The waiting game
The Arizona Wildcats may still get a 24th straight NCAA tournament berth.
It's just that now the NCAA selection committee may have to think about it for a while.
Arizona lost 75-64 to No. 11 Stanford in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday, to enter Selection Sunday with a 19-14 record, 15 Division I wins over teams not named Oregon State and an 8-10 conference regular-season mark
Having out-rebounded Arizona 50-27, Stanford improved to 25-6 and will face Washington State in the semifinals tonight at Staples Center. The Wildcats will return home to witness their NCAA tournament fate on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Although the fact that Arizona had to play a first-round game Wednesday may have worked against them physically in the loss to the rugged Cardinal, the fact that fellow bubble teams Oregon and ASU also lost in the quarterfinals earlier Thursday may have helped.
Arizona entered the day with a significantly higher RPI (34) than either Oregon (54) or ASU (74), although both the Ducks and the Sun Devils swept Arizona this season and were 9-9 in the Pac-10.
"I'm not going to make any predictions on if we're in the tournament or not," UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill said but added: "I'd be surprised if we're not. … We have the résumé to be there, and we deserve to be there."
But one of the holes on the UA's résumé is three losses to Stanford in a season for the first time ever. The Wildcats could not stop Stanford twin towers Brook Lopez (20 points, 15 rebounds) and Robin Lopez (14 points, four blocks), and three other Cardinal players added 11 points each.
Arizona lost the first two games by a total of five points.
"It's very frustrating," wing Chase Budinger said. "We were so close in those first two games and then just broke down in this one."
Stanford took control of Thursday's game after it went on a 12-2 run midway through the second half to gain a 61-51 lead, taking advantage of several UA turnovers. Stanford out-rebounded the Wildcats and went 6 for 6 from the line during the run.
"We got killed on the boards," said Jerryd Bayless, who led the UA with 18 hard-earned points on 4-for-14 field goal shooting. "When you're facing a great team like that and they out-rebound you like they did tonight, there's no way we're going to win. There's very little margin for error and we had a lot of errors."
Bayless and Budinger said fatigue was not a factor after having to play a second game in two days. Because Arizona finished seventh, it had to face Oregon State in the first round Wednesday whereas Stanford had not played since Saturday, when it lost at USC following a loss at UCLA two days earlier.
But O'Neill said he noticed a difference in stamina between the Cardinal and Wildcats.
Stanford was rested and angry.
"It definitely did" make a difference, O'Neill said. "It's like anything else. They're fresh, they're coming off two losses. They came out and played really hard and really well. They wore us down. I wouldn't say that we were down. They wore us down."
Jerryd Bayless hit an 8-foot bank shot to pull the UA within 61-53 with 7:56 left but the Wildcats were not able to put any extended run together. Brook Lopez scored inside to put Stanford back up by 10 entering the final seven minutes of the game and from there the Cardinal was never seriously challenged.
The second half started out as close as the first, which ended in a 35-35 tie. Stanford jumped to a 40-37 lead early in the second half but Nic Wise hit a three-pointer to tie it at 40 with 17:55 left and the teams kept within a basket of each other for the next six minutes.
Bayless, who was held to just seven points in the first half, scored six points during a three-minute stretch to tie up the game again at 49 entering the final 12 minutes.
Except for three early dunks by Jordan Hill that gave them a 6-0 lead, the Wildcats shot poorly from the field in the first half and failed to gain much of an early edge.
The UA led just 17-15 after 12 minutes, having missed all four three-pointers it took to that point. However, just when Stanford started getting the ball successfully inside to Brook and Robin Lopez, taking a 21-17 lead, Arizona responded when Budinger hit two threes and Bayless hit another during a three-minute span.
Bayless' three gave the UA a 32-28 lead and the game remained close until halftime.
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