Arizona State guard Remy Martin (1) forces Arizona guard Josh Green (0) into throwing the ball away during a baseline scramble in the second half in their Pac-12 game at the Desert Financial Arena, January 25, 2020 Tempe, Ariz.

 Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

TEMPE –Max Hazzard became the latest member of the Wildcats’ do-not-play club in the second half Saturday, leaving Arizona without a sharpshooter late in the game but also without somebody UA coach Sean Miller said he had lost confidence in.

ASU continued to overcome UA’s 22-point first-half lead en route to its 66-65 win, but Miller said Hazzard drove too early inside for a layup that missed with eight seconds left in the first half – giving ASU enough time to get a fast-break layup by Remy Martin before time expired.

That pulled the Sun Devils within 13 at halftime, and ASU continued its comeback by scoring the first 10 points of the second half.

β€œI just really lost confidence by the end of the first half,” Miller said. β€œThere's a number of things as a coach that you have to get your guys to be able to do. When it's your ball at the end of the half, it doesn't matter where the game is played. You want to take the last shot. All right? You don't want to go in there and jump into somebody at 13 seconds.

"It's like β€˜What team are you playing for?’ You take the last shot. That's disciplined. That's how you win basketball games. You got to take care of the ball and we have to go with the guys that are going to play that way.”

With a deep bench allowing him to permanently sub out players he deems aren’t playing the right way, Miller sat Ira Lee and Dylan Smith both out for the second half against St. John’s on Dec. 21.

Miller also kept Lee out for the first 16 minutes at Oregon State while using center Chase Jeter only sparingly during that Oregon trip: Miller took Jeter out permanently with 13 minutes left in regulation against Oregon and didn’t play him in overtime, then gave him just 18 minutes on Jan. 12 against Oregon State, where Jeter was 3 for 5 from the field but had only one rebound and missed half of his four free throws.

Miller also did not play Jeter at all on Saturday even though he has been cleared to play. Miller said Jeter had only been through about β€œone and a half” full practices late last week after missing the Wildcats’ games with Utah and Colorado following Jeter's report of back pain in practice on Jan. 14.

β€œHe's not quite ready,” Miller said. β€œHe’s learning how to practice right now.”

While it was obvious that Nico Mannion’s foul trouble had a significant impact on the Wildcats on Saturday, Miller quickly pivoted to talking about ASU guard Remy Martin when asked if Mannion's absence contributed to UA’s lack of confidence.

β€œI mean, obviously Nico is an important part of our team,” Miller said. β€œHim getting two fouls in the first half there, that wasn't a good thing for us. But I think the other part of it is you have to give a lot of credit to Remy Martin he's a heck of a player.

"He's a winner. He does it on offense. He does it on defense. He does it game in, game out. He's got great confidence in himself. I thought he was the difference in the two teams today. He had 24 points on 17 shots. And he's a load, he really is. He's one of the best guards in our conference and he's one of the best guards in college basketball.”

Mannion sat out the final five minutes of the second half, leaving with UA ahead by 19 and just before the Wildcats reached a high point when Dylan Smith hit a 3-pointer to give them a 22-point lead – but ASU trailed by just 13 by the time Mannion returned at the beginning of the second half.

When Mannion picked up his fourth foul with 10 minutes left, UA led by two and, when he returned with 4:18 to go, the Sun Devils had just taken their first lead of the second half.

During those 11 combined minutes Mannion sat, the Sun Devils outscored UA by nine.

When asked if it was tough for the Wildcats to move the ball without Mannion, Smith said:

β€œWe’ve got other guards on our team. They disrupted us when Nico was in the game as well. We just gotta do a better job taking care of the ball as a unit, and hopefully we'll get a road win here soon next week.”

After news of Kobe Bryant's death surfaced, Mannion and former UA center Dusan Ristic posted tributes and perspective on Twitter.

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