After the Wildcats picked up another seven offensive fouls on Saturday against Eastern Washington, with Jordan Brown fouling out over just 18 minutes, Sean Miller was asked if the fouls were bad luck or something they were doing wrong.
His response was delivered in classic Miller form. Here's how he answered:
"My educated guess here is that we've had eight to 10 offensive fouls in two games (actually, 11). You know, we're really the only game of basketball -- (unlike) the NBA, the G League, FIBA, especially any type of play in Europe -- where the defense goes vertical, they jump straight up when they're in the cylinder.
"Sometimes the off ball defender if he's there very early, he may draw a charge. If you try to go through the on-ball defenders chest, sometimes that becomes an offensive foul, the offensive player using his arm. I think those things are called throughout.
"But college basketball is so much about running full speed and just falling down. Leaving the corners and a guy leaves his feet, sliding underneath him. Any big who's got the ball in and around the goal, as he dribbles to turn -- just fall down. I'm not even saying that to complain but we have to do a better job of drawing the charge ourselves -- on the ball, off the ball, bigs -- because it's just, I mean, it's crazy.
"It's almost like if you run into the screen, it's a foul. And if you think about 16 turnovers and fouls on both Jordan Brown and (Christian) Koloko, we had to have 5 to 7 to 8 offensive fouls, and I think we had a handful against Grambling, so we have to clean that up ourselves.
"I think we have to kind of join the party and flop. Run full speed and take fouls with our chest and slide in underneath. Any low post guy when he turns, draw the charge and teach it, because those are big plays. Those are turnovers on the offense, fouls on the other team's good player and a lot of times it erases a basket. I think we had one or two where we were rim running without the ball in transition, had our hands up, trying to get position. And if the defender just falls down, there's a chance that it's an offensive foul.
Arizona escaped Saturday afternoon with a 70-67 win over Eastern Washington at McKale Center. Head coach Sean Miller reflected on the Wildcats' win, Azuolas Tubelis' near double-double and Kerr Kriisa's eligibility status, among other topics.
"So, I mean, it's a hard game to watch. And I think it's really the only game that's really called like that. But that's the rules. That's how it's being called and I think it's something that really even (Sunday) we're going to work hard on. Again -- fall down, fall down, fall down, run into screens, run into screens. You know just, `Boom, throw your head back, draw charges instead of trying to go vertical.'Β
"And good players don't get screened. That's one of the things we (normally) try to talk about with our defense: Don't run into the screens, right? Good players don't get screened, avoid the screens, but running into them, I think, is beneficial right now the way the game is being called. And we certainly have to adjust to that. That's 100% on me."
With NAU expected to go with a smaller lineup Monday, it will be interesting to see if Miller leans more heavily on a smaller lineup of his own featuring both James Akinjo and Terrell Brown in the game at the same time.
That formula worked for the Wildcats as they pulled ahead in the late stages of Saturday's game with Eastern Washington, helping them on both ends of the floor.
It helped that Brown has already shown he can transition from being a high-volume scorer at Seattle U to an efficient playmaker at Arizona with only nine points over two games but 10 assists to three turnovers.
"That's something that he does well, and it frees James up to kind of attack the basket off the ball some," Miller said. "We did go small at the end. I thought that helped us defend the 3-point shot on defense, and it maybe allowed us to drive the ball.
"Most of our baskets down the stretch were shots right at the rim. That's what our team has to learn -- we shot some tough, off the dribble pull up twos in the first half, maybe even a couple that we made. We're not going to win shooting those types of shots. We want drives and post-ups. We want to attack so we get fouled. We want to create open wide-open one, two, step three point shots. But until we play a couple games, they're not going to be able to learn that."
New Mexico State, with a Dec. 12 date at Arizona that appears in doubt, took two buses back to Phoenix from Santa Cruz, Calif. -- both a COVID and a COVID-free bus.
