Arizona coach Sean Miller has threatened underperforming players with a reduction in playing time and, after UA hung on to beat Stanford 74-67 on Thursday, he questioned their pro careers, too.
The Wildcats held Stanford to 42.2 percent shooting and outrebounded them 35-30 overall but those stats required some context: Stanford actually shot 49 percent from two-point range, gliding inside for layups or pulling down offensive rebounds that led to easy second shots -- and the Cardinal totaled 12 offensive rebounds that led to 17 second-chance points.
That's what drove Miller nuts. So in his postgame interview, Miller laid it out.
“The word ‘pro’ is thrown around way too much at Arizona because of the great history of our program,” Miller said. “We have guys who think they’re NBA players and they can’t guard the ball.
It’s “like not only are you not getting picked (by an NBA team), but you’re not getting invited to camp. Nobody’s gonna take a chance on a guy who can’t guard the man in front of him. And same thing when shots go up. You can’t block out right now in February and keep your man from second shots? There’s nobody picking you.
"Just because Richard Jefferson got picked doesn’t mean you’re getting picked. You have to earn it every game, every day. We’ve built up a lot of equity because of the season that we’ve had but tonight the effort level in rebounding, the irresponsibility in rebounding and the number of guys who just can’t guard the ball, it allows us to be vulnerable and you know what? Cal is a great basketball team and playing really well. They’re the type of team who will come in here and just smash us all over the floor. So we have to go from where we are tonight and be as ready was we can on Saturday night because we’re playing against a very good basketball team who might be playing as well as anyone in the Pac-12.”
There was plenty more detail where that came from. Miller was especially upset that Stanford pulled down 12 offensive rebounds and the fact that Stanford guard Marcus Allen waltzed inside for a number of layups en route to his 15 points.
On rebounding, Miller said:
“Tonight we had a hard time rebounding. You have to block your man out. You can’t turn and look. We had too many times we made them miss the first time and that’s hard enough. When you have an offensive team that’s really in sync and working hard to create an opportunity, and they shoot it and miss, when they get second shots it breaks your back, I’m telling you.
“We have big guys who aren’t blocking out. It’s not about your offense, it’s not about this. You have to hit the man in the chest. You gotta turn. You gotta keep people off the glass and the same thing with guards. Guards have a responsibility to rebound and when you let teams get 17 second-chance points it really puts a lot of pressure on your ability to win.”
On defense:
“We have a number of players who can’t guard their man. It’s constant dribble drive and that’s part of why they get second shots because when the dribble is going into the paint, and they’re beating their man, then we have to help. And when the help comes and the shot goes up you’re not in good block out position. You have to guard the ball.
“You have to be able to guard the dribble and those two things let us down badly on defense. Second shots and off the dribble – (if that happens) there’s gonna be a couple of guys not playing the game. I’m not putting them in the game if they’re not gonna be able to guard the man in front of them. Same thing rebounding the ball. We’re in February. Everybody knows how to block out. Everybody knows how hard you have to work at that. If you just turn and look, you’re not gonna play. Eventually that will either break us or repair us but we’re not going to go down a good path when you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do rebounding the ball.”
I asked Miller if there was any carryover mentally from the Oregon game.
“No. No. Maybe for you,” he said. “Not for these guys. They forgot about that. We lost. One game.”
That’s what Allonzo Trier said, too.
“We left the Oregon game in Oregon,” he said. “We just focused on Stanford.”
Whatever the case, there was a contrast between Wednesday’s game and the one UA won by 39 at Stanford on Jan. 1.
Sure, Reid Travis was more menacing this time, Stanford played more zone and first-year Cardinal coach Jerod Haase’s system may be meshing with his guys more than ever.
But…UA shot 62.5 percent on Jan. 1 while Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen combined for 11 of 14 shooting, while Stanford shot just 33.9 percent.
This time, UA shot 42.6 percent, and Ristic and Markkanen combined to shoot 3 for 14. Stanford shot 42.2 percent but had its way inside.
Those are pretty big differences.
When I mentioned the contrast with the Jan. 1 game, Miller said “that’s the problem.” He explained it this way:
“It wasn’t like anyone gave us an eight-clap for beating them at Stanford by 39, (like) great job, Arizona,” Miller said. “You know how hard it is to beat a team in the Pac-12 on the road by 39 points? I mean, just because you beat them by 39 one time doesn’t mean you’re going to beat them by 39 the next time. Teams get better. Coaches do a great job. And you know what? When you play really well, that doesn’t mean you’re going to play really, really well every game.
