LaQuinton Ross hits the game-winning shot. Photo by Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES — This is the way it ends. This is the way it always ends when you’re not cutting down the nets. In a quiet locker room, elbows on your knees, hands on your head, eyes becoming red.

The end hit the Arizona Wildcats suddenly on Thursday night, with a 3-point shot like a dagger from Ohio State’s LaQuinton Ross with 2.1 seconds left. From 11 points up, to 10 points down, to a tie game on the final possession … to heartbreak.

And so Grant Jerrett sat in the Los Angeles Kings locker room at Staples Center, white towel covering his face, hands on his head, struck by the finality of a 73-70 loss to Ohio State in the Sweet 16. Fellow freshman post player Kaleb Tarczewski spoke to Jerrett’s right. The team’s other freshman post, Brandon Ashley, conducted interviews to his left.

For nearly 20 minutes, Jerrett barely moved. How many times he must have replayed the final, fateful play.

“No one died,” he said, when he finally lifted the towel and spoke to reporters for a couple of minutes, “but when you play basketball and you really love it, it hurts a lot.”

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Sean Miller has cause to tout the Pac-12. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

SALT LAKE CITY — The Pac-12 can take a bow on the opening day of the NCAA Tournament.

The league, generally thought to be under-seeded in the tourney, went 3-0 on Thursday. Oregon, egregiously seeded at No. 12, upset No. 5 Oklahoma State. Cal, another 12 seed, knocked off No. 5 UNLV.

And the Wildcats took care of business with their win over 11th-seeded Belmont.

“It’s a statement that all of us who coach in the league were hoping that we could make,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “You get respect by what you do in this tournament.

“I know as a coach how hard that 18 game schedule was. You’re playing against terrific players, some incredible coaches, and teams that can win. And I believe we have the ability as a conference to continue to win here in March.”

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Kevin Parrom scored nine points at Utah, all in the second half. Photo by Douglas C. Pizac-USA TODAY Sports

Sean Miller’s reasons to start Kevin Parrom last Sunday still apply, so the coach indicated the senior wing is likely to be in the starting lineup for a second consecutive game.

“Coach pretty much knows when I’m out there I’m going to play my hardest, whether I’m starting or the sixth man or whatever role I get,” Parrom said. “He trusts me in whatever role he puts me in.”

Miller went with Parrom in place of freshman power forward Brandon Ashley in Sunday’s 68-64 victory at Utah, and the Wildcats, curing a recent ill, had good starts to each half.

Whether that was cause-and-effect or not, there seems to be little reason to mess with that formula. That’s one consideration for Miller moving forward.

The other is he wants Parrom, a senior, to be in as important a position as possible as the season ticks toward March.

Parrom joins forward Solomon Hill and point guard Mark Lyons as senior starters.

“There’s no next year for me, Kevin and Mark,” Hill said. “It’s all about now.”

This is the now: When Arizona plays host to Washington on Wednesday night (9 p.m., ESPN2), Parrom will be making consecutive starts for the first time since his sophomore season, when he started a total of three games — all at the Pac-10 tournament.

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Sean Miller is especially questioning his team’s defense of late. Photo by Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller isn’t one to panic. At least publicly.

His summation Thursday night of the state of the team — “20-4,” he said succinctly — serves both as an affirmation of Arizona’s success and as a shield to criticism.

Hard to argue with the record, right?

But this hardly seems like a time to be yelling, “Scoreboard!”

The ninth-ranked Wildcats have lost two in a row — at home to Cal and Thursday night’s game at Colorado, 71-58 — and haven’t looked good in the process.

The Bears outscored Arizona 17-2 at the start of the second half and led by double digits.

The Buffs outscored UA 20-4 during a 9 minute, 41 second stretch that spanned halftime and led by as many as 15.

“We played hard,” Miller said in his postgame press conference Thursday. “It wasn’t as if I was yelling at our guys to play harder.”

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Washington State’s DaVonte Lacy after getting hit in the face by Kevin Parrom. Photo by James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona Wildcats senior guard Kevin Parrom is being dealt with “internally” after his ejection for a “flagrant two” foul on Saturday, although he will be available for the next game, coach Sean Miller said Tuesday.

Parrom was ejected with 10:42 to go in the first half at Washington State after hitting DaVonte Lacy in the face with his right fist.

It wasn’t exactly a punch — it was more of a backhand from Parrom as he was trying to get into position for a rebound — but Miller said the officials made the “right call” after seeing the contact above the shoulders.

“Kevin responded to a physical block-out. … He didn’t handle it well and retaliated. He certainly didn’t throw a punch, but he flailed his arm back and, unfortunately, connected above the shoulders,” Miller said on the Pac-12 coaches teleconference.

