Over 12 seasons of coaching the Arizona Wildcats, Sean Miller won or shared the Pac-12 championship five times, picked up three conference tournament titles and won 69% of his Pac-12 regular-season games.
He just never made it down the Oregon Trail fully intact.
Though the Wildcats skipped the Oregon-Oregon State road swing in 2011-12 and 2015-16 because of the Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule — and had to play the Beavers and Ducks on different trips during the COVID-plagued 2020-21 season — they haven’t beaten both Oregon teams on their home floors since Russ Pennell was an interim head coach in 2008-09, the season before Miller arrived.
It was the only one of the five two-game Pac-12 road trips Arizona never swept under Miller.
Now it’s Tommy Lloyd’s turn to try.
The Wildcats played only at Oregon State last season because of the Pac-12’s still-unbalanced 20-game schedule, but this week will follow a late-night appearance at Gill Coliseum on Thursday with a Saturday-afternoon game at Oregon — where the Ducks have beaten the Wildcats five straight times.
Then again, maybe that’s just the sort of tonic Arizona needs: After a lackluster 70-67 win over Washington and a 74-61 loss to Washington State last weekend, the Wildcats now have some history to suggest they might want to take things seriously.
And if they really want to do a gut-check, the Wildcats could also look further down the calendar and notice that USC and UCLA will be greeting them upon their return to McKale Center next week. The Bruins improved to 5-0 in conference play after edging USC 60-58 last week, so UCLA is already two full games ahead of the Wildcats in the conference standings.
During his weekly radio show Monday, Lloyd said UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who has a long history in the conference as a former aide to Lute Olson, tried to put that all in perspective.
“Coach Murphy has been on me, and he just said, `Look at our next four games,’ ” Lloyd said. “Oregon State two years ago was in the Elite Eight. Oregon has been to a Final Four (2017) more recently than Arizona. ‘SC was in the Elite Eight two years ago. I know because I played against that team. (Gonzaga beat USC in the 2021 Elite Eight.) And UCLA was in that Final Four.
“So there are no games you can look past. There are no small games, and we’ve got to understand that. Those programs have maybe had more recent success than Arizona. That doesn’t mean they’re better programs, but that’s just a fact.”
Oregon State and Oregon also figure to test UA’s suddenly sputtering offense — the Wildcats went from No. 1 in offensive efficiency last week to No. 5 entering this week — with a blaze of zone defenses.
The Beavers have been known for their 1-3-1 and other zone defenses, while the Ducks will even switch between man-to-man and zone on the same possession.
“Hopefully this time of year you’ve got a little bit of experience playing (against) zone, whether it’s a 2-3 or a 1-3-1,” Lloyd said. “You just hope your guys have enough reps when you get out there and they see different looks that they can adjust quickly, even possession by possession.
“Definitely when you go to Oregon, you have to be on because you’re gonna play against multiple defenses. But if you play with great force, great fundamentals and make good decisions, usually that’s a good recipe against any defense.”
While Arizona has struggled a bit lately, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle has had his own set of problems this season.
The good news for Arizona is that both OSU and Oregon have struggled so far this season. Oregon was picked to finish third in the Pac-12 but is only 9-7 overall and 3-2 in conference play, while the Beavers are coming off three straight losses and have beaten only Washington at home in Pac-12 play so far.
OSU coach Wayne Tinkle even tried popping in two new starters Saturday at Colorado, including sophomore Christian Wright at point guard, but the Beavers still lost 62-42.
“We had to do something because we’re not playing with the toughness we needed to,” Tinkle said on his postgame radio interview. “As a staff, we said `Let’s try to find our toughest group.’ ”
Phillips to visit
New UA commit Jamari Phillips is tentatively scheduled to visit the Wildcats for their Jan. 21 game against UCLA, according to his father, James.
Phillips began playing for AZ Compass Prep last weekend after transferring from Modesto (California) Christian. Madehoops.com noted that Phillips had four 3-pointers and four assists over the first 15 minutes of a game.
“Smooth stroke from the outside,” tweeted Alex Karamanos of The Circuit.
Kier warming up in G League
Former Wildcat guard Justin Kier scored a season-high 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting with six assists for the G League’s Austin Spurs in their 114-107 win over College Park (Georgia) on Sunday.
Over five G League games so far, Kier is averaging 6.4 points and 2.8 assists while playing an average of 26.0 minutes a game.
Kier averaged 6.8 points while playing 37 games with six starts for Arizona last season. Austin took him in the second round of last October’s G League Draft.
McKale Center was built at the University of Arizona in the early 1970s. There have been updates through the years.
