Deandre Ayton has moved into the No. 1 spot in the mock NBA drafts of Sports Illustrated and NBADraft.net, and it doesnโt sound like youโd get much of an argument from UA coach Sean Miller.
โI donโt want to hear anything about his motor orโ otherwise, Miller said of some views about Aytonโs weaknesses. โTheyโre almost fabricating or inventing things that arenโt true. He is a special talent and weโve seen it in a number of situations. When the gameโs on the line, he rises to the challenge. And offensively down the stretch he made eight baskets.โ
When Miller was asked Saturday what kind of statement Ayton made after collecting 29 points and 18 rebounds in Arizonaโs 88-82 win over Alabama, hereโs what he said:
โI donโt know what statement he needs to make. I donโt think he gets enough credit, and as I describe him really smart on and off the court, highly intelligent. We ask him to play two positions. Itโs easy to take a 7-footer as a freshman to just make him the center. He guards the four and he guards the five. Thatโs double the work. He knows our playbook through two positions and heโs getting better and better with it.
โHe practices hard, heโs responsible, heโs takes care of business, but his ability as a player in my mind is unmatched. I donโt know how to describe what heโs able to do, as heโs so skilled and yet so big and athletic. Usually thereโs one or the other. He has both.โ
To Allonzo Trier, who added 25 points on Saturday, Ayton is essential to what the Wildcats are doing.
โWe expect to go to him, and for him to do well,โ Trier said. โHe just dominates the game on both ends of the floor and makes it easy for us. Heโs a weapon that pretty much nobody in the country has so we have to make sure we take advantage of it pretty much at all times.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Trier did a lot of the defensive work against Alabamaโs Collin Sexton, and Miller reacted this way:
โThey competed and thatโs all you can really ask for. In basketball, too much is made of whoโs guarding who because the way Collin Sexton scores, itโs against the team. The team has to rotate and provide help. All you want is effort and great concentration.
โParker had five assists and no turnovers. Heโs over 3-1 (in assist-turnover ratio) in the four years heโs been with us. But as a senior point guard he has poise, he has been in so many games like this that I think weโre comfortable with him.
โItโs funny with Allonzo โ the first half he was very quiet. Once past first three or four games, itโs almost like youโre waiting for the second half to get him going. I think itโs up to us to kind of get him in the flow more often in the first half. But I donโtโ think he forced it. He did to Alabama what Collin Sexton did to us. He had four turnovers -- thatโs the thing that has plagued him early on but I think heโll get better.โ
Rawle Alkins played 22 minutes in his first game back, which of course meant there were 22 fewer minutes to spread around the rest of the bench.
Wasnโt too difficult to find out where they disappeared from. Dylan Smith played just one minute, Keanu Pinder played four, Alex Barcello two and Emmanuel Akot didnโt play at all (Akot has knee tendinitis, but Miller made it clear Saturday and in previous interviews that the soreness is not whatโs been keeping him off the floor lately.)
That effectively gave Miller a seven-man rotation, with spot help from Pinder as the eighth guy, but Miller said that isnโt necessarily how it will play out in the future.
โI told our team after the game that we donโt have things worked out yet,โ Miller said.
โYou canโt judge us on tonightโs game, and maybe some of the guys who didnโt play much or at all, that doesnโt mean itโll be like that for the rest of the year. We have to continue to figure this out. Thereโs a gift for us to be able to do that but itโs not as easy as everybody thinks it is to all of a sudden, 40-something practices in, playing game 10 โ โOK, heโs back, make it work.โ It takes a little bit of time.
โWe went through that with Allonzo last year so those guys will settle in. They have to earn it in practice. It keeps things competitive because the guys who are going to play are the guys who are doing the job every day and are giving us the things we need to be the best team we can be.โ
While Miller agreed that it will take communication and some consoling with players whose playing time gets trimmed, he also indicated players are just going to have to deal with it.
โThereโs a fine line,โ Miller said. โThis is the University of Arizona. Not everybody gets to start and play. And some of the greatest players who played in our program never played as a freshman or werenโt nearly the player they became but they fought and they earned what they got and they learned what they needed to get better.
โSometimes at 19 years old, youโre not as ready as youโre gonna be at 20 or 21 so with a program like ours you want to keep these guys practicing and getting ready. We have a number of players a year from now that could be our leading scorer or one of our best players or a starter โ and on this yearโs team maybe they donโt play as much. But our focus has to be on winning and being the best team that we can be.
โAnd when nothing is given and you have to earn it, the cream will rise to the top. Sometimes a guy panics, or their support system panics, and they run. But very seldom does a guy who runs make it. But weโre counting on everybody and you canโt judge just just on today I think it will even out over time.โ
McKale Center wound up announcing a sellout Saturday and the place was in midseason form, louder than it has been so far this season.
Miller said he appreciated it, especially after his teamโs 0-fer in the Bahamas.
โIโd like to thank our fans for showing up. Theyโre the best,โ Miller said. โThey have not wavered one time. Especially the ones here at McKale who showed up, and have supported us through thick and thin. Believe me that isnโt the case and certainly not the case at a lot of big programs like the one we have. Thatโs a big thank you from everyone, the families of our players, our players and certainly our coaching staff and team. Itโs tough to come in here and beat us as a visiting team with our crowd and the electricity that we have in the building.โ
Arizona has now won the past three games by an average of four points, and when asked about winning the close ones, Miller responded by saying how the Wildcats have recovered from the Battle 4 Atlantis.
โThe one thing Iโll tell you is nobody panicked when we went to the Bahamas,โ Miller said. โIt felt funny. No oneโs used to losing three in a row. And it isnโt like that was OK. But all of us knew there were a few things we were gonna get much much better at. Part of it was we were young group. Teams good in that tournament have older, really good players. We have a few of those guys, but most of our upside is with our youth.
โWeโve gotten better since the Bahamas. Our guys had been lauded with praise and then that all went away. Itโs a reminder of how quickly when you donโt win, people donโt talk about you or they donโt talk about you in a positive light. Our practices have been better and sometimes itโs as simple as one of our best players hasnโt played yet and I think as Rawle settles in, our team has a big upside.โ