“But they came in here as an experienced, good team that’s really improved. When you give teams 17 second-chance points and you have guys who can’t guard the guy in front of them, I don’t care what the name is one your chest here it’s all even. We have to do a better job and we have to get our guys to do a better job and we have to hold them accountable to minutes played.”
Miller was asked if UA’s defensive struggles were a matter of attention lapses or struggles against screens or something else.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know it’s one guy after another who’s getting beat off the dribble and we have to solve it. You can only help so much. The more you try to help off the ball, the more it leads to 3-point shots which happened a couple of times. The more it leads to offensive rebounds, which was part of our problem. If you don't guard the basketball then you’re not gonna play.”
Lauri Markkanen had only three rebounds and Miller said he was more concerned about that than his 2-for-9 shooting (on top of a 2-for-11 weekend at OSU and Oregon).
“Tonight was the first time I felt his confidence was a little shaken,” Miller said. "But making that 3 down the stretch from the left corner was big, both for tonight’s win and also for his confidence.
“Lauri’s gonna get out of it but he has also be able to do some the other things. We played him 28 minutes and he had two defensive rebounds. He’s 7 feet. You have to be able to get the ball. You can’t play 28 minutes and total three rebounds. He is shown that he can rebound the ball. Him rebounding on Saturday has to happen. He can rebound 10 rebounds a game and then, (if) you get a couple of second shots it’s amazing how you get your confidence back.
“I think his shooting affected his aggressiveness and we have to get him back because we’re a much better team when he rebounds the ball.”
Miller was asked if Markkanen is hitting a freshman wall of some sort.
“He’ll get better through this. Certainly he’s affected right now. When you saw him shoot free throws – those two (he missed in the second half) -- you can tell it’s bothering him a little bit. But I have no doubt he’s gonna snap out of it. He’s too good of a player and his work ethic is too good and we have to help him. Our coaching staff has to help him. We have to help him and we have to be able to get him the ball. One time when they’re in the man-to-man we finally were able to get it to him in the low post and we had a size advantage and he got fouled. We have to do that more often and I think he will adjust to how teams are playing him and so will we. I’m not as concerned about that as I am (his) three rebounds.”
Miller said there were no issues asking Kobi Simmons to go back to the bench after starting every game since Dec. 3 against Gonzaga, though Simmons clearly was one of the guys Miller wants to play better perimeter defense.
“Kobi’s attitude was fantastic; he told me he wants to win," Miller said. "I don’t really look at his role changing a whole lot. He didn’t look confident down the stretch against the zone so we went with some other guys. And like a lot of our perimeter players, you’ve gotta do a great job defending the ball. Gotta be in front of them, gotta be in a stance. You can’t get beat. The best teams in this country aren’t going to give up straight-line drives and I think we had number of players give that up. That’s a real focus for us moving forward.”
Likewise, Miller was appreciative of Trier’s offense and free-throw shooting, but wasn’t wild about Trier’s four turnovers.
“We’re a work in progress with a lot of things with him,” Miller said. “We need him more to be a consistent leader. I don’t think it’s easy to be a leader when you’ve missed 19 games. So that’s part of welcoming him back. But we don’t win the game tonight if he doesn’t play the way he played. I think everybody in this room knows how talented he is on offense. He also had seven defensive rebounds which he’s doing a great, great job there. But we need him to be great. We need him to handle the ball. We need him to protect the ball, we need him to make shots. He’s an important part for us down the stretch.”
Chance Comanche set new career highs in free throws attempted (eight) and free-throws made (seven), helping the Wildcats go 25 for 29 overall from the free throw line and taking 17 more free throws than Stanford did.
“We couldn’t have won today if Chance didn’t play the way he did,” Miller said. “He probably gave up a couple of second shots as well. Every guy on our team did. But he had six defensive rebounds and you talk about clutch free throws. I mean, he went to the line under the four-minute mark, six-minute mark and really hit some big free throws.”
Might be interesting to note that Cal beat ASU easily by deploying a zone that the Bears are nearly certain to use Saturday.
Regardless of UA's issues, the Wildcats will again be alone in first place if UCLA can beat Oregon on Thursday (8 p.m., ESPN).
Our game story is attached (the late start limited its contents) while the box score and updated stats are attached as PDFs.
