Stanley Johnson took one shot in the final 16 minutes of Arizona’s calamity at Oregon State. One shot. And it’s not like he was being guarded by Ron Artest or Andre Iguodala or had his right arm in a cast.
I don’t know if that’s what triggered Sean Miller’s 12-minute critique on Tuesday, a candid discourse in which he talked about statistics, selfishness and outsiders getting into his player’s heads.
But I do know that college basketball has changed so thoroughly from the game many of us grew up with that it’s surprising more teams — most teams — aren’t infested with chemistry issues.
In the UA’s 68-54 punch out of Colorado on Thursday night, Arizona had 57 possessions before Miller cleared the bench. That’s down about 20 from the Lute Olson years, when there was rarely an open dialogue about selfishness and statistics.
Today, there aren’t enough available shots to make and keep everybody happy.
But because basketball can be such a me-me-me game, people argue about “touches,” of all things. The NBA has made “touches” the statistic of the moment. Through last week, Kevin Durrant had 58 touches per game, Carmelo Anthony 69, James Harden 76.
On Thursday, Stanley Johnson had 53 touches on his team’s 57 possessions. He took a career-high 15 shots and scored a college-best 22 points.
I didn’t think he forced a single shot. He let the game come to him, which is to his credit — and to his coach’s effectiveness — halfway through their first season together.
In the Olson days, those numbers would have been more like 20 shots and 32 points, and Johnson would’ve had probably 70 touches.
No one would have told him he needs to shoot more to get to the NBA.
If Johnson was irked by his diminished role at OSU, he’s got a good poker face.
“I was in foul trouble; I felt I was out of rhythm. I’m not a selfish player,” he said Thursday night. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t open. It was just the best thing to do. If you sacrifice yourself like that, that’s how your team wins.”
Keeping a player happy at the elite level of college basketball might be a coach’s biggest challenge.
More shots?
“We’re not that kind of team,” said Johnson. “We’re a really well-rounded team.”
Johnson leads Arizona with an average of nine shots a game. Yes, nine. Last year at Mater Dei High School he averaged 18.6 shots per game.
Nine shots a game? There were nights when UA assistant coach Damon Stoudamire had that many before he worked up a good sweat. The man who knows the most about shooting at McKale Center is probably Herman Harris, Class of ’77, who that season averaged 18.9 shots per game.
Harris sits in the cheap seats at McKale on most nights. He was a pure shooter among pure shooters, and since he exhausted his eligibility all those years ago, no UA player has ever matched his shots-per-game totals.
Sean Elliott’s season high was 15.1. Michael Dickerson has the most in the post-Harris days, at 16.7 during Arizona’s national championship season.
Stan the Man shoots barely half as much as Dickerson did.
Those who contend Johnson hasn’t bought into Miller’s team-first concept, and that he is one unhappy dude, were certainly wrong Thursday.
He was spot-on and under control. Of those 53 touches, he had a single turnover.
The basketball statistics of the 21st century can be silly, sort of like a lot of baseball’s sabermetrics. The old-time numbers continue to carry the most clout. Points and rebounds.
“Stanley had 22 points, eight rebounds and he makes it look easy sometimes,” said Miller. “He was a dominant offensive player.”
If you get 22-and-8 in modern college basketball, you are a beast. On Thursday, it was Johnson, more than Colorado shooter Askia Booker, who had 30 points, who was a beast.
Booker dominated the ball, but no one else on his team scored more than eight points. Johnson’s willingness to play within the system allowed Kaleb Tarczewski and Elliott Pitts to combine for 26 points.
The Booker-or-nothing approach only gets you so far.
Miller’s lasting commentary on the OSU debacle was that a team can be betrayed if “you’re more worried how the game’s going for you than for the team as a unit.”
On Thursday, the Wildcats were a unit.
But beating an out-manned Colorado team is one thing. Beating No. 8 Utah, a club that goes nine players deep in quality, is another.
“Utah is the best team in the Pac-12,” Miller said Thursday, which was a good way to challenge his team’s manhood. “We’re going to have to upset them in McKale.”
When was the last time an Arizona coach said that? Maybe 1984? Maybe a time or two in the Kevin O’Neill year?
One thing we know: Arizona isn’t going to beat the Utes with Stanley Johnson taking one shot in the final 16 minutes.
