STANFORD, Calif.
Has there been a game this year when Sean Miller didn’t walk to the halftime locker room without a bewildered expression, ready to read his team the riot act?
Fresno State led 46-43. Washington was dangerously close, 44-41. Gonzaga was up by 10. Boise State was only down two. UCLA and USC appeared to be in control.
And so it was again Thursday night at Maples Pavilion when Miller and his team did a long slow burn down the corridor, leading a fractured Stanford club by a thin 31-30.
Arizona had zero offensive rebounds, which is one of its strengths. It had been outscored 12-0 by Stanford’s bench, most of them from guys who you couldn’t identify without checking the program. The Cardinal had five steals; Arizona none.
Figuring out Stanford’s zone defense was like trying to crack the Enigma code.
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Remember Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s wild weekend against Washington? He had 18 assists and three turnovers. At halftime Thursday, he had three fouls, two turnovers and one assist. Who wasn’t in foul trouble?
Life on the road, in any conference and especially the Pac-12, can be an unforgiving basketball hell. The perfectly tuned engine that took Washington and WSU apart last week was blowing smoke.
So, of course, from that moment, unpredictably, the Wildcats played about as well as a team can play on the road.
They won 71-57 without any tension the final five minutes.
How did it happen so swiftly? Is this something that can be packaged and used again Saturday at Cal?
It was so simple: Arizona has superior talent at almost every position, even with Allonzo Trier injured and Kaleb Tarczewski in foul trouble and Kadeem Allen limping on a bad ankle.
“I give Arizona a lot of credit,” said Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins. “They made stops in the second half when they had to. We had a period we were up by one and had a long drought. You can’t have an extended drought and win.
“Offensively, they have so much firepower you can’t keep sustaining empty possessions, but give them credit for putting us in that position.”
The game was too long for Stanford, which led just once, at 40-39.
At that moment, Stanford’s fourth-year center, seldom-seen Grant Verhoeven, who has averaged 0.8 points over four seasons, had eight points. He didn’t score again, and it seemed like none of his teammates did, either.
Even with an abbreviated roster, Arizona is good enough to beat a rebuilding Stanford team, here, there or anywhere. Ryan Anderson was 6 for 6 from the field with six rebounds in the second half.
But mostly it was that Stanford couldn’t shoot straight. The Cardinal shot 26.7 percent in the second half; it couldn’t get the ball inside effectively. Stanford’s leading scorer, senior Rosco Allen, who had been terrific of late, scoring 22 in a victory over Cal and 21 in an upset at Oregon State, had a hand in his face all night.
Allen was 1 for 12 afield.
“They pushed him a little bit further out on the court than we want him to be,” said Dawkins. “Give them credit for their defense.”
Additionally, Stanford did not shoot enough free throws. It was 15 for 20. It led the Pac-12, shooting 163 more foul shots than its opponents this season. But on Thursday, true to Sean Miller’s pound-it-inside system, Arizona attempted more free throws, 27.
A lot will be made of Miller’s 6-0 record at Maples Pavilion, against Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins, but none of those six victories have been upsets. The Cardinal has played in just one NCAA tournament in that period, in 2013-14, and that was the year Arizona went 34-3 and reached the Elite Eight.
Stanford started two Phoenix-area players, sophomore guard Dorian Pickens and sophomore power forward Michael Humphrey. Arizona recruited both of those players but mostly to sit on Arizona’s bench and round out the roster.
Both have become nice players at Stanford, but as first-year starters, it’s going to take a lot of development. Pickens and Humphrey on Thursday combined for 20 points, but they also shot 6 for 18 afield, which is 33.3 percent.
That’s not going to beat many teams ranked No. 12.
“I don’t think we ran out of gas,” said Pickens. “We’re well prepared for games like this. Unfortunately, in the second half tonight we had a few lapses defensively.
“They’re just a sound defensive team. It’s tough to get the ball to the interior of their defense.”
Stanford looks to be a contender in 2016-17. Rosco Allen is its only significant senior, and it adds highly recruited 6-10 Trevor Stanback and will get point guard Robert Cartwright back.
Cartwright, who was expected to be Stanford’s leader, broke his arm in November. Remember, he was the nation’s No. 51 overall prospect two years ago.
The game’s most revealing snapshot came with 8:20 remaining. Kadeem Allen twisted his ankle with Arizona leading 51-40. Miller turned to his bench, arms outstretched, and scanned the list of possible replacements.
Almost everyone sitting there was either in foul trouble or injured.
And yet Stanford never shaved a point off the differential.
The bigger challenges lie ahead: Saturday at Cal and an early February trip to Seattle to meet Washington.
Late Thursday night, Dawkins said, “You can get better with a loss.”
After playing 20 superb minutes in the second half Thursday, Miller won’t have to use that approach.
