While hitting over half of his 3-pointers through UA’s first 20 games, the Wildcats’ 7-foot Finnish phenom bolted his way up solid lottery pick status in the expected event he turns pro this spring.
But what happened during his perimeter shooting slump in February — he shot 14.2 percent from 3-point range between Feb. 4 and March 4 — ironically may have boosted in his NBA stock.
Because he wasn’t shooting well, Markkanen went inside more often, proving himself around the rim by scoring off rebounds and post ups. He even earned the Pac-12’s Player of the Week award for his production during UA’s mid-February road sweep in Washington, despite the fact that he went a combined 1 for 6 from 3-point range that weekend.
But Markkanen broke out again from deep in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals, hitting 4 of 7 against Colorado. He was 4 of 10 against UCLA the next day.
So now that Markkanen’s shot appears to be largely fixed — he’s 9 of 19 (47.4 percent) from 3-point range since the start of the Pac-12 Tournament — he’s literally a scoring threat from anywhere inside 22 feet.
“He hit a slump, but it just took him that one game, that one shot to really get it back going,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “Since that’s happened I think every part of his game has really flourished since then.”
And that’s just his offense.
What Markkanen has also done, quietly, is improve defensively consistently as the season has gone on. He went from an overly aggressive defender who picked up easy fouls early in the season to a passive defender afraid of fouling while he adjusted from international ball to college officiating. Now, he’s a carefully aggressive defender who blocked two Saint Mary’s shots on Saturday.
While overall defense is sometimes difficult to gauge, the fact that Markkanen defended Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale was telling — earlier this season, Miller might have tried Dusan Ristic or Chance Comanche on the skilled inside scorer.
“Lauri’s post defense was terrific down the home stretch,” Miller said after the Saint Mary’s game.
The funny thing is, you’d hardly know whether things were going well or not by speaking with Markkanen, who is every bit the stoic Finn when asked about his game.
“I did everything same way,” Markkanen said of his slump. “I tried to stay neutral, not get too high, not get too low. It’s a balance that helps me. I think I’m like that as a person not only in sports but everything.”
