second-half timeout, Colorado guard Carlon Brown talked to his teammates about the bubble.
Not the mythical land of NCAA tournament uncertainty.
The "Bubble Drill."
In practice during the season, Colorado coach Tad Boyle placed a bubble over his team's basket and made it play defense for four or five minutes at a time.
"The only way you can win the game," Boyle said, "is by getting stops."
The Buffaloes lived the end result Saturday, stuffing the Arizona Wildcats' last-second three-point jump shot to win the Pac-12 tournament title game 53-51.
The Wildcats, in turn, moved to the other bubble - which could burst today, leaving them headed to the National Invitation Tournament instead.
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The last play of the game was as ugly as it was appropriate. No two teams have ever combined for fewer points in a Pac-12 tournament title game.
The Wildcats called a play from the sideline after CU center Austin Dufault missed the first of two free throw with 14 seconds left and his team ahead by two.
Not knowing if he would make or miss the second shot, the UA wanted a play that could yield an open three-pointer.
Dufault missed, and UA forward Jesse Perry got the rebound.
The Wildcats had the momentum.
"They were definitely scared of us coming back, right there," wing Brendon Lavender said.
The first 39 minutes had more to do with the loss than the final play, but the Wildcats were hopeful.
"We had a shot to win the game," UA coach Sean Miller said. "It wasn't a good one, but it's amazing that we had that, when you consider the hole we were in."
The Wildcats were out of timeouts. Their ball-handlers ran past screens at the three-point arc on the left elbow extended.
"In a crucial time like that, it's hard to think," Perry said. "You really want to put the ball in the basket."
There was little doubt whom the UA wanted to take the shot, though Kyle Fogg had the option to pass.
"I was looking for the hot hand, and that's Fogg," Lavender said. "He's the leader of the team."
Fogg dribbled a few steps beyond the three-point line. Perry screened, and Fogg drove left.
"We knew they were probably going to try to go to Fogg," Dufault said. "They're a great ball-screen team. We were expecting a high ball screen. They ran him off a ball screen."
Dufault took one step toward Fogg - it's called "showing" - and returned to Perry.
Nate Tomlinson fought through the screen and stayed with Fogg.
"He is so tough down the stretch defensively," Dufault said. "I would rather have nobody on the ball but Nate, when it comes down to the last shot."
The senior guard had the option to pass to Perry on a roll, but the forward said he wasn't open.
With time expiring, Fogg, blanketed by Tomlinson, attempted a contested three-pointer.
The shot didn't reach the rim, and by the time Perry tried to volleyball it in, the clock had run out.
"I tried to tip it in," Perry said.
Fogg did not answer reporters' questions, but his teammates defended his shot.
"It wasn't just about the last shot," Lavender said. "We don't care that he missed that at all.
"He's been doing great his whole season. He's never one to blame. It's all on the team.
"If anyone could have that shot, of course I want my man Fogg to have it."
Perry said that, even with the ball in the air, he liked the UA's chances.
"I knew we had a shot to win," he said.
"I definitely believed it until it hit zero."
