What a week it’s been for the Arizona men’s basketball program.

First the self-imposed sanctions it put on itself on Thursday and now the two-game sweep in the great Northwest.

Saturday night’s 78-60 let’s-get-out-Dodge loss/performance to the Washington State Cougars was just the end of what was one of the worst weeks in the last 25 years. And it’s mostly because of the self-imposed actions (more on that at a later date and when the NCAA has its say) and then the sweep.

Just last week, the Cats were the toast of the town. Six days later, just toast.

You could hear it in UA coach Sean Miller’s voice in his postgame interview in discussing UA’s loss. Down. Dejected.

“We were outplayed, we were outcoached and outprepared,’’ Miller said. “This game was A through Z. We didn’t defend early. They manhandled us on the glass.’’

It showed. WSU outrebounded UA, 33-22, and had 28 free throws compared to UA’s 13. Arizona shot 42 percent; WSU 51 percent. WSU beat UA in every category. And when it has come to UA vs. WSU through the years that’s never supposed to happen.

“Today was a step back,’’ said Miller.

A big step back. Just when UA had climbed its way back into some NCAA tournament talk (unfounded and waaaay premature) first place in the Pac-10 Conference at 6-3 it has now fallen into a jumble of a bad conference race where any team could possibly win it. UA is 12-11 overall.

Miller said there is comfort in that UA plays the next five of seven games at home. The road, he said, has taken its toll on the Cats. “You can almost feel it,’’ he said. “We really need to come off the road and take a deep breath and play with great energy at home. There is no other team that needs to be home more than we do. This is a big moment of truth for our team.’’

UA has been able to answer those moments a time or two. This week, however, may have been a huge blow. Emotionally and physically. And the blows just didn’t come from the court, but also from the administration trying to stop the bleeding from an NCAA investigation that could get worse.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.