Can Chase Budinger bounce back?

Chase Budinger said it was the worst game he ever played.

Arizona’s 59-54 loss to Arizona State on Sunday stung all the Wildcats deeply. Not only did Arizona (15-8, 5-5 Pac-10) slide from third to sixth in the heated Pac-10 race, but the squad suffered its first regular-season sweep at the hands of the Sun Devils since the 1995 season.

With the rivalry reaching new heights after Mike Stoops’ now-infamous “junior college” comment, Wildcat fans are anxious to find a scapegoat for these failures on the hardwood against what used to be a hapless Arizona State program.

Some blame injuries, with Nic Wise (knee) and Bret Brielmaier (shoulder) sitting out not only Sunday’s contest, but all Arizona games for the foreseeable future.

However, the majority of fans are currently pointing the finger — fairly or unfairly — at the Pac-10’s preseason Player of the Year.

On Sunday, Budinger made only one of his 12 field-goal attempts — missing each of his six 3-pointers — and suffered an uncharacteristically poor day at the free-throw line (2-5).

“I don’t know what was going on out there,” Budinger said. “I felt fine during the pregame shoot-around, but for some reason, nothing was going right for me.”

Budinger’s shooting struggles happened to affect the rest of his game, as well.

Just as Arizona State was building a second-half cushion, Budinger committed a costly turnover and was quickly beaten on a back-door cut by Jerren Shipp.

With Arizona State big-man Jeff Pendergraph enjoying a career day (29 points, eight rebounds, 12-16 shooting), Budinger was frequently late to supply help defense to Jordan Hill, Fendi Onobun, or anyone else unlucky enough to draw that defensive assignment.

Despite these struggles, Budinger still saw 39 minutes of action, simply because interim head coach Kevin O’Neill had nowhere else to turn.

“Chase had been shooting well in practice, but things didn’t go well for him from the start,” O’Neill said.

Early in the contest, Budinger suffered a cut near his index knuckle on his shooting hand. He said the cut didn’t affect his form, but it didn’t help matters, either.

Meanwhile, freshman phenom Jerryd Bayless’ performance stood in stark contrast to Budinger’s nightmare outing.

While the rest of the Wildcats went 3-23 from the floor on Sunday, Bayless hit 12 of his 18 shot attempts on his way to a career-high 39 points — only two points short of the Pac-10 freshman record.

Bayless scored 18 of the team’s first 22 points and sparked an early 14-point lead.

But Herb Sendek’s Sun Devils slowly chipped away at Arizona’s lead, exploiting a lackadasical defensive effort and a disastrous Wildcat shooting performance.

As the lead evaporated, Wildcat fans anxiously awaited the moment Budinger would snap out of his rut and start draining jump shot after jump shot.

Never happened.

“I’ve never had a game like that,” Budinger said. “Not in middle school, high school or here. I tried to get it going in the second half, but everything I put up didn’t fall.”

The 19-year-old swingman admitted that a game like this might have lingered with him longer last season — a year in which Budinger took conference Freshman of the Year honors.

But now, Budinger says he is mentally tougher and more prepared to shake off a rough outing.

“From last year to this year, I’ve developed that short memory you need,” Budinger said. “We have plenty more games left, and I need to be ready.”

Budinger’s first crack at redemption is scheduled for tomorrow night, when the Wildcats host the California Golden Bears (14-8, 5-6) tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. (Fox Sports, Ariz.).

Arizona won the first meeting between these two squads, 79-75 on Jan. 19 in Berkeley, Calif.

The win pulled the Wildcats out of their 1-3 funk and jump-started a four-game winning streak.

If Arizona is to repeat its winning performance, it will need to find a way to slow down superb sophomore Ryan Anderson, who tallied 30 points and seven rebounds in the first match-up.

“We’re in a do-or-die situation again,” said Jawann McClellan. “We can’t focus on everything going wrong for us. We need to get back out there, play good team defense and come away with a big conference win.”

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