It takes patience to wait an entire week for a rivalry game that some are once again calling the biggest of the season.

A lack of patience is what hurt the Arizona men’s basketball team Saturday, a loss head coach Sean Miller called “”rock bottom”” in his 23-year career in college basketball as a coach and player.

Miller responded by running two-a-day practices, beginning at 6 a.m. Some Wildcats even slept in the locker room overnight in preparation for a hard week of practice.

It’s about learning from impatience.

“”(Oregon State’s) offense was extremely patient,”” Miller said. “”They took a lot of shots near the end of the clock. You could see the wearing effect on our team, in particular, with some of our young players. It’s almost as if the mentality we took was, ‘You mean to tell me we’ve got to stay in this stance so long? That’s not fair.’

“”You have to have some discipline, some toughness and understand the game’s going to be played a little differently,”” he added. “”And you’re going to have that wherewithal to stay with it for 40 minutes, knowing that a lot of things are going to happen at the end of the clock. My team caved in a big way in that area.””

With the disappointment looming from Saturday’s loss, Miller said the team’s mental state remains constant as it has all season.

Miller’s mindset is no different now than after the Wildcats’ first loss of the season in Maui.

“”I think we’re about the same,”” he said. “”We’ve never really put ourselves too far out there. We’ve always … been responding after a tough loss. That’s been our season.””

Up next

UA men’s basketball vs. Arizona State

McKale Center

Sunday

3:30 p.m.