After his team was celebrated Thursday in San Francisco, a near-unanimous choice to win another Pac-12 basketball championship, Sean Miller got back into the coaching mode.
He told Kevin O’Neill in a Pac-12 Networks interview that the hard work starts now. “There are some things we’ve got to work out,” said Miller. “Who’s going to chase the other teams’ best scorer and shooter? Nick Johnson did that last year for 38 games and he wanted to do it. He wanted to make his mark that way.”
One of the key variables for Miller’s sixth Arizona team is to identify a defensive stopper. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, perhaps? Can Stanley Johnson effectively guard someone like Cal’s Jabari Bird or Colorado’s Xavier Johnson?
“I don’t know if anyone’s putting up their hand right now, saying, ‘Coach, I want to be the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year,” said Miller.
Johnson completed his preseason with the Houston Rockets last week. In 102 minutes, he shot poorly — 24.2 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from three-point distance. But he averaged 16 minutes per game and was generally the 10th or 11th man in a substitution pattern.
It suggests that Johnson will open the season with the Rockets on Tuesday. At some point this season, it’s likely Houston will dispatch him to the D-League to get extended minutes, though.
