Here's what we know about the Arizona Wildcats through three games

Wildcats all about three guards and improving on 3s

When college basketball stats guru Ken Pomeroy updated his nonconference strength of schedule rankings Thursday, Arizona slid to No. 333 nationally.

That’s the 21st worst schedule in Division I.

It wasn’t completely Arizona’s fault, since the Wildcats were all but forced to host Houston Baptist when a Maui Invitational add-on game fell through. Their other two opponents, UTEP and Cal Poly, are retooling.

But the schedule does mean it’s virtually impossible to know how good the Wildcats really are at this point. The high-powered Maui Invitational should shed light on that next week.

So for now, maybe it’s best to just look at some of the Wildcats’ on-court personality traits that are emerging.

Here are a few:

That three-guard thing is for real

Of course, this one is no surprise. The Wildcats lost Deandre Ayton, Dusan Ristic and Rawle Alkins from their frontcourt, and brought in virtual five-star talent Brandon Williams to a backcourt that already had scoring-minded wings in Brandon Randolph and Dylan Smith.

So UA coach Sean Miller started talking in the preseason about going with three guards for now and into the future, and relying heavily on them.

The numbers have played out accordingly:  Williams and Randolph together are accounting for 39.4 percent of the Wildcats’ scoring so far; that figure jumps to 45.6 percent if you add Smith’s scoring.

Last season, Trier and Alkins combined for 31.9 percent of Arizona’s scoring in the two starting spots that the Brandons now occupy.

Ayton and Ristic combined for 40.1 percent of UA’s scoring a season ago, while this year’s forwards — Ryan Luther and Chase Jeter — are combining for 27.1 percent so far this season.

Then again, Miller would like to tweak that last part. Luther took just two shots in Arizona’s 70-46 win over UTEP on Wednesday. Both were 3-point attempts, and Luther made one of them.

“We have to run more things for Ryan Luther,” Miller said. “He’s almost unselfish to a fault. He’s a great teammate. And he’s a very good shooter. He can go inside as well but for him to go in and play 24 minutes and take two shots — we have to do a better job as coaches to put him in a position to get more looks than that.”

They need quality shots, then quantity

After the Wildcats took 40.6 percent of their shots from 3-point range in their first exhibition game against Western New Mexico, Miller said a key for his team was shooting the 3 more often. Then the Wildcats took 41.6 percent of their shots from 3 against Chaminade and 43.8 percent in their regular-season-opener against Houston Baptist.

That was also a notable difference from last season, when Arizona took only 32.1 percent of its shots from long range, the 40th lowest percentage in Division I.

But over their past two games, the Wildcats’ percentage of 3s dipped to 32.8 against Cal Poly and 27.1 percent against UTEP. Against the Miners, UA connected on just 4 of 16 3-point attempts.

Through the three games, the Wildcats have hit 3s at only a 31.1 percent rate, which ranks No. 222 nationally. Point guard Justin Coleman and backup combo guard Alex Barcello are both 1 for 6. Smith went 4 for 7 from 3 against Cal Poly but a combined 0 for 4 against HBU and UTEP.

“A couple of times, he took challenged ones and let’s face it, the challenged 3-point shots are hard to make,” Miller said of Smith. “A lot of times (making them) is fool’s gold — it’s setting you up in the future to go back to being a low-percentage shooter.

“Part of it is looking at the 16 3s. Were they all good? How many of them do we not need to take? That’s something we have to teach our team.”

Quickly, too. The idea of poor shot selection carrying over to another prestigious multiteam event in Maui is probably one Miller doesn’t want to think about. A year ago, the Wildcats made just 10 of 54 3-pointers (18.5 percent) in the Battle 4 Atlantis while losing all three games.

“We went down there and there were a number of guys taking shots who didn’t understand the time, score, circumstance,” Miller said. “We have to take a great 3-point shot and if they don’t present themselves then we can’t take them just to take them. That’s No. 1.

“And confidence, Dylan is a guy that sometimes his confidence can waver. You saw Brandon Williams, he didn’t shoot the ball really well the first two games but (against UTEP) he did.”

Williams was 6 of 20 from the field over his first two games but was 6 for 12 on Wednesday, making 2 of 3 3-pointers he tried.

“I’m just taking shots I know I’m capable of making,” Williams said. “I’m gonna take those and I’m confident I’m gonna hit them.”

They’re scrappy … but they have to be

Arizona has put up the kind of team defensive numbers that Miller likes to see, after a 2017-18 season in which the offensively-gifted Wildcats had just the 83rd most efficient defense.

Over three games, the Wildcats have held opponents to 55.7 points, 34.5 percent shooting overall, 35.9 percent shooting from 2-point range and 31.7 percent 3-point shooting, while averaging three blocks and 7.3 steals per game. Opponents have averaged 17 turnovers against them.

Miller said the Wildcats defense was “growing,” but then transitioned into his concern about their rebounding.

Without Ayton (11.6 average rebounds) and Ristic (6.9), the Wildcats need rebounding from virtually all positions. The fact that UA allowed HBU 18 offensive rebounds and UTEP to get nine stuck in Miller’s mind.

“We have to be able to pressure the other team and be smart with our pressure,” Miller said. “When a shot goes up, we can’t be dismantled on the defensive glass, we can’t let these teams get second shots and put fouls on our team because we can’t rebound. With our lack of size, we have to make up for it by having five guys determined and blocking out, and guys who don’t start coming in the game and really contributing in that area.

“For the most part it usually starts with individual players. Dylan, Emmanuel Akot, Chase Jeter, those three are really standing out in setting the tone that defense is important. There’s gonna be times when we have to win when the ball doesn’t go in and a lot of times that’s the difference between a good and a not so good season.

“We’re working really hard at it. Our team is a group of guys who believe they can do it. We’ll see.”

Rim shots

• The Wildcats are scheduled to leave for Maui on a charter flight Friday, with a stop scheduled in Southern California for fuel. Their early arrival will allow Miller to celebrate his 50th birthday Saturday on the island. Several former players wished him a happy birthday in a video played during Wednesday’s game; the UA’s pep band also sang “Happy Birthday to You” to the coach.

“It kind of caught me off-guard because, one, it isn’t my birthday, and two, it was kind of in the middle of the game so I wasn’t sure what to do, really,” Miller said. “But I appreciate everybody acknowledging it. When you turn 50 I think that number means more than maybe the other 49.”

• Four-star Minnesota forward Zeke Nnaji is officially scheduled to announce his college choice Nov. 23. He visited UA for the Red-Blue Game last month and has listed a final five of UA, Baylor, Kansas, UCLA and Purdue but is also visiting North Carolina this weekend. He’s favored to pick Kansas on 247’s Crystal Ball.

• Florida four-star forward C.J. Walker said he’ll decide Wednesday between LSU, Miami and Oregon, having dropped Arizona and Florida.

• Bill Walton is the scheduled analyst for UA’s Maui Invitational opener with Iowa State. The game will air at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.