Arizona suffered its worst three-point shooting game in nearly a calendar year Friday, but the Wildcats may have a simple solution if it starts happening again.
It’s called: Just Get the Ball to Lauri Markkanen.
After the Wildcats’ 95-65 win over Sacred Heart on Friday, UA coach Sean Miller brought up the team’s poor three-point shooting on his own and discussed what can be done about it.
“Hey, we were 3 of 19 from three,” Miller said. “The other lesson we talked a lot about is that we don’t run post-up plays for Parker (Jackson-Cartwright). We don’t ask Dusan (Ristic) to bring the ball up court. We don’t run certain plays for certain players because each of them has a special skillset.”
But they do want to find Markkanen for all manner of shots, because his skills are strong all over the court. Over three games so far this season, the Finnish 7-footer is averaging 20.3 points, shooting 59.4 percent from the field while making 5 of 11 three-pointers and 18 of 19 free throws.
Yet, while the Wildcats made just 1 of 10 three-pointers in the first half Friday against Sacred Heart, Markkanen took just four shots.
Didn’t sound like that sat well with Miller.
“Lauri Markkanen is one of the best offensive frontcourt players in the country,” Miller said, continuing his response to the poor three-point shooting. “We have a big mismatch at times and he (has the) ability to shoot it. That’s not common. It’s up to us to find him.
“You just can’t play as if he’s a normal big guy out there. There were times he was open and the ball didn’t find him. Then all of a sudden, it did and he went on his own personal 8-0 run (within a 64-second span in the second half). Learning his value on offense and allowing other people to play off him, that’s our responsibility as a coaching staff. Lauri is efficient. He’s not going to take bad shots. That was about as easy a 22-point night as I’ve seen.”
Markkanen scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half, taking twice as many shots after halftime, and, as a result, the Wildcats coasted to leads in the 30s while playing walk-ons heavily in the second half.
By putting the onus on his staff to best deploy Markkanen, Miller took it largely off his guards, even as they all might have room to improve there, too. He said of Jackson-Cartwright: “There were a few things I wished he would have done better, but zero turnovers in 30 minutes from the point guard is outstanding.”
Simmons (0-3) and Alkins (0-4) also threw up nearly half of UA’s missed three-pointers, but they are both freshmen who have played just three games and are being asked to play a lot of minutes and defend well.
“Both are really talented players,” Miller said of Simmons and Alkins. “They’ve done a great job for us early on. They’re learning. There’s a lot of things, especially on defense, that we need them to improve, but in fairness to them they’re out there the entire game and we’re asking them to guard their team’s best players right now.”
At the same time, both Alkins and Simmons have shown the ability to get to the free-throw line often, thus creating the kind of high-percentage scoring opportunities that can make up for perimeter struggles.
Simmons was 8 for 11 from the line on Tuesday against Cal State Bakersfield while Alkins made 8 of 9 free throws on Friday against Sacred Heart.
Then there’s UA’s frontcourt players, all of whom have showed efficiency over the first three games of the season.
Not only is Markkanen making 66.7 percent of his two-point shots — a percentage that equals the scoring output of a 44 percent three-point shooter — but also both Chance Comanche (8 of 14) and Keanu Pinder (4 of 7) are well over the 50-percent mark.
And while center Dusan Ristic was out of sorts over UA’s first two games, averaging just 4.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and shooting 23.1 percent, he blew up Friday.
Saying his mentality was to get every rebound, Ristic had 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds while shooting 6 of 10 from the field.
Miller said Ristic has gained confidence and become more comfortable with the extra pressure of being a starter, and Ristic proved it Friday. Over the first 5:13, he scored six points and assisted Markkanen on a layup.
Ristic has become yet another option that, among other things, could keep the Wildcats less susceptible to perimeter shooting issues.
“Getting the ball close to the basket, whether we’re driving it, offensive rebounds, throwing the ball in the post — we want to do that,” Miller said. “That’s something we’re well aware of: How any free throw attempts do we get per game? Are we aggressive?
“It wasn’t just throw the ball to Dusan. It’s always that we try to drive the ball and get it close to the basket. We’re gonna be a better team when we do that.”
