Looking for an answer in the second half with his Wildcats having lost their shutdown first-half defense against ASU, Sean Miller asked his team a question.
“At one timeout,” Miller said, “I asked the guys, `Is there any way we can have more than one Kadeem? Can we make two or three of them for the second half?" Because we didn’t necessarily have an answer outside of him for stretches.”
They couldn’t. So ASU wound up shooting 56.7 percent overall in the second half while making 10 of 18 three-pointers following a 0-for-9 three-point first half.
“It felt funny,” Miller said of the second-half defense, then he broke down some cracks in UA’s offense and defense as the Wildcats’ 91-75 victory went on:
“There were times in the first half we got to the end of the (shot) clock, and Kadeem had to take one. On those possessions, we were hunting shots. Sometimes when you’re up big, you have individual players who start looking up there, kind of asking that question: 'How many points do I have?' And it takes away from their effort on defense and can take away from ball movement.
“I’m not saying that was the case with us but you wonder because our intensity, our togetherness, we had some breakdowns in the second half that we didn’t have in the first half. We addressed that. You’re not going to be perfect for every game, you’re not going to be perfect for 40 minutes. I understand that. We did some great things tonight. We’re thrilled to have won the game, but when you give up 50 in the second half and you gave up only 25 in the first half, that has to be addressed because a lot of time it bleeds into the next game and the place we’re going next, we have to be at our best to have any chance at all, both at ‘SC and UCLA.
“If you’d ask me why, I’d go back to (the fact that) we have three freshmen in our lineup. They don’t understand a team that shoots the way they do, how quickly the game can change. I bet if you follow ASU closely you would see that because they rely on the 3-point shot so much, there are stretches where it doesn’t go in and then there are stretches where they can get back in the same game. You have to get back to really defending the 3-point shot. There were times when we did defend it and it went in anyway. But we’re moving on and excited to go to LA. We know we have a big, big challenge ahead of us.”
Allen’s quiet nature is not to be mistaken for a lack of confidence these days. He said after the game that he’s playing great defense and “at a peak right now.”
Nobody would argue with that. He helped keep ASU’s Torian Graham quiet until the late moments of the game and was instrumental, as Miller indicated, in a first-half effort that kept the Sun Devils to just 37-percent shooting before halftime.
What’s more, his box score numbers were strong: He had 18 points on 5-for-9 shooting, made 7 of 10 free throws, grabbed four rebounds, dished eight assists and had four steals with three turnovers.
“Kadeem does it every night,” Miller said. “I think he’s one of the best defenders in our conference, if not the nation. One of the many attributes that he has defensively is he’s versatile. He doesn’t guard just one player. He can guard two or three in the same game. We shifted shifted him on to Torian Graham, he did a good job, Tra Holder.
“Let me say this Torian Graham, Shannon Evans, Tra Holder – those guys are really good players. (Obinna) Oleka is a tough matchup and Bobby (Hurley) does a great job of being creative of putting him in mismatch situations.”
As Lauri Markkanen walked across the floor immediately after the game to do his ESPN2 interview, he bumped into a furry friend.
“What’s up, Wilbur?” Markkanen said, smiling.
With Markkanen's serious demeanor and understated sense of humor, you don’t always see those light moments publicly.
“He’s all business,” Miller said. “There’s no screwing around with him. He loves the game. He’s here to win to win, he’s here to become better. He never compromises that, ever. In a shootaround, in a practice, in a game, it’s all business. He is unflappable in terms of his demeanor and his effort. He’s one of the great kids and hard workers I have had the pleasure of coaching or being around.”
Markkanen's 30 points were the most scored by a UA freshman since Jerryd Bayless did so multiple times in the 2007-08 season -- not even Derrick Williams reached the 30-point threshold as a freshman.
UA's 25 assists were also the most since it had 25 against Charleston Southern during their 2012-13 opener, according to UA publicist Matt Ensor.
Kobi Simmons rebounded from a 4-for-13 combined shooting effort against Utah and Colorado last week to score 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting and tossed five assists.
“I Thinkkk I Got Myyy Swagggaaaaa Back,” Simmons tweeted after the game.
Miller was glad to see it.
“Kobi was in a rut the last two games,” Miller said. “He didn’t shoot well. Lost a little confidence. Was nice to see him make some shots. He really can shoot the ball and he worked hard for four days” in practice.
Rawle Alkins was 2 for 8 from the field but had six rebounds, four assists and a block with only one turnover.
“Rawle didn’t score as much tonight, which was kind of surprising, but he did some good things,” Miller said. “Some of his passes tonight were great passes, timely big plays, part of why we had 25 assists was that Kobi and Rawle combined for nine assists.
“We talked for a while after the game that once in a while you’re not going to have a big night scoring but you can do other things. He’s a winner. He really is. He’s trying like Lauri to be better. He didn’t score as much tonight but he will in the future.”
Miller said Parker Jackson-Cartwright still isn’t 100 percent recovered from his high ankle sprain. Jackson-Cartwright had five assists, three steals and no turnovers, but picked up four fouls and went 0 for 2 from the field.
“The one thing I’m excited about is, the next seven-day window (before the UA-USC game) gives him a chance to get some rest,” Miller said. “He’ll be at seven weeks since he got hurt and I think he’ll have that next gear that maybe he doesn’t quite have. He’s doing the best job he can but he wants to be 100 percent, we want him to be 100 percent and we need him to be moving forward.”
Without another game this weekend, Wildcats will take Friday and one other day off before traveling to Los Angeles on Wednesday for the Thursday game at USC.
“We’re gonna really practice very hard and were not really worry about anything other than the quality and what we can get done in these two days,” Miller said. “Then we have a chance to take a second day off early in the week, probably Monday, and then hopefully get ready to go to L.A. and play our best. We have to play great basketball in L.A. to win either game in my opinion.”
Miller lobbied to get T.J. McConnell an invite to the 2015 NBA Combine and now sounds like he might be willing to lobby for his next contract.
“He has a terrible contact,” Miller said, smiling, when asked about McConnell’s recent heroics with the Sixers. “That thing should be about 10 times more based on what some of these guys are making. That’s the best bargain in the NBA right now that the Sixers have.”
