With a critical trip to Washington looming this week and impressive wins over Cal and Stanford (on the road) and Colorado (at home) in their rearview mirror, perhaps a matchup with lowly Utah was a predictable trap for the Wildcats.
That doesn't mean coach Sean Miller had to be happy watching his Arizona team fall behind by 13 points before escaping with a 70-61 home victory.
"I'm just really disappointed in myself and our team for having pathetic confidence in a game like this," Miller said. "We looked frightened, we missed open shots, we were lethargic. It's not alarming anymore because we're almost in March, but it's really disappointing."
The momentum was certainly there. Arizona was terrific two days earlier, dispatching Colorado 71-57 to pull into a tie for third place in the conference.
That victory had Miller feeling good about his team.
"I have a lot of anxiety before home games just because I haven't gotten that good feeling, that confident feeling that we established a year ago where you felt it was going to be really hard on our opponent, just because we haven't played as well at McKale. But tonight, we did," he said after the Colorado win. "And the way we played tonight was very reminiscent of a lot of our good performances on the road."
Some of that was undone against Utah, a team that arrived with an 0-12 road record, then zoomed out to a 12-2 lead.
"We were a disaster for a significant portion of the game," Miller said.
But they survived Utah -- and themselves -- and the bottom line is that the Wildcats (18-8, 9-4) are within one game of the top of the Pac-12 standings.
NOTES, QUOTES
-- Arizona overcame many of its issues by shooting 11 for 24 from the 3-point line in the less-than-overwhelming win over Utah.
-- The Wildcats made only 1 of 11 field-goal attempts in the opening 9 minutes of the Utah game.
-- Arizona fans will get the chance to watch two future Wildcats perform in
the 2012 McDonald's All-American Game. Forward Brandon Ashley of Findlay Prep
in Henderson, Nev., and forward Grant Jarrett of Lutheran High School in LaVerne,
Calif., are both headed for Tucson next year.
BY THE NUMBERS: 0 -- Turnovers by freshman PG Josiah Turner in 27 minutes against Utah, He scored just one point but dished out seven assists.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It was a very hard-fought game with two very motivated teams. The effort level on both ends was as intense as any game we've had all year." -- Arizona coach Sean Miller after his team's 71-57 win over Colorado.
PLAYER NOTES
-- F Jesse Perry continues to enjoy an excellent senior season. He had 19 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Colorado for his ninth double-double of the season, and he had eight points, seven rebounds and five assists in the win over Utah. Perry went 9 for 10 from the free-throw line in the two games.
-- Junior F Solomon Hill matched Perry with nine double-doubles by going for 16 points and 14 rebounds against Colorado. Two days later, Hill had 14 points and eight rebounds against Utah.
-- Senior G Kyle Fogg is finishing strong. He had 15 points and five rebounds in the win over Colorado, then 17 points and six steals against Utah. Over the past six games, Fogg has averaged 16.0 points while going 19 for 36 from the 3-point arc, an impressive 52.8 percent.
