LOS ANGELES – For weeks even before he took his team into Pauley Pavilion for one of the biggest upsets of his UA career, Sean Miller has said UCLA has a chance to win the national championship.
He said that again while closing up his postgame interview Saturday, too.
“UCLA is a great team,” Miller said. “I think they have a chance to win the whole thing. I really do. They’re great on offense, for sure.”
Um, well … Arizona just beat the Bruins 85-96 on their home floor.
So that must mean the Wildcats might have a chance to win it all, too, right?
Miller grinned when presented with that logic.
“We’ll see,” Miller said.
If nothing else, though, the Wildcats are bound not only to vault well into the Top 10 of the major polls on Monday but also into the basketball consciousness. Arizona has played under the national radar really all season, with few national media of any sort talking much about them except for the odd Allonzo Trier reference.
Now, attention is probably unavoidable. Arizona is 18-2, just beat the third-ranked team – which won at Kentucky – on its home floor.
That’s the kind of success that can gain attention in every time zone.
“Like I told our guys, when you come to a place like UCLA or L.A., it’s not really what you say or think, it’s what you do,” Miller said. “You earn respect through performance and today I’m sure we earned the respect of a lot of people because of how we played against a great team.”
Kobi Simmons said UA is trying to earn respect every game.
“We knew we had to gain respect and every game we’ve kept grinding and grinding, and we came up with another road sweep,” he said.
About that: UA’s sweep in Los Angeles was only its second of the Miller era in seven tries (The Wildcats did not play in L.A. in 2014-15 because of the unbalanced Pac-12 schedule), and first since 2013-14.
Moreover, the Wildcats’ four-game road sweep of California in league play is its first such sweep since 2002-03, when the Jason Gardner-Luke Walton Wildcats were ranked No. 1 for most of the season.
One of the few things about Trier that Miller did say before Trier’s PED-related suspension was lifted Friday was that Trier has practiced with the Wildcats all season.
“The one thing we’ve always done is treated him as if he could play the next game,” Miller said. “So (picking up) our offense, and the repetitions, he’s been getting those. But when you don’t play 19 games, it’s not easy to get there.”
Not only that but, according to a UA spokesman, the Wildcats practiced Friday still not knowing that Trier would be cleared to play Saturday.
Yet Lauri Markkanen, for one, found Trier’s presence a smooth transition.
“I think it was easier than I thought,” Markkanen said. “He hasn’t played a game since what, last March or something? It’s a little bit tough but I think moving forward every game is easier. It was a little bit different than practice.”
One thing about Trier that Miller appeared most excited about, on top of his obvious statistical contributions: His presence gave the Wildcats an additional quality talent to ease the pressure on his other players, keeping them fresher as the game wore on.
This especially applied to guard Kadeem Allen, because he needs all the energy he can get as the team’s top perimeter defender.
Miller indicated Trier’s presence for that reason helped UA fend off the Bruins after UCLA trimmed UA’s lead from 14 points to four in the second half.
“We’ve had a tendency this year to not be as good in the second half as we’ve been,” Miller said. “But today’s a reminder that to be good late in the game and the second half, you need depth, and part of what we’ve run into is we’ve given great effort and we run out of gas.
“Today we didn’t do that. Kadeem is great example. He played only 30 minutes and at the end of the game he was a lot fresher. Especially in the Pac-12 (that’s important) because (in the second game of the weekend) you’re coming off the heels of another game, too.”
It was only two days earlier at USC that Miller fretted repeatedly about his team’s lethargic late-game efforts, even suggesting that he might bench underperforming players to send a message – when in fact he had only three bench players at the time.
Now he has four, including Trier. That gives Miller a legitimate hook to threaten players with.
“During the long course of a season, you have injuries, you have foul trouble, you have players who maybe aren’t playing well,” Miller said. “The biggest thing from a coaching perspective is if you don't play with effort, you’re not going to play. That right there is worth a lot."
Now "that won’t be compromised because the answer is easy. You’ll just get subbed out. So you have a chance to have even greater effort level.”
The downside of having nine players all of a sudden is that chemistry could suffer if a player gets too upset over having minutes and/or shots cut. Miller said he isn’t concerned, though, because “we have an unselfish group of guys for sure,” even as he said everyone’s role will get tweaked a little.
“We’re gonna have to sacrifice,” he said. “We’ve had great team chemistry and it’s our job to continue to have that great team chemistry. Really, everyone will play a little bit less but hopefully we can accomplish more as a group.”
Here’s how Miller carved 27 minutes on to Trier’s plate Thursday:
Rawle Alkins played just 17, which is 14 fewer than his average in previous Pac-12 games.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright played 18, down from 23.
Keanu Pinder played four, down from 10.
Dusan Ristic played 22, down from 26.
However, Kobi Simmons was up to 33, three over his Pac-12 average, and Markkanan was up three to 32.
Allen’s 30 minutes was actually only a minute less than he’s averaged in conference play, as was Chance Comanche’s 17 minutes.
Our full coverage is attached to this post, as our the box score and updated stats.
