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Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 2484821, member: 488"] Sometimes a lesser team will hang around with a heavyweight that's either checked out, playing poorly, or battling foul trouble. That's not what happened in the second half tonight. That was an absurdly talented Arizona team playing hard, in front of their home crowd, knocking down three after three out of our doubles on Ayton and Ristic in the post. And yet with five minutes left, without one of our most important players, we had the ball, down two. Before somebody accuses me of looking for moral victories or prettying up another 15 point loss, save your time. It wasn't a moral victory. They played poorly in the first half and melted down in the final five minutes. They'll probably open up as significant underdogs @ Auburn and be exhausted by the time they get there. It's still not a good team and, especially without Gilbert, there would appear to be some real limits on what they can be. You're probably looking at .500 in the AAC give or take. But at least there's a heartbeat. At least we can say they went blow for blow with arguably the most talented team in the country for 35 minutes, undermanned, on their home floor. There were moments when Jalen finished at the rim against the potential #1 pick in the draft, moments where Larrier got to his spot and murdered a helpless defender with a turnaround, and then times where Diarra looked like a kangaroo around the rim. Nobody cares that a 15.5 point underdog lost by 15 and nobody is adjusting their final four picks to include UConn. There was a pulse tonight, though, and that's more than we've been able to say these past few years in similar situations. Honestly, I kind of expected a 30+ point loss tonight. I'm half-expecting one on Saturday. But they played hard and actually got me off the couch a few times. It felt like UConn basketball. Hopefully we can build on that in 36 hours. [/QUOTE]

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