Sports can be funny. Turns out they can be fun, too.
Late Friday night, after Arizona basketball beat UCLA, I had an idea of writing a column about how great it has been to see that the Cats can beat ranked
opponents like Florida and UCLA without playing a great game.
Arizona started each of those games pretty poorly, and even in the second half when it looked like it might be ready to pull away instead found itself either trailing or needing to hang on at the very end.
“It was just kind of a game of adjustments,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after the UCLA win. “They (UCLA) fell into a couple actions that were successful, that allowed them to go on a run, and they made the shots to go with it, and then we kind of fell into a couple actions at the very end, and fortunately the shots went in on them.
“Great battle, and we’re going to learn a lot from this, but a ton of fun.”
Lloyd’s team got great individual efforts and performances against both Florida and UCLA, with Jaden Bradley being key in both, but as a team I doubt the coach would argue with the idea that they didn’t play their best.
Imagine what they’d look like if they did.
So yeah, that was going to be the angle. I can’t promise it would have been my best column (hey, like an athlete sometimes I just don’t have it), but hoops earned my byline this week.
After rallying at home to beat a decent Kansas team while not playing their best last week, the football went on the road and beat a ranked Cincinnati team while struggling in the red zone, missing field goals and otherwise doing the kinds of things you normally can’t do if you want to win in hostile territory.
And yet that’s exactly what happened. So welcome to the column, football.
“It’s about us,” Arizona QB Noah Fifita said after the team’s latest win. “We know coming in it was gonna be a hostile environment against a good team, but if we did our job, we’d be able to come out victorious, and were able to do so.
“Obviously, the defense made some critical stops throughout the entire game, and we were able to finish it when it mattered.”
Every team would like to make plays all game, but the ones who win are able to make plays when it matters. It takes confidence. It takes talent. A little luck never hurt, either.
Because while every team would like to play perfect and win, rarely does a team fire on all cylinders for the duration of a game. There will be ups and downs, good plays and bad plays. Mistakes will be made and opponents will get the better of you.
And yet for both Arizona basketball and football, it is clear that when things don’t go their way they maintain a belief that not only can they win the game, but will. That someone will make a shot, complete a pass, make a catch, get a stop. That when the clock hits all zeroes, it will be Arizona with the higher score.
With basketball, that has been the case every game this young season. Football is a bit new to the idea, and while we kind of expected hoops to be that good none of us saw Brent Brennan’s team entering the chat, at least not like this.
Whereas this year’s basketball team entered the year with justifiably high expectations and will continue to carry those through the rest of the season, football was expected to — rather, it was hoped that football would take a step forward from last year and be competitive.
Week after week though they’ve proven to be more than that. The question now for both football and basketball isn’t if they are good, because they most certainly are. What we don’t know is how good they are.
Football has two more regular season games to pad its win total, likely not able to do enough to reach the Big 12 title game but certainly capable of winning out, reclaiming the Territorial Cup and playing in a quality bowl game.
Basketball has a long season ahead of it and just around the corner is another big time matchup, this time at UConn. A win won’t lead to any banners and a loss won’t mean none are coming down the road, but should the Cats leave the Gampel Pavillion with a victory it will be tough not to think about how they could be playing deep into March.
Different ceilings for each program, but both could ultimately put together incredibly satisfying seasons that we’ll remember fondly.
The exciting thing for both teams is that it is apparent that while things are going well right now, they can play even better. Basketball could start fast and not go through dry spells, and no doubt the team’s prized and talented freshmen can play more consistently.
Football, on the other hand, can play a clean game on offense and special teams while being stout defensively. They can turn more red zone trips into touchdowns and keep the penalties to a minimum.
Is this a bit nit picky when teams are overall playing well enough to win? Is it fair to complain even a little when football is coming off a road win over a ranked team that had conference title aspirations and basketball has looked like one of the best teams in the country through a couple of weeks?
Yes and yes, especially if you are hoping the teams will be better their next time out than they were the last.
When a season begins, no matter how good your team is expected to be, the goal is to watch them improve over the course of the season. These are college kids, after all, and should in no way be finished products.
Whether they will or not, especially in any substantive way that even the casual observer can see, is anyone’s guess. Nearing the end of their season it is clear that football is a much different and better team than it was in Game 1. At the beginning of their season, basketball looks poised to be that rare team that is dominant to start and, based on natural freshman progression, should be even better a few months from now.
In short, at each point in their respective seasons both football and men’s hoops are where we would have realistically wanted them to be. Good enough to win, still with room to improve.
