Arizona-Butler postgame: On Simmons' spark and some much-needed rest

LAS VEGAS – The Wildcats filed out of Orleans Arena quickly on Friday to catch a charter flight that would get them home by 2 a.m. or so.

The quick return should give them a real day off Saturday, and they’ll need it. The Wildcats played three games over five days this week, and they will spend Sunday-Tuesday to retool in practice before facing Texas Southern on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to keep working and getting better,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “I know on Wednesday we have a tough game against Texas Southern. It will be interesting to see these guys leave this loss behind them in a couple of great days and be ready to go on Wednesday.”

While it’s standard procedure for any coach to heap warnings about the opponent of a potential sandwich game – the game in between two bigger games, such as UA’s game with Butler and its upcoming one with Gonzaga on Dec. 3 – Miller might have a point this time.

Texas Southern, playing all its non-SWAC games away from home, is 4-1 so far this season.

The Tigers of Houston are coached by Mike Davis, who coached them in a loss to the Wildcats in UA’s first game of the 2015 NCAA tournament in Portland. Davis also coached Indiana to the national championship game in 2002.

Asked Miller after Friday’s game if he figured an early loss like the one to Butler was somewhat inevitable, with the youth on UA’s roster and the shorthanded roster.

He said:

“I think so,” he said. “We’re trying to win every game, but you know what? You’re not going to win every game and when you don't win, there are some real good lessons we can learn from it.

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“But I was really, really proud of our guys. I thought we reached back and played at the highest level of effort you can ask. We showed some great things in the second half against an excellent team. Butler is an excellent team.”

Miller mostly pinned the loss on the lack of experience in his group on the floor near the end of Friday’s game, with Lauri Markkanen having fouled out.

Both Miller and Kadeem Allen (UA's two designated interviewees) had praise for freshman guard Kobi Simmons, who sparked the Wildcats in the second half Friday much like he did in the first half on Nov. 11 after UA’s poor early start against Michigan State.

This time, Simmons had eight points during UA’s 15-2 that allowed the Wildcats to turn a nine-point second half deficit into a four-point lead.

“He was a big reason we had a chance to win the game and why we made our comeback in the second half,” Miller said. “I thought he played with great energy and quickness and talent. He spearheaded a lot of those great plays.”

While it’s clear the Wildcats have work to do with their offense against a zone, aren’t shooting particularly well from three and haven’t dominated rebounding maybe as much as their size might suggest, neither Miller nor Allen went into much detail about what kind of work they were looking to do ahead.

“It’s a learning process,” Allen said. “It’s still the sixth game of the season so we have a lot more to play. We just have to come ready when we come back to practice, and get back to playing Arizona basketball.”

Our full game story is attached to this post along with a PDF of the box score. The seen-and-heard notebook is here.