Sean Miller threw out a zone defense Tuesday but, rest assured, his defensive philosophy has not changed.
“The more zone we play,” he said, “the worse we’ll be in man-to-man.”
And Miller’s pack-line man-to-man has been his standard at Arizona.
The full context of Miller's comment after UA beat UC Irvine 79-57 on Tuesday, was is that it’s hard to be good at a lot of things, so focusing on man-to-man is preferred under normal circumstances. It’s just that this team may need some help, using the zone to help compensate for fouls or fatigue, and to take advantage of its size.
“To play great man-to-man defense (throughout a game) … With 19 minutes in the first half for Kadeem (Allen) – you don’t feel the same as playing a 14,15 minute first half,” Miller said. “And, then, as the season grows, it wears you out for the next game.
“Not that you want to stand around in zone, but it’s certainly a different way of playing. The other thing is we’re really big. That’s one of the strengths of our current group, so if you think about that backline and the guards, using that size is probably a smart move, and playing through foul trouble and giving the team a different look.
“I think working on it and using it at the appropriate time, that’s probably what we’ll do.”
Naturally, the zone also made an appearance on the other side of the court Tuesday. UC Irvine went with a 2-3 the entire game, its staff probably having seen a few videos of UA games this season that showed the Wildcats struggling against a zone.
This time, though, UA worked the ball inside to get 18 points out of Dusan Ristic, while the Wildcats also hit 8 of 17 3-pointers.
“When you play against a zone everybody thinks -- and I think a lot fans think -- you have to make threes, and at times I think they’re right,” Miller said.
“But a really good zone offense is able to get fouled, score from two, score in the low post, when they take threes, take really good threes, and when we took threes tonight, they were really good threes.
“Part of it is, we got the ball into the post, we shot 18 free throws. And we had 22 assists, when they played a 2-3 the entire game. We’re going to see a lot of zone right now because teams are checking how organized we are, and our ability to shoot. But we’re only going to get better every day that we’re together because in a way our team has only practiced for a week. Because we don't have the same team as we had two weeks ago and a lot of our (preseason) planning, we definitely don’t have the same team as we had then.
“Two of Lauri's threes tonight happened because his teammates are well aware of where he was and they got him the ball. On Saturday (against Gonzaga), we weren't looking at him like that. He would almost have to find his own shot. Against a zone, everybody’s looking for Lauri because he’s such an exceptional shooter.”
One obvious thing the Wildcats can’t afford these days is heavy fouling, so Miller probably wasn't thrilled to see Chance Comanche foul out after just 17 minutes.
“That’s a big deal for us. We have done a very good job of not fouling,” Miller said.
"Tonight, Chance stuck out because he was not able to be a factor. He almost beat himself. It’s now up to us as his coaches to show him so that he doesn’t keep repeating the same mistake.
“But he’s a much better player than he’s shown here lately and I think that will come. Now he has a bigger role. Now he has to learn how to be successful in that bigger role. To be able to play without fouling is a trademark of a disciplined good defensive team and that’s something we work hard at being better every day.
Asked about blending the different games of 7-footers Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen, Miller spoke of a bigger picture.
“They’re blending well,” Miller said. “One common trait that Dusan and Lauri have is that they are incredible kids. I mean, in the classroom, off the court, in practice, as teammates. They love the game and are two of our hardest workers. Not just now but in the summer.
"Both guys are (from) the other side of world. They’re not going home for Christmas and yet they’re just really, really great kids and all of us feel that to have them as teammates, prime players on the court, is a great thing for us. You talk about leading by example. Every time they show up, they lead by example because their work ethic is incredible. That’s the focus for those guys. Are they different as players? Yes, but both of them have that common trait that they’re just incredibly coachable.”
Kadeem Allen has struggled at point guard in two games after taking the job back following Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s injury last week -- Allen wasn't initially expected to play the point at all this season -- but Miller said it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
“He’s turning the ball over more and I think some of it is fatigue,” Miller said. “He guards the other team’s best player and he uses a ton of energy there. We want him to make plays for his team. He had five turnovers against Gonzaga, three tonight, that’s eight turnovers in two games. We don't want him to turn the ball over three times. He can play games with less than that for sure. But to his credit, there’s nobody going harder, working harder, or doing more for his team than Kadeem is for us right now.”
In a different way, Miller also defended freshman guard Kobi Simmons, who is 3 for 17 from the field in his past two games while making just 1 of 7 three-pointers.
“He did some good things tonight,” Miller said, noting that Simmons had five assists. “As a young player, sometimes when the 3-pointer is not going in, you become hard on yourself. He’s had back-to-back games where that hasn’t happened and then you start to think about that, you start to press and you let some things slip that you can do well.
“But he’ll get it. He’s a freshman. It’s just that games for freshmen aren’t nearly as easy. For every Carmelo Anthony, there are plenty of examples of guys who have great careers, even NBA careers, that if you judge them on the first two months of their college career, you never would have predicted what’s to come.
“Lauri, he kind of looks that part right now where he’s such a special offensive player, that it comes easy for him. But even Lauri, he’s not perfect. He makes defensive mistakes. He made plenty we’ve talked about after recent games, but I though he did a good job defensively (against UC Irvine), even better than he’s been.”
Offensively, Markkanen quickly rebounded from his 4-of-14 shooting against Gonzaga (and a Zag defense tailored to him) by hitting 7 of 10 on Tuesday, including 4 of 6 3-pointers.
“I’m not worried about my shooting,” Markkanen said.
Our game story and photo gallery is attached, along with PDFs of the box score and updated UA stats.
