Maybe someday when the Arizona Wildcats are hurting with injuries and foul trouble, or maybe when they just need another a key offensive rebound from the wing, they’ll miss Devonaire Doutrive.
But at least in their first game permanently without the bouncy sophomore guard, in Arizona’s 104-67 win over Long Beach State on Sunday, the Wildcats’ shorter perimeter rotation was actually more effective.
Arizona coach Sean Miller, who dismissed Doutrive on Friday for reasons he would not discuss, spread the extra minutes around by giving Jemarl Baker a total of 20, Max Hazzard 18 and Dylan Smith 21.
The 20 minutes were a season high for Baker, who responded with 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting, seven assists and only one turnover.
Hazzard poured in all 14 of his points with 4-for-6 3-point shooting in the second half, when Smith ran into foul trouble because he and Long Beach State’s Trever Irish were called for technicals when they slapped the ball hard into each other’s chests.
The regular rotation was tighter and more efficient, now just nine guys, which is the most Miller has ever used anyway.
“It’s hard to sub in and out of games,” Miller said. “Depth sounds good on the front end but everybody has to sacrifice a little bit, playing nine or 10 players.”
The results were particularly striking for both Baker and Hazzard. A transfer from Kentucky who never really got off the ground with those Wildcats over two seasons in part because of injuries, Baker’s performances continued to improve to the point where he was almost Nnaji-esque on the perimeter Sunday.
While freshman forward Zeke Nnaji continued with his torrid efficiency inside, gathering 21 points on 9-for-13 shooting, Baker missed only one shot, picked up three steals and turned the ball over only once against seven assists.
For the season so far, Baker has only two turnovers against 22 assists.
“His assist-to-turnover ratio is just off the charts,” Miller said. “Matter of fact, he had a turnover tonight, it was just crazy. I looked out there thinking, ‘I think that’s only his second turnover of the season.’
“It’s hard to get mad at a guy who’s taking care of the ball as well as he has.”
Hazzard, meanwhile, crammed his best effort of the young season into a single half. After shooting 38.8% from 3-point range last season, including 5 for 11 in the Anteaters’ NCAA Tournament upset of Kansas State, Hazzard entered Sunday’s game shooting just 26.7% from long range (4 of 15).
But just in the second half Sunday, he doubled his total 3-pointers made for the season.
“Felt good, man, something I’ve grown accustomed to,” Hazzard said. “I haven’t shot the ball as well as I wanted to thus far this year. But it’s a small sample size, long season, and I like my chances.”
It might have taken a little motivation from Miller to revive that confidence. After he lectured the Wildcats about taking poor shots and not feeding Nnaji the ball enough in a 71-64 win over South Dakota State on Thursday, Miller said the Wildcats appeared “tight” early Sunday in part because they tried too hard to force the ball inside.
On the perimeter, Hazzard didn’t take a single shot and missed both free throws he took in the first half, while turning the ball over three times.
“More than anyone he just didn’t look right in the first half, I think,” Miller said. “I don’t want to say he lost confidence as much as I think he just he wanted to play well so badly that it can work against you.
“I pulled him aside going into the locker room and just told him like, ‘Look, shoot the ball, play with confidence, be who you are.’ I’m not saying that’s why it happened — I hope that’s why it happened – but he’s among the best shooters that I have seen, and you saw him get going in the second half. He really can give us that scoring lift off the bench.”
Maybe it wasn’t that specific talk but Hazzard noted the support he’s received at UA despite his slow start.
“I’ve got a team that believes in me, I’ve got a coaching staff that believes in me,” Hazzard said. “I believe in myself as well so I’ve always had an extraordinary amount of confidence shooting the basketball.”
So even while Smith played just six more minutes after he picked up his fourth on the technical three minutes into the second half, things worked out for the Wildcats.
They turned a five-point halftime lead into a 37-point blowout.
“Each game is different,” Miller said. “I think the score dictates (the subs), who’s playing well, who isn’t, foul trouble. For us, we can let guys play a little longer with foul trouble.
“I don’t know if that makes sense but the penalty for getting a guy with three or four (fouls) isn’t maybe as dire as it is if you only play six players.”
They just won’t have quite as many players anymore.
When asked if if there was any correlation with his decision to dismiss Doutrive and his disappointment in Thursday’s game — or any follow-up meeting or attitude involved with Doutrive — Miller said only: “No, no, I mean I gave a pretty thorough statement, and that’s really all I have to say about that.”
Miller’s statement Friday was three sentences long, citing as a reason only that Doutrive was dismissed “for violation of team rules.”
Hazzard said the players found out about the decision as everyone else did, and that Doutrive is a “really good guy and a really good player.”
But he, too, was also willing to move on.
“Coach always preaches whether somebody is injured or somebody is out it’s a next-man-up mentality,” Hazzard said. “That’s something you just gotta keep carrying forward. We’ve got a great group of guys. We’re blessed to be as deep as we are. So we just want to try to keep this train rolling and keep doing what we do.”
Miller, wife donate AC system to Tucson Boys and Girls Club
When a bleacher full of young Tucson Boys and Girls Club members were asked Monday if they liked visiting the club to play in the gym, virtually all of them raised their hands.
When they were asked if they liked doing so in the summer, only about half did.
That’s why Miller and wife Amy gave an unspecified six-figure donation to pay for a new air-conditioning system and completely refurbished floor at the Roy Drachman Clubhouse on off South 12th Avenue.
Sean Miller said he and Amy were attending the club’s annual Steak and Burger fundraiser when they asked how they could help, and they were made quickly aware that the club’s swamp cooler wasn’t quite cutting it.
“It was the need of the facility,” Miller said. “It really impacts their ability to walk in the building. If you think about how life works for young people, spring, summer months that’s when they have the most idle time. Yet in Tucson that’s when it’s the hottest. So being able to just have the building be cooler and a facility that’s newer and nicer, I think will serve a lot of these young people well.”
Debbie Wagner, CEO of the Tucson Boys and Girls Club, said the Drachman Clubhouse has about 700 members, with 120-170 passing through every day during the school year with about 200 on summer days. Members are charged only $20 per school year.
Miller told the youth members that he couldn’t even tell them how often he’d recruited players who had started playing basketball at Boys and Girls clubs.
“In the summer, where it’s really, really hot where they live, they escaped the heat by coming into a gymnasium and playing a basketball game,” Miller told them. “It grew and guess what? They used that opportunity to become a University of Arizona player.”
Rim shots
• Arizona remained at No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll with its two wins. There are no ranked teams in the Wooden Legacy event the Wildcats will play in this week, opening Thursday against Pepperdine.
• Over its six games so far, Arizona has forced 122 turnovers, the most ever of a Miller-coached team at UA. The second-best total was 101 over the first six games of the 2012-13 season.
• USC forward Onyeka Okongwu was named Pac-12 freshman and player of the week Monday after averaging 25.0 points on 58% shooting with 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks in the Trojans’ win over Pepperdine and loss to Temple. UA had nominated Nico Mannion for both awards.
