TEMPE – On a night when much of the attention understandably focused on Deandre Ayton, the Bahamian big man made it clear he wasn’t the only one who could produce at a pretty high level.
Ayton was asked about the two 3-pointers Dusan Ristic made on consecutive UA possessions midway through the first half, Ayton shrugged.
“What game was it that he hit those three 3s?” Ayton asked, and when reminded they happened on Jan. 27 against Utah, said: “Yeah, Utah. We do that in practice. We shoot 3s in practice. So we used to it, to be honest, taking that open shot.”
Later, when asked about the assist he threw Allonzo Trier for a late 3-pointer that nearly put UA’s 77-70 win away, Ayton said Trier called for it but that he pretty much knew to get it to him.
“I know how he plays,” Ayton said. “I mean, we’re the best in college basketball, so we know each other’s role.”
Arizona’s victory meant Ristic needs to play in only one more win to tie Matt Muehlebach and Kaleb Tarczewski as the “winningest” Arizona player ever, a tally Miller initiated earlier in his UA tenure (it’s not part of the official record book).
Ristic has played in 109 wins, so he will own the record if the Wildcats sweep in Oregon next weekend. If they don’t, Ristic will likely get the record during UA’s final homestand, against Stanford and Cal.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright has played in five fewer wins than Ristic because of injuries earlier in his career, so he has a chance to surpass Muehlebach and Tarczewski, too, even if he won't be the new record holder.
Arizona’s win also, of course, kept the Wildcats in solid position for their fifth win or tie for the Pac-12 title in Miller’s nine-year tenure. Miller again made it clear doing so would be a big deal.
“This was a big road win for us but now it’s on to the next one,” Miller said. “That’s why winning a regular-season conference championship is so special, because it’s hard-fought. It’s not something you do on a weekend. You do it over an 18-game schedule. And winning on the road, winning at home, bouncing back from a tough home loss like we had against UCLA, that’s all part of it and that’s what we’re playing for right now.”
Arizona had one shy of the season-high 21 turnovers it had against Cal, and tied the 20 it had against SMU in the Battle 4 Atlantis. But when asked if the environment might have contributed, Miller said he thought it was about the defense ASU played.
“I thought their pressure did” it,” Miller said. “They played really hard, they trapped a lot, played full court. Looking at all of the turnovers, I’m sure a few of them we can learn from but for the most part their defense created turnovers and when we didn’t turn it over, we were very efficient.
UA shot 48.1 percent from the field, and hit 21 of 27 free throws (77.8 percent). The Wildcats also converted 14 offensive rebounds (eight from Ayton) into 14 second-chance points, and were 6 of 18 from 3-point range.
So what’s left to describe what Ayton can do? Here’s how Miller put it after the ASU game:
“I thought Deandre was a player I haven’t seen a whole lot in my lifetime,” Miller said. “He was a dominant, dominant player and – really, a lot of our other guys played well -- but he was the difference.”
ESPN draft analysts Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz had a long look at where Ayton stands now.
Links to our full coverage from Wells Fargo Arena and PDFs of the box score and updated stats are attached.
