UA swept by last-place team for first time in Pac-10 history
Losses to WSU ends 41-0 run against conference futility
By Javier Morales
Five things you may not have known about Arizona and UCLA in this Pac-10 basketball season:
- When was the last time Arizona was swept by the last-place team in the conference? Washington State, which lost nine of its last 11 games, did the trick this season. The answer: Never. On five different occasions, the Wildcats lost at least once to the last-place team, the most recent being in 1991, when Washington beat the UA 70-56 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
That means the Wildcats went 18 straight years doing what they should: Sweep the last-place team, a 41-0 run (on two occasions, two teams tied for last and the Wildcats beat Washington in the second meeting in 1991 at McKale Center). Their two losses to Washington State this season is another sign of a transition year under Sean Miller.
I can hear the question now: What about the Ben Lindsey season of 1982-83? The Wildcats were the last-place team with a 1-17 record, the only time in UA’s Pac-10 history that they finished at the bottom. Fred Snowden’s teams didn’t lose twice to the No. 10 team in the conference? Yes, that’s true. Snowden’s Cats were beaten by the last-place Cougars 80-71 in 1980-81, but the UA beat Wazzu in McKale Center that season. Otherwise, Snowden was 7-1 against futility in his four seasons of coaching in the Pac-10.
For those of you who think this blog is too negative: On the flipside, the Cats went 3-3 against the three teams ahead of them in the standings — Cal, ASU and Washington.
Please read the four other items at TucsonCitizen.com
Tags: Pac-10 basketball, Sean Miller
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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 11:30 PM and is filed under Men's hoops 2009-2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
