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 Wednesdayâs game. Miller called the turnovers âinsane,â and went into detail about the post playersâ contributions:
âIn Chanceâs case, thatâs something heâs really got to work on,â Miller said. âHeâs 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 -- itâs hard to win.
âThe thing that offset that tonight was our physical play, rebounding, very good defense and we took advantage of our size. Certainly we canât take advantage of our depth. Nobody has less depth than us.â
Miller kept going, indicating Grand Canyonâs aggressiveness and quickness made it tougher inside.
âOur turnovers are when you set a screen, youâve got to stop," he said. "Thatâs something you go over. But in and around the rim, Grand Canyon is really quick. Theyâre slapping at the ball, theyâre 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.
âThatâs the frustrating part. When you have 19 turnovers, but 10 of the 19 are from three post players, it doesnât 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.â
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 Wednesdayâs game, Markkanen was hitting 51.9 percent from the field, 47.7 percent from 3-point range and 88.6 percent from the line.
âHe just has to move on,â Miller said. âItâs not gonna be a perfect season from the beginning to the end. Heâs 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 arenât seven footers (doing that) unless youâre the guy from the New York Knicks, Kristaps Porzingis. I mean, thereâs nobody who does that.
âYou canât be 7-foot and use ballscreens and dribble but thatâs the position he plays for us because we have (only) three guards. Developmentally, itâs a great thing. But heâs not in a position to be at his best because of our situation. I thought that showed a little bit tonight. But heâll be back. I think heâll play great on Saturday.â
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.
âWhere he struggled was on a couple of drives late, I thought he lost his confidence,â Miller said. âAnd then when youâre a 90 percent free throw shooter, and you miss free throws, it can steal your mind.
âSo heâll get through that and heâll be better.â
UAâs 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.
âRawle was 0-5, and part of why he shot five threes was he felt really good about his 3-point shot from last game,â Miller said. âBut he didnât 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. Heâs from Brooklyn; heâs seen that before. Thatâs who he is.â
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 UAâs 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: âParkerâs 5-foot-8 and he hasnât played in the last four games.â
Miller then noted of Simmons that âhe has to rebound for us. If he doesnât 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 thatâs part of why (the freshmen) are growing up.
âJust like in Lauriâs case, heâs having to guard shooters, small guards, post players, and weâre asking him to do everything and he just got here. Do I think theyâre developing? No doubt about it. But that doesnât 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.â
Miller issued some pretty high praise for Grand Canyon, while again explaining his decision to play the Antelopes. UA hasnât played GCU since 1980 and no Pac-12 team has since an informal 2013 boycott dissolved last year.
âDan Majerle does a great job coaching,â Miller said. âHe got three or four great shots off of timeouts. âĻ . and he gets the most out of his team. Like I said theyâre the hardest playing team weâve 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 theyâre very physical. Iâm sure that comes from Dan.
âThe other thing is in my eight years Iâve 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 theyâre doing and thatâs to Grand Canyonâs credit.
âI made the comment that we didnât 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. Theyâre gonna be really good in their conference.
âWe did that to help us. Thatâs the greatest compliment you can give them -- not âHey, we want to help you get started. Weâre playing you because youâre good and we respect you.' DeWayne Russell, heâll be as good of an offensive guard as weâll face all season.â
The game did help GCU, according to what Majerle said afterward. 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 couldnât think U of A or coach Miller enough for playing us. Itâs big. It just helps our program develop.â
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.
