Lauri Markkanen was only 3 for 12 from the field Wednesday against Grand Canyon but he was the post player UA coach Sean Miller appeared the least concerned about.
What really had Miller going after UA's 64-54 win over GCU were the 10 combined turnovers by the other UA big men: Four in just 14 minutes from Chance Comanche, three by Dusan Ristic and three from Keanu Pinder.
The Wildcats had 19 turnovers in all, easily a season high for a team that had averaged just 11.9 entering Wednesdayβs game. Miller called the turnovers βinsane,β and went into detail about the post playersβ contributions:
βIn Chanceβs case, thatβs something heβs really got to work on,β Miller said. βHeβs making the same mistakes constantly, (on) setting screens, with four turnovers in 14 minutes. Dusan, three turnovers. Keanu, three tunovers. When your post players have 10 turnovers in the game -- they don't really handle the ball a lot on the perimeter -- itβs hard to win.
βThe thing that offset that tonight was our physical play, rebounding, very good defense and we took advantage of our size. Certainly we canβt take advantage of our depth. Nobody has less depth than us.β
Miller kept going, indicating Grand Canyonβs aggressiveness and quickness made it tougher inside.
βOur turnovers are when you set a screen, youβve got to stop," he said. "Thatβs something you go over. But in and around the rim, Grand Canyon is really quick. Theyβre slapping at the ball, theyβre trying to steal it as opposed to just coming into play. I thought that caught us off guard in the first half. We adjusted a little bit better in the second.
βThatβs the frustrating part. When you have 19 turnovers, but 10 of the 19 are from three post players, it doesnβt make the game feel good. A number of those are around the basket. If we converted those or we get fouled, instead of (committing) a turnover, the game goes a different way.β
Of course, it would be hard for Miller to be disappointed in Markkanen in the big picture, considering the way the Finnish big man has played out of the gate in his college career, and Miller indicated he was happy overall with Markkanen's effort on Wednesday, anyway.
Not only did Markkanen have to play a fair amount at small forward, where the quick and aggressive Antelopes were able to bother him, but he also still managed to collect eight rebounds and had only one turnover despite all the pressure on him.
He just struggled, uncharacteristically, to shoot. Markkanen was 3 for 12 from the field, 1 for 5 from 3-point territory and missed 4 of 8 from the line.
Entering Wednesdayβs game, Markkanen was hitting 51.9 percent from the field, 47.7 percent from 3-point range and 88.6 percent from the line.
βHe just has to move on,β Miller said. βItβs not gonna be a perfect season from the beginning to the end. Heβs a very, very talented player. But it was a physical game tonight. It was a hard playing game. Drives were highly contested, and in fairness to Lauri, he plays the three for us. There arenβt seven footers (doing that) unless youβre the guy from the New York Knicks, Kristaps Porzingis. I mean, thereβs nobody who does that.
βYou canβt be 7-foot and use ballscreens and dribble but thatβs the position he plays for us because we have (only) three guards. Developmentally, itβs a great thing. But heβs not in a position to be at his best because of our situation. I thought that showed a little bit tonight. But heβll be back. I think heβll play great on Saturday.β
Miller also noted that if Markkanen hit all his free throws he would have had 15 points and eight rebounds with only one turnover. Maybe that would have been enough to offset much of his struggles in the field.
βWhere he struggled was on a couple of drives late, I thought he lost his confidence,β Miller said. βAnd then when youβre a 90 percent free throw shooter, and you miss free throws, it can steal your mind.
βSo heβll get through that and heβll be better.β
UAβs other two freshmen also had big learning experiences Wednesday, just like they do in nearly every other game.
This time, Rawle Alkins may have learned how to keep going even when his 3-point shooting disappeared after a 4-of-7 long range effort at Missouri last Saturday.
βRawle was 0-5, and part of why he shot five threes was he felt really good about his 3-point shot from last game,β Miller said. βBut he didnβt let that bother him. He had eight rebounds, and he scored four two-point shots. When the game really got tough he really got tough. Heβs from Brooklyn; heβs seen that before. Thatβs who he is.β
And while Kobi Simmons put in some part-time duty on DeWayne Russell, and got to the free-throw line enough (8 for 10) to become UAβs leading scorer with 13 points, Miller still wants him to keep digging in for defensive rebounds.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright still has one more defensive rebound this season than Simmons does and Miller drew that comparison, noting dryly: βParkerβs 5-foot-8 and he hasnβt played in the last four games.β
Miller then noted of Simmons that βhe has to rebound for us. If he doesnβt rebound, it hurts our team. What better way to teach him that then allow him to go out and see the repercussions of when you don't block out. So thatβs part of why (the freshmen) are growing up.
βJust like in Lauriβs case, heβs having to guard shooters, small guards, post players, and weβre asking him to do everything and he just got here. Do I think theyβre developing? No doubt about it. But that doesnβt make us feel good on tonight or Saturday you don't have a lot of room for error when you make a lot of mistakes.β
Miller issued some pretty high praise for Grand Canyon, while again explaining his decision to play the Antelopes. UA hasnβt played GCU since 1980 and no Pac-12 team has since an informal 2013 boycott dissolved last year.
βDan Majerle does a great job coaching,β Miller said. βHe got three or four great shots off of timeouts. β¦ . and he gets the most out of his team. Like I said theyβre the hardest playing team weβve played this season. You talk about Michigan State, who they are, and Butler, who they are. Grand Canyon is, I mean they play hard and theyβre very physical. Iβm sure that comes from Dan.
βThe other thing is in my eight years Iβve never seen a student section at McKale filled with the visitors. I mean, they had a whole section. You can just tell they have a a great spirit about what theyβre doing and thatβs to Grand Canyonβs credit.
βI made the comment that we didnβt play Grand Canyon to help build their program and do them a favor. If playing us helps build their program, great. We played their team because we respect them. They had 27 wins last year. They have a couple guys injured and on a given night they can beat anybody. Theyβre gonna be really good in their conference.
βWe did that to help us. Thatβs the greatest compliment you can give them -- not βHey, we want to help you get started. Weβre playing you because youβre good and we respect you.' DeWayne Russell, heβll be as good of an offensive guard as weβll face all season.β
The game did help GCU, according to what Majerle said afterward.Β Already this season, GCU has played at Duke and Penn State, while staying competitive at home against Louisville and beating San Diego State.
"It's a stepping stone," Majerle said. "In this environment, we probably could have lost by 30, but we were able to come in and hang with a really good team and a big program.
"I couldnβt think U of A or coach Miller enough for playing us. Itβs big. It just helps our program develop.β
Wasn't much time after the late game to insert much of the postgame commentary in our main game story, but it is attached to this post, along with Greg Hansen's column, our photo gallery and a seen-and-heard notebook.
The box score and updated stats are attached as PDFs.
