You know how they say that styles make boxing matches? Well, I think it's pretty clear at this point that there's a style that this edition of the Cougs just can't compete with -- full court ball pressure and hard half-court traps.
The deciding factor was this: We could not play the defensive personnel we needed to play because those players couldn't give us anything on offense. Capers and Casto were positively terrible, and it ended up becoming a vicious cycle we couldn't stop.
It'll be tempting to overreact to this loss. Don't cave to the temptation.
The strides this team has made over the past month are still there. I'm really not sure why we can't cope with this kind of pressure, but we really just seem to lack personnel with the requisite athleticism and maturity to combat what teams like Washington and Arizona throw at you. I honestly thought it was something that would be solved by the growth we've exhibited over the past month. That's just not the case.
Fortunately, those are really the only two teams in the conference that can do this to us. If you're smart, you won't get too down about this one. Yes, we were up in this game, but it became a completely different game when Arizona decided to turn up the heat. We hoped for a split this weekend, and that's what we got.
We sure would have liked to cement ourselves as a legitimate bubble team with a win today, but let's be honest: Didn't we probably let our hopes get in the way of reality just a little bit? Despite the superhuman effort of Klay on Thursday, this team still is what it is.