EUGENE, Ore. — Escorted closely by a police officer and a staffer, Arizona coach Sean Miller bolted angrily from the Wildcats’ locker room about 10 minutes after Thursday’s game, offering a few colorful words for no one in particular.
Or, maybe, for everyone. Especially the officials.
After his postgame radio show, Miller returned to speak with reporters in a more calm and measured tone. But the bitterness did not disappear completely.
Arizona had lost 74-73 to Oregon in overtime at Matthew Knight Arena despite jumping ahead strongly out of the gate, leading for 33 minutes and by up to 11 points while getting strong performances from all four of its freshmen.
The Wildcats generally played well at the home of the nation’s ninth-ranked team in what was really their first true road test of the season but lost for the fourth time in six games.
All four losses have come by five or fewer points, adding to the frustration.
“You can play hard and lose,” guard Dylan Smith said. “That’s the biggest lesson to learn. We’ve got a lot of young guys who played their hearts out. We still came up short. But it goes to show that so many plays in the game, missed free throws and things like that, can affect the game.”
Missed free throws. Turnovers. Rebounds that slipped into Oregon hands. Calls.
And, especially for Miller, non-calls.
“Yeah,” Miller said, when asked if Zeke Nnaji was fouled on the final shot of regulation, a 15-footer just right of the free-throw line. “They hit him. But the call’s either going to be made or it wasn’t, so … ”
Wildcats Jake DesJardins, left, and Christian Koloko react after the UA didn’t get a call during overtime against Oregon.
With the score tied at 66 entering the final seconds of regulation, Nico Mannion took several seconds off the clock before driving to the free-throw line and flipping a short pass to Nnaji, who fired up the sort of midrange jumper he rarely misses.
It was way off the mark. One ESPN replay angle indicated that Oregon guard Payton Pritchard at first cleanly blocked the shot, though possibly swiped his arm on Nnaji on the way down. Another angle was more inconclusive.
ESPN analyst Bill Walton initially said it looked like “hand-in-wrist,” but then later backed off somewhat.
“He got something,” Walton said, “because the ball turned out to not even be close.”
Miller angrily lit into the officials after the play and, in his postgame remarks, offered a subtle critique.
“Didn’t hit the rim,” he said of Nnaji’s shot. “That could have been a foul, but they didn’t call it.”
But, as Miller has often noted after close games, there are always countless other plays that matter, too.
What if Josh Green caught Mannion’s inbounds pass in the final seconds under UA’s basket, then fired in a game-winner, instead of Pritchard stealing it and running out the clock?
What if Smith hadn’t so quickly skidded a pass into the Oregon cheerleaders instead of Nnaji when the Ducks led 72-71 with 32 seconds left in overtime?
What if the Wildcats had been able to better set their defense after Green’s steal and layup with 21 seconds left, instead of having Oregon’s Will Richardson maneuver around Green on the way to a game-winning bank shot at the other end of the floor?
“I knew the best chance we had was get it out of the net and go,” Richardson said. “They’re a young team so they’re not used to getting back without celebrating. I just knew it was now or never.”
Arizona head coach Sean Miller welcomes guard Josh Green (0) onto the court as the Wildcats are introduced to the Oregon crowd at Matthew Knight Arena, January 9, 2020.
The what-ifs came even earlier, too.
What if Arizona had been able to grab a loose ball in the middle of the Oregon offense near the end of regulation, instead of letting the Ducks recover and Pritchard to eventually hit a game-tying step-back jumper over Mannion with 28 seconds left in regulation?
Miller said there were six to eight critical plays in total that could have gone either way. Several of them were actually in the middle of the game, when Arizona’s 10-point lead with 4:46 left in the first half flipped into a two-point deficit less than a minute into the second half.
“Oregon got more of those plays, made more of those plays, and in a game like the one we just played, in many ways that can decide it,” Miller said. “Did we make a lot of great plays? No doubt. But those six, eight plays — rebounding, scrum for the ball, loose balls at the top of the key … it just seemed like they were better than us in those plays.”
Miller tried to adjust. He turned even more heavily to his three standout freshmen, with Mannion scoring 20 points on 9-for-17 shooting in 42 minutes played, Green adding 17 points in 37 minutes and Nnaji collecting 11 points and 14 rebounds in 39 minutes.
Even freshman reserve center Christian Koloko chipped in four rebounds over 10 minutes.
Miller also made subtractions. He wound up so frustrated with senior center Chase Jeter, who went 0 for 3 with only one rebound in 12 minutes, that he benched the senior center for good with over 13 minutes left in regulation.
“He didn’t get it done,” Miller said.
It was reminiscent of how Miller didn’t play either Smith or Ira Lee for the entire second half on Dec. 21 against St. John’s, with the additional depth of the current Wildcats allowing Miller to have a quick (or permanent) hook if needed.
“We’re only playing guys who are going to help us win the game, and if you’re not up to the task, we’re moving on to the next player,” Miller said after Thursday’s game. “We did it when we played St. John’s and that’s fair when you have a highly competitive environment every day, and you have a lot of players on the team that can do things and contribute.
“We went tonight with the guys we thought gave us a chance to win. And we had a chance to win.”
