Arizona Wildcats still struggling with their shots, but improved defense led to sweep in Bay Area

Before his team entered Pac-12 play early last month, Arizona coach Sean Miller was grumbling over ill-advised and other poor shots that cost the Wildcats dearly in close losses to Baylor, Gonzaga and St. John’s.

“What percentage do you shoot?” he said then. “If you shoot 32%, that’s terrible. I can make the case you should never, ever shoot the ball from that area. It’s not a good enough shot.”

Since then, the Wildcats have shot a collective 32.5% from 3-point range in their 12 Pac-12 games, by far the worst of the league’s four top teams and the fifth-worst overall.

Is that still terrible?

“We’ve had these halves in a game, not the entire game, but a half where it’s just a head-scratcher,” Miller said Tuesday. “We go cold.”

Last weekend was a typical example. The Wildcats went 1 for 7 from 3 in the first half at Cal — the one make busting Dylan Smith out of his 0-for-18 long-range streak — while UA was just 1 for 13 in the first half at Stanford (and 2 for 8 in the second).

At Washington State on Feb. 2, Arizona went 1 for 8 in the first half from 3 and shot just 39.7% overall for the game. At ASU on Jan 25, they lost their 22-point lead in part because they went 0 for 8 from 3 in the second half.

While the Wildcats tend to shoot much better at McKale Center, that’s not a guarantee, either. In its baffling Feb. 8 home loss to UCLA, Arizona went 0 for 12 from 3 in the second half — after going 3 for 19 from two in the first half.

Chills all the way around. Especially with the Wildcats’ top two perimeter scorers: Josh Green is 8 for 30 (26.7%) from 3-point range in conference play while Nico Mannion is 17 of 59 (28.8%).

There is also a bright side to all this, Miller pointed out. The Wildcats have also proved they can win without shooting well, thanks mostly to rebounding and careful ballhandling.

They beat Washington and WSU despite shooting less than 40% overall in each game, while sweeping the Bay Area despite three horrific halves from 3: They were 1 for 7 in the first half at Cal and 3 for 21 over both halves at Stanford.

“It’s not as if we just came off this red-hot shooting streak in which our offense carried us to victory,” Miller said of the Bay sweep. “That’s the furthest thing from the way it happened. We were an improving defensive team. We outrebounded Stanford. We took care of the ball, especially at Cal. And we were able to leave with two good road wins.

“But this week my hope is that we can be a more efficient, better shooting team against both Oregon State and Oregon.”

They might have to be. Both OSU and Oregon switch defenses frequently, so being able to hit 3s that open up against a zone proved to help during their trip through Oregon last month: UA took the 14th-ranked Ducks to overtime before losing in Eugene while hitting 8 of 20 from 3-point range – but was outscored by 17 in the second half of an 82-65 loss at OSU when the Wildcats made just 2 of 10 from 3.

“When you play against the zone, obviously there’s more 3-point opportunities,” said guard Max Hazzard, who was a combined 2 for 7 from 3 on the Oregon trip last month. “Just up and down the court, you kind of know where you might be able to get shots. I wouldn’t (say it’s an advantage) but I’m definitely gonna be ready. I know shots are gonna present themselves and I’m gonna be ready to knock them down.”

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While Hazzard (37.8) and Stone Gettings (45.0) have been UA’s best regular 3-point shooters in conference play — and Smith had a combined 6-for-13 long-range effort last weekend — Mannion and Green remain mired in the sub-30s.

But Miller expressed optimism about them both. Green has been trying to take advantage of open looks as defenses focus more on trying to stop his drives – and doing so selectively, averaging just 2.5 attempts from 3 in conference games. Green missed both 3s he took at Cal and was 1 for 3 at Stanford.

“Josh took some really good shots at Stanford and Cal,” Miller said. “We want him to shoot it. He’s a good shooter. He may be a little bit more streaky but, as evidenced by a number of different games this year, you give him a couple open looks and he can knock them down.”

Miller said he challenged Green to help more on the glass last weekend, and he did: Green had six defensive rebounds in each game and two steals against Stanford, turning one steal into a coast-to-coast dunk that gave UA a 56-48 lead when the Wildcats took control late in the second half.

His defensive rebounds can similarly turbocharge the UA offense.

“One of Josh’s gifts is the open court and when he gets a defensive rebound, he pushes the ball, and a lot of good things happen when he has the ball in his hands in the open court,” Miller said. “He put himself in that position more often on the last trip by rebounding better, and it was great to see him respond.”

Miller said Mannion is a somewhat different case. The freshman point guard, still projected No. 10 in ESPN’s latest mock 2020 NBA Draft, is being asked to distribute, handle, drive and lead the Wildcats while averaging the most minutes (31.8) of anybody in conference play.

“It’s just a matter of time before Nico breaks through, similar to Dylan,” Miller said. “He can’t let what has happened over the last game or the last shot affect the shot he’s taking, or the next game or the next week.

“When you’re a young player — in particular, Nico — there’s so much pressure on him to perform. But … he does a lot of other very, very important things for our team and one of the aspects of his game that I’m the most pleased with, and I think it bodes well to his future and ours, is that he’s an improving defensive player. He defends his man better. He’s in a better position off the ball. He’s more consistent. And that’s really helped us become a better defensive team.”

Miller said Mannion also had a lot to do with the 21 points Zeke Nnaji scored in both of the Cal and Stanford games, leading the way while the Wildcats worked to get Nnaji the ball in good position to score. Nnaji combined for 14-of-23 shooting from the field in the two games while also getting to the line 20 times.

Now Mannion has to find the same sort of rhythm scoring himself from the outside.

“With Nico, it’s taking good shots, it’s watching the ball go in,” Miller said, “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this week is a big week for him.”

Rim shots

• The NCAA announced it will hold its “Section 7” high school team camp to Glendale’s State Farm Stadium for June 19-21. It was played at Phoenix high schools last summer, the first after NCAA’s changes to its recruiting calendar. The camp is scheduled to include 192 boys and 16 girls teams from around the West that have college prospects.

• Richard Jefferson is scheduled to provide analysis for the Pac-12 Networks broadcast of Thursday’s 6 p.m. Arizona-OSU game. Ted Robinson is scheduled for play-by-play.