Arizona-NAU postgame: On Rebel rematch, Tolly's gift and Miller's Ts

By the time UA coach Sean Miller sat down to discuss Arizona’s blowout win over NAU on Wednesday, he had already heard the score: ASU 66, UNLV 56.

That meant two things to him: One, that UA's Jan. 3 Pac-12 opener at Tempe may be tougher than everyone initially believed and, two, that UNLV was in another tough game against another Pac-12 team, having lost to UCLA by two points in Maui and beating Oregon by 11 in Las Vegas.

Miller said he expects Saturday’s game with the Rebels to be just as tough.

“What Arizona State did to them in the second half (coming back from a 37-25 halftime deficit), that’s really impressive, especially doing that away from home,” Miller said. “We have a quality conference we’re getting ready for, and the game on Saturday is your classic big game. It’s on Saturday night. They beat us a year ago. We had four losses a year ago and one of the four came at UNLV. We know they’re really a talented team and play very hard on defense and they’re going to be ready.

“So I’m anxious to watch what happens with them tonight and get ready over the next couple of days. We’re going to have to play our best basketball to beat UNLV especially with where we’re at. We’re playing shorthanded, and we don’t have room for error. Everybody has to be able to get the job done, take care of the ball, match their athleticism and their effort, and again feed off of our home crowd here at McKale.”

The two players UA brought in for postgame interviews, Mark Tollefsen and Kadeem Allen, didn’t play in last year’s game at UNLV. But Allen made the trip as a redshirt.

“It was strange,” Allen said. “It was a close game the whole game and at the end they just pulled it out .. it was a feeling at the end that really hurt everyone on the inside and that’s what made us bounce back winning those games in a row.

“We have people on the team from last year who went through that pain and they know what it feels like so it’s revenge.”

So where are the Wildcats really at? Even for a team that beat their opponent by 55 points, they’re still not where Miller wants them.

Even though they continue to play without Kaleb Tarczewski (foot stress reaction) and Elliott Pitts (unspecified), the Wildcats still didn’t show the kind of defensive effort and offensive cohesion Miller wanted early against the Lumberjacks.

“In the first half, a lot of NAU’s success against our defense had a lot to do with a lack of concerted effort, a lack of following the rules of our defense and we talked a lot about that at halftime,” Miller said. “It’s something for us to learn and build from. There’s no more games on our schedule you’re going to look at and say, `Hey, let’s sharpen up here in this game.’ Every game moving forward has great meaning and we’re not too far away from our conference season beginning.”

Miller said he also spoke to the team at halftime about playing more team ball.

“I definitely did,” Miller said. “I did it because I thought the Santa Clara game was (similar to) maybe the first 12 minutes, where you start hunting shots and it doesn’t look right – and the first thing that goes is defense, you kind of see it, and feel it. No team, especially this season, is good enough to overcome that type of mentality. We don't play 82 games. We play a 31-game schedule, and every one of those games at McKale, I mean we’re going to snap our finger, and have nine left. So we can’t take a half off, a play off, a game off.

“We have to stand for something and for us one thing we can always control is our togetherness and effort defensively. We know how to do it. It’s up to us to go out there and when we don’t do that, we’re a very vulnerable team. What’s going to allow us to have the most successful season we can have is by us continuing to develop defensively into a rock-solid terrific team and our offense just keeps growing and growing.

“Eventually, we’ll get Kaleb back and he’ll be part of the solution, because he knows what to do and how to do that. But we’re not there yet and we have to be able to keep improving.”

Miller doesn’t have a problem getting Mark Tollefsen to play team ball, even though Tollefsen is in his first and only season with the Wildcats.

“That is Mark’s gift,” Miller said. “Even when he doesn’t score, he really moves the ball well. He knows how to play well with others. We’ve actually tried to get across to him to be more aggressive. If you look at his two-point shooting, I can make the argument that it’s our best shot. I think it’s understated how efficient he is in and around the basket and he has knack for second shots.”

Miller then smiled as he continued.

“We want him to be more aggressive. We’re gonna take some of Allonzo’s blood and give it to Mark. Take some of Mark’s blood and give it to Allonzo. And we’re going to have the perfect offense.”

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Allen has averaged 22.5 minutes over the two games since he suffered a sprained ankle.

It hasn’t been easy, even if his numbers don’t show it. Allen still works with UA trainer Justin Kokoskie every day on the ankle.

“It’s still painful. It’s still store,” Allen said. “Just have to play through it. Become a man. . I don’t want to let my team down, so I do what I have to do out there on the court to help my team win.”

Miller took the blame for his technical foul in the first half, saying he was probably “begging” for a call. He doesn't get T’d up too often, though, and may still believe that one particular technical (maybe this one) really wasn’t his fault…

“It’s been a while” since getting a technical, Miller said. “There’s been one for sure, I think, I’m not sure I deserved it. Maybe I am sure. But other than that it’s been a long time, I think, since I’ve gotten one and hopefully I won’t get another one the rest of the year.

“I’m always a better coach when I’m coaching the team and not worried about the officials.”

While Dusan Ristic struggled again at the free-throw line (2 of 5), he had another effective game overall, with 10 points, six rebounds, one assist, two steals with one turnover.

Miller wants him to not force things, however.

“What we’re trying to get across to him is if he’s more patient and makes the simple pass. … he’s had too many turnovers trying to make the home run pass or almost get the assist directly out of the post,” Miller said. “If you’re starting to watch him he’s being simpler with his approach. He’s got great hands and he can score.

“His improvement is incredible when you consider where he would have been last year in December. So my hope is that he just continues to grow and when we get Kaleb back we’re really gonna have a lot of great types of combinations of players, being able to play them together some and being able to get them in for each other. We’re looking forward to that, and hopefully that time will come for us.”

Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin Badgers ended the past two Arizona seasons in Elite Eight battles and now...

“I’m not gonna get a third one,” Miller said.

Seriously, Miller said about Ryan’s retirement:

“We lost in a good way one of the game’s great coaches, somebody who’s done it his way for a long, long time. And he did it his way. He took the University of Wisconsin and and really -- 14 NCAA tournaments in a row? He’ll be in the Hall of Fame and deservedly so."

Our full coverage of Wednesday’s game: A game story on UA’s dominant effort, sidebar on the Wildcats’ post advantage, Greg Hansen’s column on Jack Murphy and a photo gallery.

The box score is attached as a PDF.