Arizona lacks true point guard -- and smart shot selection

It’s also true this was an opportunity misspent. In a 65-57 loss to Southern California at the Galen Center, the Wildcats got only 8 points from their All-America candidate, Derrick Williams, and 9 from their second option, guard MoMo Jones. They shot 35.8 percent from the field mostly because they didn’t work all that hard to do better.
If Arizona is to become a team to fear on the NCAA Tournament bracket, its progression will need to continue by first addressing this two-word phrase: shot selection.

Certainly the Trojans guarded Arizona hard, at least they did for the few seconds of the shot clock that were expended on each Wildcats possession, particularly in the first half. Bigs Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic challenged Williams and made it difficult for him to get access to the ball in dangerous situations, so those around him fired up a numbing series of one-pass jump shots.
The Wildcats missed eight of their first nine 3-pointers, and it was no wonder because so many of those shots were fired off balance, with USC defenders in their faces. This is where Arizona misses having a natural point guard to take command, to generate high-quality shots, to settle down overzealous teammates.
Jones is not a natural in any of these areas. He has become proficient in terms of getting the Wildcats into their passing-game offense without turning over the ball. He hasn’t had more than three turnovers in a game since early January, and only hit that number twice in the last month. Not bad for a converted scoring guard.
He is not actually in charge of the Arizona offense, though. No one seems to be. Coach Sean Miller calls the action he wants to be run with a simple signal from the sideline, and he was a heck of a point guard in his day, but without someone on the floor assuring the team gets the most out of every trip, the Wildcats will struggle against elite opposition.
It’s not as though Arizona can’t score. The Wildcats rang up 87 points in last weekend’s victory over Washington. They’re averaging 76.4 points in Pac-10 play. But with all the Big East teams likely to enter the Tournament, the odds are pretty good the Wildcats end up playing somebody who plays Kevin O’Neill-style defense. They can’t react like this.
By the time Arizona began to take a serious approach to offense, it was in a 5-point second half hole that quite easily could have been a double-digit lead.
USC did not gain its advantage by playing brilliantly. The Trojans missed at least four uncontested layups and hit only one of their 10 attempts from 3-point range. One of the key plays in their dominance of the initial portion of the second half occurred when guard Jio Fontan airballed a jump shot, but Stepheson rebounded and converted a layup, drawing a foul for a 3-point play and 37-34 lead.
The Wildcats were in a 44-all tie when Williams began to take the approach that any drive of his was likely to be an improvement over the average Arizona trip in this game. He scooped in a layup the first time down, then drew a foul and made a couple of free throws the next time down. But this revelation, that there might be one hole in the USC defense, did not register with his teammates. Williams didn’t get another look on the next four trips.
The game turned on what was, on this night, a typically empty Arizona possession. Williams got one touch above the circle, but the lane was clogged by a teammate posting up and the opponent defending him. The Wildcats got tied up but had the arrow in their favor, but after inbounding could not get off a shot before the 35 seconds lapsed.
Arizona’s defenders didn’t bother to double-team Vucevic down the stretch as they had for much of the game, and he took advantage by scoring six consecutive points that tied it at 56. When Stepheson and Marcus Simmons rejected consecutive layup attempts by Jones, the Trojans made four free throws in a row to take a 60-56 lead.
Was this a tough road loss for Arizona?
It was an unnecessary road loss, for sure.