Australia trip was confidence-builder for Arizona Wildcats' Allen

When Kadeem Allen joined a group of Pac-12 players in Australia in July, it wasn’t just about basketball, or even tourism.

It was also about therapy.

Allen embodied the Wildcats’ sudden, sour finish to the 2015-16 season, committing seven turnovers to two assists while scoring 11 points in Arizona’s 65-66 first-round NCAA tournament loss to Wichita State. It was the end of his first year in Division I, after spending a redshirt season following his junior college player-of-the-year season in 2013-14 at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College.

But just a few months after the NCAA tournament, Allen was holding his own while guarding NBA players Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills during a pair of Pac-12 exhibitions against the Australian National team.

In the first matchup, Allen led the Pac-12 with 15 points in a 92-83 loss, and UA coach Sean Miller said he was told Allen was strong defensively and one of the Pac-12’s best players on the trip. Mills went off for 29 points in Australia’s 93-63 win in the second game, but Allen still found it all a good experience.

“When I went to Australia, I got my confidence back,” Allen said. “Sitting out a year and playing a year is hard, but I came back and worked on ballhandling and three-point shooting.

“It was a great experience being able to guard Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova, and their other guys. It gave me more confidence knowing I could score and then play defense.”

This season, Allen hopes to be more effective on both sides of the ball in part because he won’t have to play point guard as much. While he started at point guard last season, Allen is expected to play at shooting guard while Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Kobi Simmons split up the point.

That means conserving energy.

“Playing point guard and pushing the tempo kind of tired me out when it came to the defensive end,” Allen said. “Running and staying in lanes (offensively) is different than running the offense.”

Miller has said Allen has the potential and desire to become the kind of perimeter stopper the Wildcats used to have in guys such as Kyle Fogg, Nick Johnson, T.J. McConnell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

“On last year’s team, we never really were able to establish that and at the end of the day that really hurt our team,” Miller said.

“When you take on that, you have to be able to sacrifice offense sometimes and I think Kadeem, based on where he’s at in his career, is a guy who wants to be an all-Pac-12 defender, guarding the other team’s best perimeter player, really taking pride in steals and shutting the opponent down. We’ve talked to him a lot about that.”

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Meanwhile, just in case Allen needs any additional motivation, he can also look back at that Wichita State game. The memories are still pretty vivid.

“It fueled me,” Allen said. “It’s still in the back of my head. I’ll probably pop in the DVD one day and just watch it, like, ‘Man, we left a lot on the table. We didn’t play as hard as we should have.’ We’ve gotta keep on fighting and playing hard.”

Walk-on added

Arizona has added Division III transfer guard Tyler Trillo as a walk-on.

The 5-foot-11-inch, 170-pound Trillo played 14 games in 2014-15 for Roger Williams University. He was an all-state player at Connecticut’s Terryville High School and a member of the National Honor Society.

“Our program is excited to add Tyler to the team,” Miller said in a prepared statement. “We were looking at adding some depth to our roster. Tyler is a great student and young man that will be able to contribute to our program.”

Trillo will be the Wildcats’ third walk-on, joining guard Paulo Cruz and forward Jake DesJardins. The three walk-ons are expected to join redshirting guard Dylan Smith and one other player or manager on the scout team this season.

Since he played in 2014-15 but sat out last season, Trillo will be considered a redshirt sophomore.

Simon appearances set

• Former UA guard Miles Simon, whose jersey will be recognized at Friday’s Red-Blue Game, will make two appearances earlier in the day.

Simon will be on hand for the kickoff for Citi’s 2016-17 United Way campaign, at 9060 S. Rita Road at the UA Tech Park, from 11 a.m. to noon.

He is also scheduled to sign autographs on items from the 1997 Champions Collection at McKale’s “A” Store from 4-5 p.m. that afternoon.

• The Red-Blue Game instrasquad scrimmage and celebration is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at McKale Center. It will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.