Especially with Allonzo Trier back, the Arizona Wildcats are a team with few flaws, but one of them was sorely exposed early against Washington on Sunday.
The Wildcats flubbed nine turnovers against a zone defense in the first half of their 77-66 win over the Huskies and five of them were by point guards Kadeem Allen and Parker Jackson-Cartwright.
Over both halves, Allen had five turnovers and Jackson-Cartwright had three. While Allen was notably productive overall, with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists plus defense against Washington star guard Markelle Fultz, Jackson-Cartwright had no assists and no points while UA coach Sean Miller played him just 13 minutes.
Miller expressed more concern at his weekly news conference Monday that the Wildcats need to better solve zone defenses, yet had optimism about his point guard combination.
“It was just a function of the game,” Miller said of limiting Jackson-Cartwright’s minutes, “and he did some good things. But like Kadeem, he had some turnovers. We had eight turnovers between the two of them yesterday and that really hurt us but that doesn’t happen often.
“Parker, in particular, does a great job of taking care of the ball. I like our point guard position. I think the two of them complement each other well and obviously Kadeem plays off the ball some, too.”
The Wildcats’ plan entering the season was to take Allen off the ball completely, allowing him to focus on defense and scoring while Jackson-Cartwright and freshman Kobi Simmons handled the ball, but one thing after another keeps pulling Allen back to the point.
Simmons wasn’t initially ready to play the point, putting Allen into early action there, while Jackson-Cartwright’s injury in December put more burden on him. Now, even with Jackson-Cartwright nearly back to full health (Miller said his reduced minutes Sunday were not a result of injury), Allen is still carrying a heavy playmaking responsibility.
Not surprisingly, while Allen spoke of how Trier’s return is helping the Wildcats’ ability to get rest, he said it has not impacted him personally.
Whatever player is at the point, and the rest of Arizona’s offense, will need to be ready for some more zone on Thursday at Oregon State. Miller and Allen said being less tentative will make a big difference.
“Our turnovers were against a 2-3 zone. Our turnovers weren’t against a pressing, trapping team or a denial team that likes to turn the ball over,” Miller said. “A lot of our turnovers were just a tentative team attacking the zone and Washington, to their credit, did a nice job with the zone.”
Trier likely to start
After playing Trier for 33 minutes on Sunday, Miller indicated he’s all but ready to insert the sophomore guard back into the Arizona Wildcats’ starting lineup for this first time since last season.
He just has to figure out which player to remove, most likely either Kobi Simmons or Rawle Alkins.
“In fairness to both Allonzo and our team, he’s playing starter’s minutes and there’s no reason to not let that happen,” Miller said. “But somebody’s gonna have to be taken out of the lineup and that’s not easy when you’re 20-2. But that’s all part of the sacrifice that we have to be able to make as a team.
“Whoever it is, it’s not like they’re getting benched or Allonzo’s so much better. It’s more along the lines of they’re still going to be a valuable player … Whoever that person is — I don’t think we’ve decided that — but that doesn’t mean they’ve done anything wrong.”
Miller said the player who gets taken out of the lineup will continue to play the same number of minutes but just won’t be on the floor at the beginning of the game. As it was Sunday, Miller inserted Trier immediately after Simmons picked up his first foul just 2:09 into the game. Miller often doesn’t remove a starter until after the first media timeout and he said inserting Trier so early was an example of how difficult it is to cram in the warranted minutes when a player is coming off the bench.
“Substitution patterns are awkward when somebody is playing 30 minutes and they’re not starting,” Miller said. “I actually think it could make our team’s chemistry better, our overall play a little bit more efficient if we make that change. That’s why we’ll do it. We’re not going to do it to hurt anybody’s feelings or make Allonzo feel better. It would be the right thing for our team and if it’s the right thing for our team, that’s what we have to do.”
Simmons has averaged 29.1 minutes in Pac-12 play, with 11.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Alkins is averaging 28.4 minutes, with 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds.
Friendly rivals
Washington guard Markelle Fultz sounded like he could have ruffled Allen’s feathers a bit when he said of the UA guard after Sunday’s game that “I don’t feel like he bothered me. I still got to the rim.”
But Allen, who helped make Fultz work hard for his 16 points (on 23 shots), shrugged it off Monday.
“We’re very close friends so it was a fun and competitive game,” he said.
Allen said he and Fultz became close when the Maryland guard took a recruiting visit to Arizona and kept in touch even after Fultz committed to the Huskies.
Rim shots
• Arizona moved up two spots to No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, while Gonzaga took over the No. 1 spot.
• USC’s Shaqquan Aaron was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week after scoring 23 points in the Trojans’ upset of UCLA last week.
