Arizona coach puzzled by 'weird' officiating in loss to Houston
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Tommy Lloyd made it clear that officiating wasn't the reason the Arizona Wildcats lost to the Houston Cougars in a Big 12 college basketball showdown on Saturday.
As Lloyd said, the Wildcats didn't play well enough on offense to beat the best defensive team in the nation.
"I think they had a little more certainty where they were going to get their shots from and kind of hung with it a little bit better," Lloyd said after Arizona's 62-58 loss. "I didn't love some of our possessions at the end of the game. They're obviously a great defensive team and you just have to have a little more wherewithal on offense."
But in what ended up being a two-possession game, Lloyd was puzzled by some of the calls down the stretch.
One of the questionable calls came during a key sequence with 3:32 left in the game. Arizona guard KJ Lewis was fouled by Houston's Ja'Vier Francis while going for an offensive rebound. The foul was a shooting situation for Arizona, trailing 55-50. But coming out of a TV timeout, the officials put Henri Veesaar at the line instead of Lewis, who is an 85% free throw shooter. Veesaar missed the front end of a one-and-one.
"Tough. Tough. I mean just crazy stuff," Lloyd sad when asked about the officiating. "They're telling us KJ (Lewis) is shooting free throws and at the last second they're switching Henri (Veesaar) to do it. I mean weird stuff.
"We asked to get (a play) reviewed at the end of the game with 30 seconds to go. They didn't even look at us. And you guys watch these games — everything gets reviewed at the end of the game. I don't know. There's some tough stuff like that. The officials weren't the problem, but there were some weird situations down the stretch of the game that just make you scratch your head a little bit."
Earlier in the second half, with Arizona leading 48-41 with 8:49 to play, Veesaar appeared to get a clean steal, but was whistled for a foul.
"We have a seven-point lead and I thought Henri made a great play on the ball. Knocked the ball loose, we pick it up in transition and they called a foul," Lloyd said. "Those games change on those plays. I thought KJ had a ball inside, right in front of our bench, he got fouled. Literally right in front of us. And those are tough plays against Houston. When your margin for error is so small those things add up."
For the bulk of the game, the officials let the teams play. And that will almost always benefit Houston. The Cougars are arguably the most physical team in the nation and are skilled at bumping players off their drive lines and getting hands on passes. They came into the game averaging 16.7 fouls per game, and were only whistled for 13 on Saturday.
"Obviously Houston's a great litmus test to see where we're at," Lloyd said. "I don't sit here every day saying 'all I think about is we've got to be better than Houston.' No. We want to play that way too. Our own version of it. And I think we did in long stretches today. We've just got to figure out a way to play a little bit better offensively against a great defensive team."
"And I know I'm not the only head coach that's sitting here saying that."
Arizona (17-8, 11-3), who is projected to be a No. 3 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, has one day to prepare for its road game at Baylor on Monday night.
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-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.