Deandre Ayton having little issue dodging fouls, wreaking havoc for Wildcats in Pac-12

Sean Miller didn’t want to talk about it, but you can easily read his angry lips on a video clip in the Twitterverse.

After standout freshman Deandre Ayton picked up an offensive foul Saturday at Stanford — his fourth in a tense, down-to-the-wire game — the Arizona coach pointed at official Tony Padilla and shouted an epithet at him. Miller then kept riding the ref after Padilla signaled for a technical foul, even as a subsequent timeout began.

Fortunately for Miller, he doesn’t have to make his case that often.

Deandre Ayton picks up his fourth foul and Sean Miller was ..... not happy. pic.twitter.com/1K13JeMW1r

— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapire) January 20, 2018

Despite being an obvious target for every team the Wildcats face, and a dominant force on both sides of the ball, Ayton has only fouled out twice this season: On Saturday at Stanford, and on Nov. 24, in the UA’s blowout loss to now third-ranked Purdue.

“Very seldom does he get in foul trouble because he’s incredibly mobile,” Miller said. “He’s also equally smart and sometimes he’ll play it safe, maybe almost too much. But when you’re him you’re used to people going at you to get you in foul trouble. He usually passes that test.”

But Ayton’s trip to the Bay Area provided a warning for the rest of the season, after he picked up a technical foul at Cal and fouled out against Stanford. And as the Wildcats begin facing Pac-12 teams a second time, starting with Colorado on Thursday, opponents’ familiarity with him will increase.

So far, though, here’s how Ayton has mostly danced around foul trouble:

Basically, says Pac-12 Networks analyst Kevin O’Neill, Ayton avoids offensive fouls simply because he’s so talented, able to weave his way in the post skillfully, shoot over traffic, or pass right out of it.

He’s also a careful rebounder.

“He’s so agile that he can avoid foul situations,” O’Neill said. “He’s an extremely, extremely good player. He’s also not one of those guys who gets a lot of over-the-back fouls on the offensive boards because he doesn’t go to the offensive glass that much.”

The way Miller describes it, Ayton might deserve more fouls from defenders than he gets because his size and agility are so unusual. After Ayton scored 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting at Cal, Miller said it’s difficult to officiate a player as physically imposing as Ayton, and said “our conference is adjusting” to him.

In other words, what might be a hard foul against a more conventionally sized player might barely look like a touch against Ayton.

“When he’s on offense it takes a lot to dislodge him,” Miller said. “I think in the 20 games we’ve played, he maybe fell down twice. For a big guy to be around the basket like he has, he’s just incredibly strong, great balance, very sure of himself, so sometimes it’s almost as if defenders can bounce off of him.

“A lesser guy physically, (a hard foul) would almost be striking at times. They’ll take the hit and it really affects the shot. So (Ayton) plays through contact really well. I think sometimes you can maybe overlook the fact that he’s been hit.”

Even though he had a shot swatted into the stands late in the first half Saturday, Stanford’s Reid Travis came back and picked up a foul on Ayton and then, according to accounts, shouted “he can’t guard me” to the Cardinal bench.

Travis may have found a rare weakness in Ayton’s game.

But it takes a special combination of size, skills and experience to successfully pick up fouls on Ayton, and the stats prove it: Ayton averages only 2.5 fouls despite playing 31.8 minutes, and has only had four or more fouls four times.

“Defensively, he’s smart and also incredibly quick,” Miller said. “You’re not used to seeing somebody that size be that mobile. I think he has a knack for being right in front of people when they shoot it — and that doesn’t mean he’s fouling you when he’s in front of you. He gets there very easily; he’s not lunging to get there.”

Travis changed that equation somewhat because he was quick and powerful enough to get into Ayton before the UA big man could avoid picking up fouls.

O’Neill, who says Ayton has “done a great job” overall of avoiding foul trouble, predicted last week on the Pac-12 Networks that Stanford has the skills up front to get Ayton in foul trouble.

“You have to have people go at him,” O’Neill said. “Reid Travis took the ball right to his chest, which is the only thing you can do. If you don’t have a lot of ability, you’ve got no chance to attack anything. But (Travis) has ability. He’s got driving skills. He’s got dribble skills.”

Since technical fouls count toward the personal foul maximum of five in the college game, there also could be some potential concern in the three technical fouls Ayton has picked up in seven Pac-12 games so far: against ASU, Oregon and Cal.

Ayton picked up his first one against ASU for contact with a Sun Devil near the basket.

“I think I got it on the ball shove,” Ayton said. “I was getting grabbed. It was an intense game, so I don’t know.”

Miller partially defended Ayton after that one, saying “Deandre’s not a guy who goes looking for problems,” but noted that he has to understand the rules better.

Ayton and Cal guard Don Coleman picked up offsetting technicals last week after a brief but apparently heated conversation following Ayton’s dunk celebration.

When asked about Ayton’s role in the tech, Miller said it was hard to officiate Ayton because he’s so physically dominant. Then Miller indicated that inside the dominant exterior is a smart, passionate and — mostly — composed interior.

“He very seldom loses it,” Miller said. “I think he got called a foul for taunting. He growled at the guy or something. You’d rather him growl and tell him not to growl than be passive, right? I don’t think he meant any harm.”