Efficiently meshing Trier’s considerable offensive skills back in the Wildcats’ rotation has been a predictably slow process.
But before Arizona took off for Washington last weekend, Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn cited stats from HoopLens.com when writing that the Wildcats were a “superior defensive team – and a superior team overall – when he’s on the bench.” The HoopsLens numbers suggested Arizona’s defensive efficiency (the number of points an opponent scores per 100 possessions) rose from 98.0 to 107.0 when Trier played.
But Winn updated those numbers for the Star after Trier played well on both sides of the ball in Washington with Allen unavailable. They are now roughly equal, with Arizona allowing 1.02 points per 100 possessions with and without Trier. Arizona continues to have better offensive efficiency with Trier, and therefore is better overall.
Certainly, that’s what Miller sees.
“I think with more games that will be more or less accurate,” Miller said. “It’s hard in an eight-game, nine-game sampling and one of them – the Oregon game – isn’t going to make our defense look real good. So you have to take that into consideration.
“We’re a better defensive team with Allonzo. He gives us more depth and he is one of our better perimeter defensive payers. He’s more experienced. Not having Kadeem, it made a big difference having Allonzo available.”
