While Arizona coach Sean Miller expressed plenty of concern about the state of his players' minds entering Pac-12 play, he did get back one valuable tool this week: Reserve forward Stone Gettings has been practicing fully with the team and will play against ASU on Saturday.
The only question is whether Gettings will continue to wear a mask to protect the facial fracture he suffered along with a concussion on Nov. 29. Miller said Gettings has been wearing a mask for full-contact drills and that the next two days will determine whether he has to wear it for ASU.
"I know he's itching to get out of the mask, as anybody would," Miller said Thursday, during UA's first interview session since its Dec. 21 loss to St. John's. "But it's more for precaution than anything else."
Averaging 13.5 minutes off the bench, Gettings has given the Wildcats not only stretch-four shooting ability but also some inside scoring and, in what Miller is really valuing these days, rebounding.
"Stone's looking great," Miller said. "It's really a shot in the arm for us to get him back. Sometimes you don't value a player until he's no longer with you, and in Stone's case we really missed him.
"We miss him every day because he's one of our team's hardest workers. He quietly has made a really positive impact.... He's not just a 3-point shooter but he can score around the basket, come off the bench and give us points and I think he cares a lot."
Caring a lot was something Miller clearly is concerned about with some of his players. Miller said the Wildcats have overall had a great attitude since returning from their Christmas break (and the St. John's loss before that), but expressed detailed concern about getting their attitudes in the right place.
For example, when I asked him about how Dylan Smith and Ira Lee have responded since their second-half benchings against St. John's, Miller said they have "responded great" and then dove into a football analogy during an answer that ultimately took four minutes.
In part, here's what he said:
"And if any of our guys aren't able to help us win, then we have to move to the next moment, the next player, give him an opportunity. You know, the one thing that's different about college basketball and I always love to watch college football bowl games because the new narrative becomes who's playing in the bowl game? Some of college basketball has trickled into college football, and it's 'should I play in the bowl or should I not?'
"I was watching the Alabama game and I know a lot of their juniors who are really talented all seem play in the game, and when (coach Nick) Saban was asked after the game about it, he gave a great answer: He said you know, believe it or not they play for the University of Alabama, they play to make an impression because they wanted to play well and they played because of their teammates and they play because they really care about our program and they've invested in it.
"I think college basketball for us is you can come out there and you could play and all of our players think they play hard. I think it across the country it's like 'of course coach, we play hard' but being a great competitor -- that's a player who's playing for Arizona, that he loves the University of Arizona, that he came here to be a part of some great legacy and tradition, and that he wants to make his own name in terms of winning."
Miller said he couldn't discuss James Akinjo, who announced a commitment to the Wildcats on New Year's Eve, indicating that UA probably has not received paperwork from him yet.
