Arizona coach Sean Miller says there’s no stress reaction and no re-fracture in Rawle Alkins’ foot, while the school said it was “minor soreness” that kept him out Thursday against Colorado.
But whatever is happening, the fact is that Alkins has had to sit out games in two straight weeks, feeling pain again after playing 34 minutes against Stanford.
That’s not the kind of trend you want to see in a key player as you dig into the second half of the season.
When asked if he imagines having to deal with the injury in a similar way even in, say, late February, Miller said simply “I don’t know.”
What Miller says he does know is that complete rest is the best medicine Alkins can get at this point, having decided to shut him down all week (though Miller says he might play Saturday against Utah).
Here’s the complete remarks Miller had about Alkins after UA's win over Colorado on Thursday:
“It’s foot soreness. He doesn’t have a stress reaction. He doesn’t have a further break. He doesn’t have anything else going on. All that’s been ruled out, and with rest, a complete shutdown, he experiences a lot more comfort.
“We only shut him down for a couple days last week. If you’d watched him in the Stanford game, you wouldn’t have known anything was wrong. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t walk the next day; he just had a little bit more soreness. So when you have more soreness on a foot like his that’s been surgically repaired, you have to take note and do the necessary things to protect him. That’s what we did this week.
“He played against Stanford on Saturday. Today’s Thursday and he’s done nothing. I think if you talk to him he’s gone from maybe a pain threshold, if you pressed on it, of maybe level six, five, to maybe one or zero. Prior to the Cal game, he was at level zero. It wasn’t aching him. It was a single incident or maybe one time in a practice leading up to that game that he just felt different.
“It’s up to him to communicate, which he did. Believe me, he wants to be out there but it’s in his best interest and our team’s best interests to manage this the best way. I don’t have a vote. It’s up to the doctor, Justin (Kokoskie, UA athletic trainer) and Rawle. When all three of those guys agree that it’s safe for him to return he will, and if there’s a minute restriction we’ll do that as well. But tomorrow is another day. He might play against Utah; he might not. But if he does play it will be because he has a zero pain threshold -- no number.”
Even though Deandre Ayton played 37 minutes Thursday, Miller said he was also less than healthy after battling strep throat this week. He said the fact that Ayton was 4 for 10 from the field and had no offensive rebounds was evidence of that.
“He didn’t get an offensive rebound for 37 minutes and that’s unlike him,” Miller said.
Miller said Ayton basically missed a “day and a half” earlier this week and is hoping he’s 100 percent for UA’s game against Utah on Saturday.
“It’s like anybody you miss practice, you have a step throat, I don’t think he felt completely 100 percent. My hope is that in the next couple of days he will.”
Dusan Ristic not only made a spin move to the basket that fired up his teammates, but he also took the ball almost completely downcourt on one possession when he initially had nobody to pass to.
When Miller was jokingly asked if Ristic would become his point guard, he answered:
“That’s that deal when you watch one dribbler. You watch three (dribbles). You watch five. And then you just say: 'He better make sure he hands the ball off.'
“But Dusan has a lot of confidence and, on a serious note, you guys (media) have watched a lot of players come through Arizona, and very few have come as far on the spectrum of who he was when he got here and who he is today, and it’s great to see a kid have that kind of confidence.
“Seniors are a throwback in college basketball. We have three but especially Parker (Jackson-Cartwright) and Dusan, they’ve played their heart and soul for us and it’s great to see both guys be at the forefront of what we’re doing.”
Allonzo Trier had another one of those nights that he’s had so often that it's almost become easy to overlook how impactful they are. (Greg Hansen put Trier's impact in his column, which is attached below).
Miller said Trier was an “all-American type of player” on Thursday with 23 points on 8-for-13 shooting and 5-for-5 free-throw shooting.
“One of the best games he’s played at Arizona when you look at the points he scored, 23, and not one turnover,” Trier said. “They trapped him on every pick-and-roll that he utilized and he was very, very efficient. Eight for 13 from the floor, 2 for 6 from 3, 5 for 5 from the line."
Dylan Smith has taken advantage of two starts in Alkins’ place this month: He had 14 points on 5-for-5 shooting at Cal on Jan. 17 and had 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting with 3-for-6 3-point shooting on Thursday against Colorado.
“For two games Dylan has really filled in and done a nice job,” Miller said.
When asked if starting helped his game, Smith said:
“Not really. I’m just out there playing. I get a better rhythm but I’m out there just trying to play hard.”
The officials that sent Arizona to the free-throw line 15 more times than Colorado “have a hard job,” Miller said.
“I thought Deandre going to the line 12 times tonight was right,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of contact and if I were playing against him I would try to be physical as well.
“That’s something we talk a lot about. The more we get the ball inside a lot to Dusan the more fouls happen, you get more offensive rebounds.
“It’s the analogy of the running game in college football. May not work in the first quarter but all of a sudden midway through that second half you see the toll that it takes. Getting the ball close to the basket for our team does that. That’s why these zones are trying to prevent that from happening and on our best attempt we have to (try to get the ball inside) regardless of any defense they try to play on us. That’s our strength.”
When answering a question about his pass that led to the “Send It In, Jerome!” moment (addressed in our seen-and-heard notebook), Miller said with a smile that history helps keep former athletes such as himself credible.
Then he playfully (but wrongfully) suggested former UA guard Matt Muehlebach was trying to stay relevant, too, by lobbying to stay in a tie with Kaleb Tarczewski as having played in the most UA wins (110) ever.
“When Dusan passes (Muehlebach) here in the next couple of weeks and he tries to petition for that extra win, like he did the last time, we’re not going to let him get away with it this time,” Miller said. “For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, Kaleb, I think, beat the record, won the most games ever at Arizona. Ten days went by and the next thing you know it was a tie. I don’t know how that happened.
"So I’m worried for Dusan. We don’t know how many games he has to win to actually break the record but we’re prepared to go above and beyond what Muehlebach has. It’s records like that that guys like him and I hold on to.”
Actually, Muehlebach had nothing to do with the change. Star copy editor Dave Ord researched UA’s initial claim he had just 109 and discovered he had actually played in 110. UA then re-researched the total at the Star's request and confirmed not long before the 2016 NCAA Tournament that Muehlebach had indeed played in 110.
It turned out that Arizona couldn’t break that tie, because the Wildcats lost to Wichita State in their NCAA Tournament opener, so the record is still at 110, with both Muehlebach and Tarczewski listed together at the top. (This was also explained in the note entitled "Zeus actually needs this one" near the end of this March 2016 story)
However, Ristic already has now played in 105 wins while Parker Jackson-Cartwright has 100. The Wildcats have at least 12 more games left, suggesting Ristic and possibly even PJC will make this all a moot point before long...
Utah's Sedrick Barefield hit a 3-pointer to beat ASU in overtime on Thursday.
And Purdue's impressive play may be making Arizona feel a little better about its 24-point loss in the Bahamas.
