That consistently calm and stoic exterior — Finnish, you might say — has never left Lauri Markkanen this season.
But the numbers suggest his perimeter shot has — at least temporarily.
The Wildcats’ Finnish 7-footer is still remarkably productive heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale against Arizona State. It’s just that he’s doing it closer to the basket as his perimeter efficiency drops.
For the month of February, Markkanen shot just 19.2 percent from 3-point range. He shot 38.1 percent overall in February, down from 59.3 percent in the first half of Pac-12 play, and his recent shooting has been boosted considerably by the second-chance and other inside scoring he did at Washington State and Washington.
After the UA’s 78-59 win at Washington State on Feb. 16, when Markkanen had 19 points and 11 rebounds despite shooting 1 for 4 from 3-point range, he shrugged off his shooting slump.
“I’ve had those before,” Markkanen said. “Everyone’s going to have a little bit tougher time but I’ve got to keep working and get better. I’m trying to focus on different things, rebounding the ball, playing defense. I’m not worried about that.”
Neither is UA coach Sean Miller nor teammate Dusan Ristic, the way they explain it.
But something is different, so here’s three possible reasons:
1. The table’s not always set right. Miller has been asked repeatedly about Markkanen’s shooting slump over the past month. Every time, he’s said it’s largely because Markkanen isn’t getting good shots to take.
Because Markkanen was such an efficient shooter the first half of the season, Pac-12 teams have been defending him closely everywhere he goes and switching ball screens in an effort to keep up with him.
That puts more pressure on the rest of the Wildcats to find precisely the right time and right spot to get him the ball.
“I don’t think he’s gotten as many good looks in recent weeks as maybe he did early on and we have to do a better job of creating those for him,” Miller said. “His teammates do as well and that’s part of the growth, continued development, improvement of our team.”
That also means the maturity in decision-making, to know that when Markkanen has a slight opening from 3-point range, that it might be a higher-percentage bet for the Wildcats than having somebody else take a different shot.
“Sometimes when a group of five is out there we’re not all equal, you know,” Miller said. “You don’t get to shoot the same shot that he gets to shoot and your shot from 3 isn’t as good of a shot as when he shoots it. When you have somebody like him open, that ball has to get to him quickly and I think the recognition of his special talent is something that we can do better and I think we will.”
2. It’s been a long season(s). For Markkanen, it’s not just that Arizona has played 30 games and held nearly 90 practices at this point of the season already.
It’s that Markkanen was already playing some intense, high-level basketball until virtually the day he flew to Arizona late last summer.
Markkanen first showed up at Arizona for pre-session in May, took a course and began getting acclimated to Tucson and his new coaches. Then he flew back to Europe to play for Finland in the FIBA U20 European Championships, where he made the all-tournament team.
Later in the summer, Markkanen also played several exhibition events for the Finnish senior national team, once dropping 24 points against Poland. He kept playing games for Finland in Russia even as school started at Arizona.
Markkanen showed up a week late for Arizona’s fall semester and then immediately jumped into Miller’s preseason program.
Since UA’s season started, he’s averaged a team-high 30.7 minutes per game, too.
“Lauri’s played a lot of minutes. We’ve asked him to do everything,” Miller said. “I think it just obvious you start getting close to March and you wear down a little bit.”
This week would be a good time to rest after Markkanen appeared worn out against UCLA last Saturday. He had just 10 points and five rebounds with 4-for-11 shooting, and missed all three 3s he took against the Bruins.
“He looked a little fatigued in the UCLA game and you could see why,” Miller said. “One thing about the Pac-12 is you’re always playing that second game in three days and … especially with the pace that the game was played at” against UCLA.
3. His confidence is off. This is one theory Miller doesn’t agree with. And while Markkanen has looked shaky at times when shooting outside, his still-high-percentage free-throw shooting indicates he doesn’t lack confidence when there’s no defense in the way.
Ristic says he doesn’t think confidence is an issue for Markkanen, either.
“Teams play better defense on him and he needs to adjust,” Ristic said. “I think it’s just a matter of time when he’ll be back where he was two or three weeks ago. I don’t think his confidence level is different than before.”
In part because Markkanen has still been productive throughout his shooting slump, collecting double-doubles in UA’s road sweep in Washington, Miller says he’s confident the rest of his game will come around, too.
“He’ll bounce back,” Miller said. “We have to do a better job of getting him good looks but he’s done everything that we’ve asked. He’s rebounding, he’s scoring better around the basket. He’s really an improved defensive player and when he gets a couple of good looks he’ll bounce back for sure.”
