College basketball is, if nothing else, an endurance test, sort of like the Grand Prix of LeMans, France, in which the fastest cars can cover 3,362 miles in 24 hours.
So letβs just say that Sean Millerβs Wildcats are in the first 300 miles of their own Grand Prix of LeMans, and, well, if youβre 17th or 92nd, who cares?
Arizonaβs 91-56 victory over Long Beach State on Wednesday didnβt put any tough mileage on the UAβs odometer, but it wasnβt anything like a Sunday drive to the beach, either.
Sean Miller was so single-minded that he did not empty his bench. Whatever happened to good, old garbage time? When Tyler Trillo and Talbott Denny didnβt get to play the last few minutes, it was a reminder how deeply those three losses at Planet Krypton affected the coach.
Grim is in.
Millerβs post-game media session was like a fire spreading over a dry mountainside. Had he control of the rankings, Miller would surely rank the Wildcats No. 352 of 351, if thatβs possible.
βThe reality for us is weβre not that talented,β he said. He later corrected to say βwe have talent but weβre not overwhelming.β
It was the Rant of the Year in college basketball, but almost no one will ever hear about it.
Why? Because as Miller said when his players hurry home to watch ESPN βSportsCenterβ these days: βThey donβt show those highlights when youβre not ranked. There are no highlights. You lost three in a row.β
The Bible of College Basketball — Kenpom.com — continues to operate as if Arizona never got on that plane to the Bahamas.
The metric and analytics authority of college hoops ranks Arizona No. 17 nationally. Arizona-slayer North Carolina State? No. 92.
Sometimes you wonder if metrics authorities such as Ken Pomeroy fudge a bit, relying on the eye-test rather than data blinking on his computer screen.
Miller isnβt buying the eye-test.
As he sat in his hotel room in the Bahamas, watching the agonizing videos of his teamβs three losses, the TV screen would continue to display a chart listing Arizonaβs recruiting class as No. 3 nationally.
βWhereβd it go?β he said, full of vinegar.
On Wednesday, the media room surely got the cleaned up version of Millerβs rant.
βThe first four minutes of the second half tonight, we didnβt try,β he said.
My favorite, which was linked to his teamβs lack of defensive acumen and hustle, was this:
βNo one gives you those Buckeyes you put on your helmet for being in the right spot on defense.β
For now, the Wildcats are the anti-Buckeyes.
Yet if anyone knows how quickly things can change in college hoops, Arizona fans do.
It doesnβt require access to KenPomβs numbers to remember the ascendant Wisconsin Final Four team of 2014 that knocked out Arizona at the Elite Eight.
The Badgers opened the year 16-0 and soared to No. 3 in all the polls. Wisconsin? Wonderful.
Then it all came apart.
Noted Wildcat killer Frank βThe Tankβ Kaminsky played more like a Prius for six games. The Badgers lost five of those six; including three at the feared Kohl Center, where Wisconsin plays a lot like Arizona plays at McKale.
Only one of the five teams to stun the Badgers, No. 24 Ohio State, was ranked.
Wisconsin fell out of the Top 25. There were no Buckeyes at the Kohl Center for three long weeks.
Incredibly, six weeks later the Badgers were in the Final Four and Arizona was in tears.
So, no, Arizonaβs Thanksgiving week damage isnβt irreversible.
Of all the subtle and not-so-subtle messages Miller delivered the last few days, the one that most struck me was this quote:
βThereβs two things that guys understand: when you run them and they canβt breathe, or you take them out and they donβt get back into the game. Both of those things are going to happen. Itβs already started to happen.β
If you mess with someoneβs playing time, the message is like a fist in the face.
On Wednesday, that in-your-face feeling surely hit freshman wing-man Emmanuel Akot more than anyone. He played just five minutes against Long Beach State. It seems like only five minutes ago that Akot was to be Arizonaβs next Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a defensive-stopper you could ride all the way to the Pac-12 championship.
Akot is shooting a painful 27 percent but his progress toward being the next Rondae is on hiatus. As Miller has gone back to work, individual psycheβs are at risk.
βThatβs usually the medicine,β Miller said.
Saturdayβs game at UNLV, which seemed like an automatic βWβ until about a week ago, is now viewed as a minefield. The Rebels, 6-1, lost in overtime at Northern Iowa on Wednesday, but they also own a 27-point victory over Utah.
When asked what life as a UA basketball player has been like since returning from the Bahamas, point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwrightt said, simply, βItβs been intense,β
Arizonaβs pop-a-shot scoring leader, Allonzo Trier, spoke not about scoring but about βteam defense.β
Based on Millerβs biting post-game comments Wednesday, the Wildcats havenβt even begun to correct their trajectory.
βWeβre a lifeless group a lot of times,β he said. βWe donβt play with effort.β
Gentlemen, itβs time to start your engines.
