No magic at McKale

The Arizona Wildcats, despite their No. 7 ranking, have been flirting with defeat the past few weeks, but somehow managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat before the final buzzer -- escaping with a victory and avoiding the agony of defeat. At McKale Center tonight, the Wildcats ran out of magic and let the visiting California Golden Bears steal a Pac-12 win. The "bad guys" beat Arizona 77-69 as the Wildcats lose for the second time this year at McKale.

This time there were no last-second heroics by Mark Lyons to save them. This time the Wildcats couldn't overcome another night in which they shot just 39 percent from the field. This time they allowed an opponent to go on a 17-2 run to start the second half and found themselves down by 10 points --  a deficit too hard, at least on this night, to overcome.

Blame it on the California zone defense the Bears went to early in the second half. Blame it on the Golden Bears' coach Mike Montgomery, who has a habit of giving the Wildcats fits. Blame it on California's Allen Crabbe who missed just three shots from the field and scored a game-high 31 points.

There's plenty of blame to go around and the fact Arizona played poorly should be at the top of the: "What just happened?" list.

Lyons scored 16 points for the Wildcats, while Solomon Hill finished with 13 and Brandon Ashley had  12, but the trio missed a combined 23 shots as Arizona made just 22 of 56 from the field.

The loss didn't kill the season for the Wildcats, in fact,  maybe being on the short end of the stick for just the third time this season will give them a wake up call as they hit the road next week for games against Colorado and Utah.

It's too cold for rabbits in the North Country this time of year, so the Wildcats (20-3, 8-3) may have to resort to some different "magic" in Boulder and Salt Lake. Forget pulling the rabbit out of the hat, the Wildcats need to grab the basketball and put it through the hoop.

That's no trick! Just sound basketball.

Go get 'em, 'Cats!