#1 Arizona (21-1, 8-1), who until yesterday were the most complete team in college basketball and one of three undefeated teams left in division I college basketball lost both of those titles over the weekend after the season-ending injury to sophomore forward Brandon Ashley and upset loss to California (15-7, 6-3), ESPN reported.
The Wildcats are hoping they'll be better equipped to handle Ashley's absence moving forward than they were directly after its occurence on Saturday night. He left just three minutes in and was in a walking cast by halftime, according to ESPN.
"Last night, early in our Cal game, Brandon Ashley suffered a foot injury that will end his season," Arizona coach Sean Miller said in a statement. "While we're all disappointed, we are also aware that Brandon needs our support and positive energy surrounding him. ... This adversity will ultimately make Brandon and our team stronger moving forward."
How true that last part becomes will be telling of Arizona's season. In some ways, college basketball teams are better suited to replace fallen contributors (as long as they're not outright stars), for it's more of a team game anyway. In other ways, they aren't, because they don't always have an adequate bench. Like Michigan and their loss of power forward Mitch McGrary, Arizona should be OK because of a deep roster (Not including Ashley, they have at least four future pros on the roster; expect one of them, freshmen Rhondae Hollis-Jefferson, to see more court). They also have Aaron Gordon, a 6-foot-8 forward with a game startling similar to Ashley's. Perhaps in some ways the loss of Ashley will open up the offense for other players. Their next few games will be telling. Luckily, they play in the spotty Pac-12 and have time and room to adjust.
The 6-foot-8 Ashely was averaging 11.5 points on 52 percent shooting. Matching his in between height is his in between game of occasional post ups and 38 percent three point shooting (by way of a rather odd shot set up).
