One speculated return date after another passes and Allonzo Trier is still sitting on the bench. That’s 12 games now and counting.
So, since the fall semester ended at UA this week, I tried to ask UA coach Sean Miller if anything changed. His answers were typically terse on the topic.
He said that the fact that the fall semester is over “has nothing to do” with Trier’s issue, all but confirming that it is not an academic-related matter (in case anyone was still thinking it might be).
Then I asked if, since the semester is over (meaning there wouldn't be any Academic Progress Rate implications), could Trier decide to just go ahead and sign professionally if he’s frustrated by all this?
Miller said “no." Then his postgame interview session was ended.
While the issue appears to be in the NCAA’s hands now, there’s a few things that suggest Trier might yet play this season.
One is that the NCAA suddenly cleared him to travel starting in time for UA’s Dec. 3 game against Gonzaga in Los Angeles, when it had not before. There's also Miller's recent comment that he hopes to get "a couple" of players back soon, when the only other player who could come back soon is Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
Then there's the fact that Trier keeps showing up, displaying enthusiastic support at games, suggesting either he and/or UA officials believe he will or might be cleared.
If Trier knew he had no shot at coming back, and he was thinking of going pro next spring anyway, you’d think he’d be overseas now, heading someplace where he's allowed to play.
If anyone is still looking for more potential "even" type return dates for Trier, a 50-percent penalty would mean Trier returns on Jan. 7 against Colorado (game No. 16 of 31). There's also the Pac-12 season opener on Dec. 30, if that means anything.
Whatever the case with Trier is, the Wildcats might have Parker Jackson-Cartwright back on the earlier end of that 4-8 week timetable.
By the time the Wildcats return from their Christmas break, Jackson-Cartwright will have sat out nearly four weeks, and Miller said Saturday that “we’re hoping if we can have a good couple of weeks here we can get him back more towards the beginning of our conference than the end of January.”
UA will open Pac-12 play on Dec. 30 at California and if that date is too soon, the Wildcats follow the Bay area trip with home games against Colorado and Utah, and ASU.
But the key here is that Miller’s statement indicates Jackson-Cartwright may have a decent chance of returning for UA’s Jan. 19-21 trip to play USC and UCLA. That's when the Wildcats figure to need him the most.
After Saturday’s game, while talking about the subject of UA’s poor final four minutes, Miller was asked why UA’s traps devolved from being effective early in the game to allowing layups in the final minutes.
“It’s hard because if you take the trap off we wouldn’t have an answer for Tyler Davis,” Miller said of the Texas A&M center, who had 21 points. “But they had rebounds off free throws. If we secured any of of those missed free throw rebounds …
“Anything that needed to go wrong in that three minutes really did and as much as I like to blame our team I have to give Texas A&M a lot of credit. They’re a good team.”
While UA played its usual seven players, Texas A&M also went only seven deep for much of the game, and with eight if you could the four minutes Tavario Miller put in for the Aggies.
Miller was asked by a Texas reporter if having a seven-man rotation wasn’t too much different than an eight-man rotation.
“Yes,” he said. “But when you’re only coaching seven guys … The reason whey I keep bringing seven up, is we only have three perimeter players. If any one of those guys are in foul trouble there’s not a lot of answers."
Lauri Markkanen may have picked up yet another duty to carry out for the Wildcats this season: He’s the guy Miller not only wants to shoot free throws but can be trusted to get out of defensive pressure in a late-game situation, as he did with a pass out of a trap to Rawle Alkins.
“Lauri, with the way he shoots free throws, with his size and if you look at his ability to not turn the ball over, that might be our best bet in that situation, to go to him,” Miller said. “We drew it up so he would catch the inbound, he got trapped and made a clever pass. If he doesn’t make the clever pass there we don't win.”
Even as he finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, two steals and the game-saving pass to Alkins, Markkanen still found fault with himself. Among other things, he said he was probably late to arrive in some of the late-game traps that UA tried to set.
“it was a good learning experience for us,” he said. “We learned we can’t stop running after 40 minutes, not rebound the ball.”
Our full game story is attached to this post, as are the PDFs of the box score and UA's updated stats. The seen-and-heard notes are here.
