Maybe it was fitting for the Arizona Wildcats that, in the final minutes of their 2016-17 season, Allonzo Trier largely had the ball in his hands.
Their season, which ended with a loss to Xavier on Thursday in the Sweet 16, was defined by their ever-passionate sophomore wing as much as anyone.
There was the opaque way Arizona handled his 19-game suspension, with the school refusing to even categorize why he was out and Trier later wondering why nobody looked into what it felt like to be him. Fans and media alike wondered for 19 games if he would return that game, the next game or the game after that.
Trier did return Jan. 19, having finally tested clean of a still-unnamed substance that trigged a positive PED test before the season.
That bisected Arizona’s season. With Trier back, the Wildcats meshed well enough to tie for the Pac-12 regular-season title and win the Pac-12 Tournament before they dropped out midway through a preferential NCAA Tournament path to a home state Final Four appearance.
Arizona was 17-2 without Trier, and 15-3 with him.
Bisected.
Maybe better with him. Maybe not. Or maybe about the same.
Whatever the case, Arizona’s best moments this season undisputedly did happen with Trier on the floor.
In Trier’s first game after he was cleared, the Wildcats picked up what was arguably their biggest win of the season, a 96-85 win at UCLA. Back then, Arizona had probably its best chemistry and offensive rhythm of the season, dishing 15 assists, shooting 50 percent from the field and making 9 of 20 3-pointers.
During a five-game midseason stretch that included the UCLA game, UA averaged 16.6 assists and shot 45 percent from the 3-point range. Over their last four games, the Wildcats averaged 10.8 assists and shot 32 percent from 3-point range, including seven 3s out of a season-high 27 long-range attempts against Xavier.
While Trier’s contributions gradually grew to where he became a starter after five games and then UA’s leading scorer, averaging 22.1 points and 60.4 percent 3-point shooting from Feb. 16 to the Pac-12 Tournament final on March 11, some other pieces broke down.
Most notably, UA’s expected NBA lottery pick, Lauri Markkanen, dropped from a 50.5 percent 3-point shooter through Jan. 29 to hitting just 14.2 percent over a four-week stretch from Feb. 4 to March 4.
Markkanen recovered in part by producing more offense and rebounding around the basket, even picking up the Pac-12 Player of the Week award on Feb. 20 for his play in a road sweep of Washington despite making just 1 of 6 3-pointers that weekend. Coach Sean Miller praised him for his expanded offensive game and an improving defense that prompted Miller to put Markkanen on dangerous Saint Mary’s big man Jock Landale in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Markkanen, already an international junior star while playing for his native Finland last summer, acknowledged that his year at Arizona has helped round out his game. He is projected as the No. 8 NBA Draft pick in June by Draft Express.
“I’m trying to focus on different things, rebounding the ball, playing defense,” Markkanen said during his shooting slump, later noting: “I can’t just rely on my jump shot. I can’t be only around the basket.”
But while Markkanen was an all-around offensive force in the Wildcats’ Pac-12 Tournament run, he went just 3 for 9 from the field on Thursday and didn’t take a single shot for the final 11 minutes.
Also developing down the stretch was the curious all-but-disappearance of Kobi Simmons. The McDonald’s All-American and still-projected 2017 NBA Draft pick averaged just 6.1 minutes and 1.9 points in UA’s final seven games.
It was difficult to read into what exactly happened. Miller said on Selection Sunday that Simmons’ attitude “has been incredible,” while Simmons offered only limited words when asked during the NCAAs about his drastically limited role.
“Just playing hard and doing my job,” Simmons said, while reading his phone in his locker stall following a six-minute appearance against Saint Mary’s.
Simmons declined to comment on whether he’ll return or turn pro, but Draft Express pegs him as the No. 49 pick in this June’s NBA Draft.
At the same time, the Wildcats had plenty of things go well after Trier returned.
While winning 11 of 12 games since their Feb. 4 blowout loss at Oregon, the Wildcats saw Chance Comanche carve out an important backup post role despite again having considerable talent, seniority and size ahead of him in the rotation. Kaleb Tarczewski and Ryan Anderson blocked his path in 2015-16, while it was Dusan Ristic and Markkanen starting ahead of him this season.
Nevertheless, Comanche averaged nearly starter’s minutes (19.3) in Pac-12 play, and averaged 7.2 points and 3.6 rebounds while shooting 59.3 percent in conference games.
He used the competition in practice to help his production in games.
“Guys on my team pushed me every day,” Comanche said. “They made sure I was locked and focused and ready for whatever was going to be thrown at me or the team in general. Once I started doing that, it made me want to push myself and become that player everyone knows I’m capable of being so I can help the team.”
Arizona also rode the increasing leadership of Kadeem Allen all season, from his coast-to-coast game-winner on the first day of the season against Michigan State, through his exhausting high-minute efforts when the UA backcourt was shorthanded in nonconference play, through a broken pinkie that cost him two games in February.
Miller only wished his journey would have gone further.
“There’s never been anybody — and we’ve had some great players, great kids at Xavier and Arizona — who means more to me, that embodies the good in college basketball than Kadeem Allen,” Miller said after the Xavier game. “And that’s always the hardest part, when you know that his time is up.”
Allen returned the sentiment.
“It hurts to not put the jersey on again and play for coach Miller and with these guys,” Allen said.
Miller gave an upbeat postgame address that reminded Allen and his teammates that they won 32 games and a Pac-12 championship.
When it was all done, Trier, too, called it a success.
Even if their road ended in San Jose, not Glendale.
“We had a great year, a tremendous year,” Trier said. “A year that will have a lot of memorabilia and history that will be in McKale, on the walls and in the locker room. It’s just tough because we all had our sights on the Final Four.
“That was what we talked about and we believed it. We knew it was something we could do and then our journey kind of got cut short. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We weren’t going to walk there. Nobody was going to let us go to a Final Four just because it’s in Phoenix. It doesn’t work like that.”