“We’re very disappointed in Kevin.”

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Kevin Parrom is a factor on offense and defense for Arizona. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Arizona State’s Jahii Carson split a double team at the three-point line and dribbled hard toward the basket late in the first half. Only one man could stop him: Kevin Parrom.

The Arizona Wildcats senior forward stepped in front and drew a charge with 9.7 seconds left.

That was Carson’s third foul — having just come back into the game for ASU’s offensive possession — a situation that would prove to be problematic defensively for the Sun Devils in the second half.

Carson’s fourth foul with 9:50 to play is identified as the key moment, because after that his defense become non-existent, but Arizona knew what that third foul late in the first half meant.

“If you saw me, I ran over to Kevin and started punching him in the chest,” said sophomore guard Nick Johnson.

“I was really excited. I think that’s the definition of Kevin. That’s what he does for us. He does every single thing for us — the nitty-gritty, offensive rebounding, taking charges, diving on the floor, stuff like that.

“That’s why he is so big to our team.”

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Good? Not good?

The Arizona-Colorado game touched off a firestorm of tweets, GIFs, video cutups, conspiracy theories … all in search of the elusive truth: Was the banked 3-point shot from Buffs guard Sabatino Chen good at the end of regulation?

None of it is particularly conclusive. You can watch until your eyes bleed.

Chen had the ball in his hand with 0.1 seconds left in regulation as he took a 3-point shot from just to the left of straightaway. Move the video one frame, and the clock on top of the backboard — that’s the official time — reads 0.0 and the shot appears to be away. Check it out here.

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Arizona celebrates its championship at the Diamond Head Classic. Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats are 12-0. Couldn’t be better.

Arizona will ride high into the new year, ranked No. 3 and coming off a Christmas Night victory in Honolulu when (Saint) Nick Johnson swatted away a layup in the final seconds to give UA a 68-67 victory over San Diego State in the Diamond Head Classic.

The 12-0 start matches the program’s best since the 1987-88 season — that can’t really be a quarter century ago, can it? — but college basketball is a process, gathering speed toward March, so the 12-0 record has to be put into context.

Coach Sean Miller did.

“One of the things we learned about our team is we have a big heart,” Miller said in his postgame radio interview on 1290-AM (KCUB).

“We have the ability to make big plays at the right time. So much of this comes down to the ending of games, and players being able to make big free throws, being able to make a drive to get fouled … ”

And soar through the air for a blocked shot.

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Mark Lyons shot only 5 of 14 from the field but scored a team-high 17 points. Photo by Casey Sapio-US PRESSWIRE

I can’t get too worked up about college basketball on Nov. 11.

USC is playing at UCLA for the Pac-12 South football title this weekend. Oregon is trying to dash to the national championship game. Arizona has a bowl date to await.

College basketball is played over a low flame, and, so, while I really like the potential of this Arizona Wildcats basketball team — I mean, really, really like — it was hard to work up panic or frustration or much of anything as they muddled through their season-opener Sunday.

The Wildcats didn’t lead for the first 15 minutes, 1 second of the season and didn’t open up a double-digit advantage until the final few minutes before pocketing an 82-73 win over a Charleston Southern team that you’ll be taking a long look at as an upset pick in March if it makes the NCAA Tournament.

This was point A. There’s a long way to go to zenith.

“We screwed a number of things up,” said coach Sean Miller.

“A lot of times you do that in November, and you hope you can learn a lesson after a win. We’ll be able to talk and teach, and that is what this time of the year is so much about. Learn from mistakes; don’t make them again; get better at the things you need to.

“Obviously, we have a lot of young talent that I know will get better by leaps and bounds through the month of November.”

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Coach Sean Miller hugs forward Kevin Parrom as he leaves his first game back last season after being shot in the right leg. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Parrom leaned back in a chair and smiled. Was it relief? Happiness? Anticipation?

It was just nice to see.

“I’m 100 percent,” the senior wing said at Arizona Wildcats basketball media day Wednesday.

Out of all the great storylines with this UA basketball team — from legitimate great expectations, to the maturity and stability of Xavier transfer point guard Mark Lyons, to the ascension of senior forward Solomon Hill into a potential elite college player, to the arrival of four fab freshmen, including three post players — the one that stands above the rest is the possibility of Kevin Parrom having a happy ending.

“Looking at him right now, he’s strong physically and he’s healthy,” said coach Sean Miller. “He’s a senior that is probably as hungry as any in college basketball.”

How hungry?

“I’m starving,” Parrom said.

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