Arizona Wildcats (5-1) host Grambling State Tigers (2-3): Scout, lack of effort, getting better

She said it

Arizona assistant Bett Shelby on Grambling State: “They're a really athletic team. I think we’ve got to be able to guard one-on-one, way better than we did against NAU. They have two really dynamic scoring guards in (Kahia) Warmsley and (Douthshine) Prien both averaging 13 and 11 points a game. Being able to contain them off the bounce, so we don't have to over help and rotate would be really good. They're both able to score the ball at all three levels. I think it starts with containing them so and also handling their press. They've shown they can really press — being able to handle that and break it easy, would boast really well for us.”

On the sidelines

An ugly game: Arizona has been one of the best defensive teams in the country since the 2018-19 season.

During that time — up until Wednesday — they have given up 90 or more points to an opponent in a 40-minute game only once. That came last season at McKale Center to a Top 5-ranked Stanford squad on Jan. 28 — right before the Wildcats and their squad of seven players went on the run that put them in the NCAA Tournament. A month later, they would avenge that loss to Stanford by beating the then-No. 3 team in the country at Maples Pavilion, 68-61.

That’s one of the reasons the 92-75 loss to NAU in Flagstaff stings and won’t be forgotten for a very long time.

“It told me a couple things,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said Wednesday night after the loss. “It told me that we don't have the discipline and the maturity that I thought we had before, so I take accountability in that. I have to go back to the drawing board on some specific fundamental things and some non-negotiables. … We're not a team that gives up 90 points in a game, and so we have to get better. We have to not overlook teams, and we have to become more disciplined and mature pretty fast. I have to help us along with that.”

Seems familiar: If the way this Wildcat team lost on Wednesday looks familiar, unfortunately it should. Last season, Arizona lost to UNLV in a similar fashion: having a collective no-effort, lack-of-intensity game. The only good thing that came from that matchup was that the Wildcats didn’t have a game like that the rest of the season. It served as a wake-up call.

Things didn’t go right on either side of the court against NAU. There were lazy passes and low-percentage shots taken on offense. Arizona couldn’t quite get in a rhythm on that side of the court. They did score 75 points, with Paulina Paris having a great game (20 points) and three others scoring in double digits (Sahnya Jah, 16; Skylar Jones, 11; Breya Cunningham 10), but it was disjointed.

The Wildcats are usually the disruptors, making it hard for their opponents to get comfortable. This time, it was the Lumberjacks.

Most of this, as usual, starts on the defensive end. The Wildcats weren’t running the Lumberjacks off the 3-point line — allowing Leia Beattie to drop four 3-pointers in the second quarter. They weren’t trapping and altering shots. They also gave up 40 points in the paint. They just weren’t doing what they do on defense.

Arizona wasn’t getting deflections or tips on inbounds plays like they did against Chicago State. They weren’t forcing balls to be thrown out of bounds, and they only picked nine steals — Paris had four, Dew had two. They weren’t getting on the court going after 50/50 balls.

“Just the want to dive on the floor, the effort, those are controllable things and that was not there,” Barnes said. “I don't know why. I think that teaching this young team the importance of when you (face) some adversity (you’ve) got to come together more. You don't fragment. I think we fragmented a little bit.”

Barnes added: “The loss is bad, but it’s a learning lesson. … We have not arrived and we need to get better. I'm going to make sure I put us in a position to understand the things that we're going to do. … There's no doubt my mind, we're going to get there, but we have to continue to mature and learn fast.”

Turning the page: Yes, there were a lot of things that need to be corrected after the loss at NAU. On Thursday afternoon, after returning from Flagstaff after 2:30 a.m. (and having to attend class in the morning), the Wildcats watched film and got after it in practice.

It wasn’t an easy practice by any measure, but sometimes that’s what is needed to put that bad outing in the rear-view mirror.

“I think we got better (on Thursday),” Shelby said. “I think we took the defensive errors that we made and we worked on those things and we got better. Technique-wise (we) are still learning and still growing. With (these) players realizing that regardless of who's able to play, who's not, everybody's got to step up, and everybody's got to be able to do their job of defensive assignments, and everybody's got to get better in that area.

"I think (on Thursday), we did that. Really working on one-on-one, containment, denials, close out technique, all those things. I think everybody took it to heart; wants to get better. I think everybody has the right mentality of continue to grow and learning and all that. I think that's where we're at and I think that's a good thing.”

The message that the coaches shared with the Wildcats on Thursday, less than 24 hours after that loss, was, “We can’t have those types of mental errors,” Shelby said, referring to those 25 fouls Arizona collected in the game.

She added: “(We told the players, it’s about) playing more disciplined under control. I think that's the message. Let's turn the page, let's continue to get better, and let's play more disciplined basketball. I think we have the ability to do that. We've shown that and we’ve got to do that on consistent basis.”

By the numbers

11: Cunningham has 11 blocks and sits in fourth place in the Big 12. She is just shy of owning half of Arizona’s blocks (26).

3: Grambling State is playing three West Coast teams who were all part of the former version of the Pac-12 — Cal, Arizona and Oregon State — in three consecutive games. Cal beat Grambling State on Wednesday, 86-63.

13.3: Arizona is averaging 13.3 assists per game.