If you didnβt know the final score Thursday, you might assume Arizona lost the way Sean Miller was talking in his postgame press conference about the Wildcatsβ efforts.
Miller talked about lackadaisical efforts in practice leading up to their 85-80 win over USC, poor free-throw shooting down the stretch, and, maybe more than anything, defensive lapses that allowed the Trojans to shoot an even 50% from the field.
βWe have a group that has a lot to learn,β he said. βWe're very fortunate to win tonight.β
So I asked him at least if this was a good kind of lesson to learn β that is, a lesson that comes when you still win the game.
βNo,β Miller said. βI think if we would have lost, it probably would have allowed them to learn more.
βYou know, it's just hard because there's so much at stake for players individually, that what they don't understand, until it's over is the respect in our game college basketball is always and has always been given to those teams, and programs that win and thrive and not win a few games but you know win , which today is harder than ever, but be able to get into that tournament and win. And when you do that, the team success just carries the individual players.
βWhen your team wins big, the accolades in the individual things that you really sometimes chase and dream of accomplishing, it really happens. But when you don't win or you win a few and you lose a few, not until sometimes that period is over do you completely understand that you're not going to get out of this what you really want.
βYou have to win and I thought although we did a number of good things tonight, there were just too many moments where we reverted to a quick shot for no reason. Time-score-situation, playing hard-nosed, great effort defensively. You have to give credit to the other team, but you don't ever want to give them one, you don't want to give them a dunk, you don't want to give them an open 3 and we struggled mightily on defense. We really reverted.β
All that was a long way of saying that the Wildcats werenβt building on their Washington road sweep into a team that can dominate, or at least sustain a higher level of play. That word βrevertβ is one Miller used in several references Thursday.
For more detail, consider how Miller answered a question about whether he was concerned with the Wildcatsβ free throw shooting (40 free throws but 12 misses).
βYou know Iβm not,β he said. βItβs confidence. We were 28 for 40. We shot 40 free throws, so that's a lot. So you shoot 70% and 40, but I think why it feels different is we missed quite a few down the stretch. But Nico (Mannion, 12 for 18 from the line) is a terrific free throw shooter. That's really the least of my worries because that will that will regain its form.
βI'm looking at USC: Theyβre 28 field goals at 50% for the game. They shot 53% in the second half. They were 6 for 17 from the 3 but they were 4 for 10 in the second half, and initially shot 24 free throws.
βThe two stats that we really honed in on, and it'll be equally big on Saturday, is our turnovers, we played the entire game with six. So our greatest strength, and we're able to rebound them 34 to 30. But that's deceiving as well because it reminds me of a couple of other games that we've played, maybe Oregon. We were really in command, maybe by a rebound margin of 10, eight, maybe even more than 10, but it creeped to four because we gave up just those killer second shots that allowed USC to stay in the game, or make a run, or hang in there. If we would have rebounded the ball down the stretch, we would have been fine. But this is game Game 22 for us. We had that problem in Game 1. So we have to just continue to work.β
FWIW, Game 1 was Arizonaβs Nov. 6 opener against NAU, when the Wildcats outrebounded the Lumberjacks just 36-32 despite winning easily by the score of 91-52.
Mannion's 18 free throws, by the way, are the fourth most in a game by a UA freshman and the most since Derrick Williams got to the line 21 times against Wisconsin in his breakout 2009-20 game in the Maui Invitational. (Williams hit only 13 of those attempts, however).
The 18 attempts are the third most by any freshman in the country this season, trailing only the 21 USC's Onyeka Okongwu took against Pepperdine and the 20 Precious Achiuwa took for Memphis against Alcott State.
Miller went with a short bench Thursday, playing Max Hazzard for just seven minutes, Christian Koloko for two and Chase Jeter for zero. Only seven guys played more than 17 minutes, the five starters plus Ira Lee and Jemarl Baker.
Miller said he didnβt play Koloko more because of the physical matchup inside but said he felt badly that he didnβt play Hazzard more after he had a strong week of practice.
βI really wish we'd have played Max more,β Miller said. β.We've kind of bounced around with him, and it's time for us to give him more of an opportunity. When he's played 16 minutes I think that gives him the best chance to be himself. And then if he plays well he can grow, that keeps us fresh.
βI think Max is just a phenomenal kid, his heart's in the right place. I feel bad because he's had a really good week of practice. I talked about our team maybe not practicing as well. That's not everybody. I thought Josh Green and Max Hazzard in particular, they gave great effort, really.β
Miller then transitioned into praising Green, who had shot just 23% over his previous three games (including an 0 for 8 game against ASU)
βI'm not surprised that all that Josh played well,β Miller said. βI really would have predicted that he would play well because of how he's approached these last 10 days and it's really great to see a freshman kind of bounce back from missing some shots but he was a big factor in our win tonight.β
Sounds like Jeter is on the outside of the entire playing rotation at least as of now. Jeter has played only 90 seconds in UAβs past six games because of apparent rebounding and back issues.
βWe were playing nine players,β Miller said when asked about Jeter. βIt's hard to play 10 and that's not to say Chase won't get the opportunity but you know we played the guys that we thought gave us the best chance here tonight. He's missed a lot of time.β
One reason for Millerβs concerns Thursday probably wasnβt just the USC game β¦ but the fact that UCLA is coming up Saturday, undoubtedly giving Miller visions of past Xavier-Cincinnati games he and Bruins coach Mick Cronin were part of when Cronin coached the Bearcats. (Though Miller took a subtle dig at Cronin at UA in 2009-10).
βI admire how hard they play,β Miller said. βAnd playing against Cincinnati, the eight times that I did, I've never been in games like that. Ever.
βThey're the hardest, nastiest games and a lot of that is just a credit to the coach, and I feel like UCLA is really going down that path and I mean that in a complimentary way. they're the number one rebounding team in our conference. They're the hardest playing team that I've seen. And they really play to win right now, they play to win.β
UCLA lost at ASU on Thursday but the Bruins were without starting forward Jalen Hill, whose status is still officially called βday-to-dayβ for Saturdayβs game.
