During his UA-videotaped film review with Chase Jeter after the Maui Invitational, UA coach Sean Miller told Jeter to βlearn from, grow fromβ his technical foul and subsequent foul-out against Gonzaga.
βItβs been a while since youβve played that type of game,β Miller said. Maui βwas a great experience of getting this kind of play out of your system.β
With that in mind, apparently, Jeter went back to being the Wildcatsβ most consistent player of the season so far. He had 18 points and 10 rebounds against Georgia Southern on Thursday over just 19 minutes Thursday to record his third double-double of the season, setting a career-high in scoring that will likely be broken again.
βChase has bene solid for us the entire season other than that technical foul against Gonzaga,β Miller said Thursday. βHeβs really been consistent. He rebounds. Heβs shooting a high percentage. I think we did a good job of getting him the ball a couple of times tonight which in the past we didnβt. But thatβs all part of growing as a group, learning what each of these guys can do.β
Miller said Jeter can be a double-figure scorer (he's averaging 12.4 so far), but that his strength has always been rebounding, in high school and with the USA U18 team that Miller served as an assistant coach on in 2014?.
βHe does it every day,β Miller said. βA year ago, against Deandre and Dusan, he rebounded so we count on him to do that. Iβve already talked a lot about his defense. Heβs intelligent. He gives his body, draws charges. I donβtβ know too many big guys who draw charges and heβs one of them.β
Miller played Alex Barcello only 12 total minutes over three games in Maui, but put him in after six minutes on Thursday and gave him a total of 13 against the Eagles.
Barcello responded with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting, one assist, one steal and one rebound.
βIt was great to see him make shots in the game,β Miller said. βWeβve really stayed with him and Alex is one of our hardest workers. We watch him every day in practice, through the long hours of the summer and fall prepare, and itβs just a matter of him playing with confidence, knowing that we want him to shoot the ball.
βWe tried to get him in the game a little bit earlier. Sometimes if you sit there for eight minutes of gametime, itβs not easy to just kind of come in and make the first shot. But the fact that he made six of them is a great sign and weβve started to see it a little bit playing with more fire and confidence in practice.
Barcello said teamwork helped. UA had 22 assists to six turnovers on Thursday.
βWeβre playing really well together right now and finding the open man,β Barcello said. βThat helps me built my confidence as I come in the game. it helps my teammates confidence as well."
Similarly, Miller said he was impressed with the effort Devonaire Doutrive put in over 11 minutes, after Doutrive played just a minute in Maui.
βHeβs a young player who just keeps coming on,β Miller said. βYou watch him every day in practice and heβs working extremely hard. Weβve talked to him about just staying with it and as he has. You can see he got in the game the first half and made some really good plays. He plays with confidence. Itβs kind of fun to see a young guy like him develop and I think heβll be a part of what we do here moving forward.β
Even though UA lost two games by double-digits, Miller more than once talked about how the Wildcats grew from the experience, noting that he didnβt think the benchβs lack of performance in Maui was an aberration.
βThe competition there was stiffer certainly than it was tonight,β Miller said. βYou canβt judge a team and a group of players in a couple first couple of games. Itβs going to take time, more practice and weβll be a lot more of a finished product as we head toward Christmas.
βThe good news is weβve played the No. 1 team in the nation. Weβve played Iowa State who I believe has a great chance of being in the tournament. You learn, you grow, you improve, when you play against that type of competition.
βHopefully that competition will help us when we play our first true road game (Sunday against UConn at Hartford) because playing in the Hartford Civic Center β I played there a long time ago, and itβs a great home court for UConn. They have an unreal fan base, a lot like ours. They have a hungry really talented new coach and they return return a lot of guys from last yearβs team. We know itβs going to be a hard-fought game and hopefully weβre up to the task.
Our coverage of Thursday's game is attached, along with the box score, UA stats and the UA video.
