In nearly eight years since he took over the Arizona Wildcats, Sean Miller says, heβs aimed to maintain traditions that former coach Lute Olson set.
But there was always one, he said after the UA lost 77-72 to UCLA on Saturday, that struck him a little bit risky.
βI found it strange that we would do Senior Night after a game because Senior Night is a big deal,β Miller said, βand, man, what happens if you lose? And then I think it became obvious that that doesnβt happen a lot around here.β
It did, finally, on Saturday.
They lost for the first time on Senior Night under Miller after the Bruins turned 14 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points while zoning the Wildcat offense into stagnation, meaning senior guard Kadeem Allen and the Wildcats had to hold their emotions together after their 21-game homecourt winning streak was snapped and they were pushed back into a tie with Oregon atop the Pac-12 at 15-2.
Whatβs more, the loss appeared to be painful, literally, for Allen. He was seen holding his dislocated right pinkie on his right (shooting) hand several times throughout the game β and was essentially forced into throwing up a wildly errant 3-point shot with eight seconds left that could have tied the game at 75.
The UA didnβt make Allen available for comment after the game, but Miller said Allenβs shot was hardly his fault as much as Arizonaβs inability to keep UCLA from getting second shot after second shot, especially in a second half when the Bruins overcame a four-point halftime deficit in part by collecting nine of their 14 offensive boards.
βRight now heβs playing on one hand and did the best he could,β Miller said. βObviously, heβs a warrior but I think thatβs probably as disappointing as anything, that he wasnβt able to be at full speed.β
Allen, clearly, was not the guy the UA wanted to take a 3-pointer when it desperately had to. The Wildcats made just 5 of 18 from 3-point range during the game, after making 11 of 20 on Thursday against USC, and their first look was to Lauri Markkanen, even though the Finnish big man has been slumping from the perimeter in recent weeks.
But they also didnβt have a timeout remaining to set up a firm play β since Miller had burned them while UCLA was leading by up to 11 points earlier in the half β so a little bit of winging it was necessary.
It didnβt work.
βI tried to make it a game by calling all the timeouts and getting to the finish line where we had a chance to win,β Miller said. βWhen you do that itβs not always easy to get that last shot without a timeout but they played a zone and when youβre playing against a zone, itβs teamwork, itβs ball movement, itβs not something I can really call.
βWe wanted to use a ball screen to throw it back to Lauri, and if he had a shot, fine. If not heβd be making one more pass, but didnβt work out and no question we didnβt get a good look on the last play.β
Miller said he could have thought of β100β other plays that made a lot more difference in UCLA being able to win besides UAβs last shot. Most of those plays began with UCLA missing a shot, then a Bruin picking it up and putting it back in the basket β or dishing to a teammate who did.
Miller expressed that to a team in the postgame locker room that appeared to have realized it pretty well, too.
βIt was 20-4 in second-chance points,β guard Allonzo Trier said. βThat was pretty much it.β
Arizona scored just four second-chance points off just four offensive rebounds, and were outrebounded 35-28 overall.
That 16-point differential on second shots alone was more than enough to offset the fact that Trier pumped in a career-high 28 points and that UA kept the high-octane Bruins well under their usual season averages: UCLA shot 45.3 percent overall and just 30.8 percent from 3-point range.
But if you can pick up your misses and stuff them back in, shooting percentages donβt mean so much. The thought of it drove Miller nuts.
βThey were the bigger, stronger, tougher, more physical team,β Miller said. βYou give a team like UCLA 20 second-chance points? Thatβs actually not one of their strengths on offense.
βWe did a really good job in a lot of ways defending them but we did a poor job of rebounding across the board. (It was) our inability to get long rebounds, tough rebounds, (from) bigs and guards, and itβs disappointing because in big games it always comes down to the things you do well, you better do βem. If you play in a big game and your strengths donβt show up, youβre very, very vulnerable. One of our teamβs strengths is our ability to get stops and defensive rebounds.β
The loss meant the UA went back into a first-place tie with Oregon at 15-2 in the Pac-12, after the Ducks beat Stanford earlier Saturday. Oregon holds the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 tournament based on their Feb. 4 win over Arizona. Both schools have only games with their in-state rivals remaining.
Up 43-39 at halftime, Arizona went ahead by up to seven points early after halftime but UCLAβs Thomas Welsh scored six unanswered points to give the Bruins a 54-53 lead with 12:52 left.
The Bruins then parlayed that into a 19-4 overall run that gave them a 67-57 lead with 6:47 left, when Miller called his final timeout. The Bruins had converted nine offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points at that point, including a rebound basket from Holiday after Ball missed a 3-pointer.
UCLA corralled nine of its 14 offensive rebounds after halftime, knowing it needed another way to win.
βIf there was an adjustment at halftime, it was just to challenge our guys on the backboard,β UCLA coach Steve Alford said. βWe didnβt shoot the ball particularly well. Halftime was about knowing how much of a physical fight this was going to be. I think our guys showed a lot of toughness.β
The other key factor that became clearer as the second half went on was UCLAβs success with its 3-2 zone defense.
Miller said βwe just didnβt executeβ against the zone, and Alfordβs son, UCLA guard Bryce Alford, said it was a big difference in the second half.
βI think we did a good job of making them stand in the zone,β Bryce Alford said. βWe were able to force them to take jumpers.β
Including a final one by their senior that they didnβt want him to take, at the end of Senior Night.
