Anthony Gimino | Sean Miller says Arizona’s defense is terrible

Final, Washington State 78-76. Arizona’s Solomon Hill ties the game on a tip-in off a Nic Wise miss, but Washington State still had about 10 seconds left to set something up. DeAngelo Casto ended up with the ball in the lane and he twisted up a bucket that fell through with 0.1 seconds left.

Be back with more after postgame interviews. …

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27.5 seconds left: Kevin Parrom’s first 3-pointer of the season brings Arizona within 75-74 with 32.4 seconds left, and now WSU freshman Reggie Moore is at the line.

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2:56 left, Washington State leads 71-66: The Cats are in danger of squandering a road win at UCLA by turning around and losing at home to a Cougars team that, like Arizona, seems like a middle-of-the-Pac-10 team. Of course, even the good teams in the league looked like middle-of-the-road timber. In any case, losing a home game to WSU would be giving one away.

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5:15 timeout, Washington State leads 67-62: Kyle Fogg hits two free throws for Arizona with 5:17 left … and then two seconds inexplicably run off the clock before a timeout is called or the ball is put into play. After the timeout, the refs gather and, for some reason, put ONE second back on the clock.

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5:48 left, Washington State leads 67-60: WSU freshman point guard Reggie Moore takes UA senior Nic Wise to school with a one-on-one move, going to his left and muscling up for a layup and a foul. Moore converts the free throw for a seven-point lead.

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6:48 left: Derrick Williams fouls out as he called for a charge as he tried to back down a defender and make a post move. The call had UA coach Sean Miller yapping the entire time as he paced to the baseline and back to the edge of the coach’s box. The crowd is still booing as there is a timeout now with 6:24 left.

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7:56 timeout, Washington State leads 62-58: Klay Thompson drives to the hoop past Solomon Hill for a basket and the foul (free throw to come after the timeout). Hill isn’t quick enough to stay with Thompson and hasn’t see a lot of time guarding him tonight. Also for WSU, point guard Reggie Moore — likely the prime competition to Arizona’s Derrick Williams for Pac-10 Freshman of the Year — has 16 points. Thompson misses the free throw and stays at 17 points for the game.

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9:37 timeout, Washington State leads 56-54: The momentum has shifted toward the Cougars, and the Wildcats are having a hard time competing on the glass, especially on the defensive end. WSU post DeAngelo Casto has 12 points and nine rebounds, and Arizona’s Derrick Williams is in foul trouble. WSU leads 31-18 on the boards.

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10:36 to go: Arizona post player Derrick Williams picks up his fourth foul. That will mean Kyryl Natyazhko will have to play key minutes here. He played well in the first half and comes off the bench right now with two points and five rebounds.

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11:56 timeout, Game tied at 48: Looks like this one is headed toward a Nic Wise buzzer-beater. Part of what has hurt Arizona so far is 5 of 10 shooting from the free throw line. Meanwhile, Washington State has 13 turnovers. (Make that 6 of 12 from the line as Kyle Fogg splits a pair after the timeout.)

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15:17 timeout, Arizona leads 46-40: One of the things we’re seeing every game now is the development of freshman wing Kevin Parrom, who missed the first 10 games with a foot injury. As one of the rotating crew of defenders, he has been playing good defense on Washington State’s Klay Thompson and in one recent stretch he hit a jumper from the left corner and then, after a steal, finished with a fast-break dunk for a 46-40 lead. That second score earned major hand-clapping from coach Sean Miller and brought the McKale Center crowd to its feet.

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Halftime, Washington State 35, Arizona 35: Gee, a Pac-10 game that might go down to the wire. Who knew? The league is so even (read: bad) that most every game Arizona plays figures to be decided in the final two minutes. This one is headed that way, although the Wildcats have done a decent job on sophomore guard Klay Thompson, who somehow has 11 points, despite not having many open looks at the basket. Thompson is 4 of 7 from the field and 2 of 2 from behind the arc.

Kyle Fogg answered a Thompson 3-pointer with a one at the halftime buzzer to finish with a team-high 10 points in the half.

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4:23 timeout, Arizona leads 27-25: Just call him the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Arizona post Derrick Williams added to his personal highlight reel with a soaring one-handed rebound and dunk off a Kyle Fogg 3-point miss to tie the game at 25. Then, he gave the Wildcats the lead when he took a pass from MoMo Jones and drove from the right angle for another jam. WSU coach Ken Bone had seen enough, calling timeout as his team trailed for the first time.

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7:30 timeout, Washington State leads 24-16: Nic Wise, scoreless for more than 10 minutes, hit a 3-pointer and another basket for five points. His scoring has been off for three games — single digits and 23 total points — which is OK if guys like Jamelle Horne and Kyle Fogg are stepping up their scoring. But that is not something you can count on in every game. On the bright side, Arizona has hit five of its past seven shots. On the negative side, WSU leads the rebounding battle 11-4.

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10:39 timeout, Washington State leads 16-8: Arizona switched to freshman wing Kevin Parrom, and then guard Brandon Lavender, on Klay Thompson, who still has only one made basket and two shot attempts. But the Cougars are proving to be more than a one-man team … and Arizona fell behind because of some chilly shooting. The Wildcats were 2 of 10 from the field before a Jamelle Horne dunk and a MoMo Jones fastbreak layup made it 13-8 and forced WSU coach Ken Bone to call timeout.

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15:32 timeout, Washington State leads 7-4: Arizona starts the game with junior forward Jamelle Horne guarding Washington State’s shooting ace Klay Thompson, who is averaging 24.3 points per game. Arizona coach Sean Miller said earlier in the week that he figures to rotate at least a few players on Thompson.

Horne, through the first TV timeout, has limited Thompson to one shot … although that one shot was a 3-pointer. On that play, the Cougars rotated the ball inside-out, and Thompson got a good look as Horne was too far in the paint to come back and recover.

If Horne stays on Thompson and is more on the perimeter on defense, it will be important for other Wildcats to help with the defensive rebounding.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Derrick Williams, Jamelle Horne, Klay Thompson, Nic Wise, Reggie Moore. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.