On Jemarl Baker's touch, James Akinjo's off night and all those Arizona Wildcat offensive fouls

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Even before James Akinjo was called for a charge with seven seconds left and the Wildcats trailing by one, putting things all but out of reach for Arizona, Sean Miller had seen enough.

In a more serious, and more specific way, than his “just fall down” rant about the seven offensive fouls the Wildcats were charged with on Dec. 5 against Eastern Washington, Miller made it clear he was not too happy with the seven offensive fouls UA was charged with Saturday in its 78-75 loss to Stanford at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

Miller talked about offensive fouls when it came to Akinjo, and when noting that Azuolas Tubelis had a strong effort with 10 points and six rebounds.

“And he had probably two offensive fouls,” Miller said of Tubelis, chuckling. “So he’ll learn about the offensive foul game.

“We’re gonna take some charges here. But I'm excited about that. We have to draw charges. We have to cross body block, we have to go vertical in the charge arc, like the NBA does. We have to leave the corner and get there late. I mean, there's so many things that I think we have to do a better job of to make our defense better.”

Miller continued with more specifics.

“You have to make those hard plays on the ball, on a dribble handoff. We teach our guys on a dribble handoff to kind of go under. We have to go through the guy's arm because we're getting fouls on the on the handoffs, like as we dribble hand off and extend the arm they're kind of coming through to take it away. And we've gotten a number of offensive fouls there, one tonight on Christian (Koloko).

“So again, it's not up to the officials to adjust, it's up to the coach, the staff and the players and the offensive fouls have really hurt us. So we have to look at that. But we also have to draw offensive fouls (from the other) team. We have to take charges. I don't know if we've taken more than maybe a handful of charges in six games, and right now you have to attempt to take anywhere between five and 10 a game. It just makes no sense not to do that based on getting in legal guarding position and drawing the foul.”

“Look, I'm not trying to be funny. It's what it is. I mean that. That's what we have to do. Our defense has to improve and that’s one way we have to get back at it.”

Yes, that defense. Naturally, after Arizona allowed Stanford to shoot 52.7%, including 7 of 13 3-pointers, you knew Miller wouldn’t be happy. He was actually happier with the zone defense he threw out but acknowledged a lot of work needed to be done.

“Just throughout the game, our defense was not good enough to win,” Miller said. “There were a number of breakdowns we had. Sometimes you have to give the other team credit for their scheme and they got us on a couple of cuts. They picked on a couple matchups that I'm sure that they really favored in our man to man.

“I'm glad we went zone. I thought it gave us energy, kind of changed the complexion of the game when we had a really hard time defending them. You know, you look at the numbers and we’re on the road with a young group, a lot of new faces. Clearly this is the toughest opponent that we've played this year.”

So what about that offense charge on Akinjo? Miller threw some extended glares at officials after that one and, after the game, didn’t criticize the call but instead praised Akinjo’s move.

“I thought the last drive, that's what you want -- you want a hard drive at the basket with the help defender coming over,” Miller said.

Jemarl Baker said the play was designed to get Akinjo “downhill” to make a play.

“And, I mean, we know what happened,” Baker said. “They called it a charge or whatever. But things like that happen. We just have to get ready for next game. This game is over. It is what it is.”

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Miller also defended Akinjo’s shooting, with the point guard shooting 2 for 8 from the field and making just 2 of 9 free throws – strangely after tying the school record for percentage free-throw shooting with a 14 for 14 effort against UTEP on Dec. 12

“He's a good free throw shooter,” Miller said. “It's just ironic because he just broke the school record and tonight he didn't have (the same success). In no way am I blaming tonight's game on James. James is our heart and soul. He's the engine that really makes us go. He has turnovers, but he also had nine assists and played the entire game (38 ½ minutes).

“He'll bounce back, no doubt. I'm sure he was in his own head. You would think if anyone would have had great confidence from the line tonight, it would have been him, based on what he just did in the last game.”

All those defensive struggles – and all of Baker’s 3-point shooting – meant Saturday’s game came down to offensive firepower, much to Miller’s surprise.

While Stanford shot 52.7% overall, Arizona shot 69.2% in the second half and 48.1% for the game – and hit 11 of 23 3s, counting Baker’s 8-for-13 effort and single 3s from Akinjo, Bennedict Mathurin and Terrell Brown.

But all that offense could have been even more productive, as Miller pointed out, if the Wildcats didn’t have 17 turnovers and 12 for 23 free throw shooting.

“Their offense was outstanding. We could not guard them,” Miller said of Stanford. “When we play them again, we're gonna have to be more ready. I don't want to say a different approach. We just have to be better on our half court to beat them, because we're not going to go 11 from 23 from the 3-point line. I do think it's a good sign that we're were able to play offense like we did tonight.

“If you take into consideration when I said about 12 for 23 from the line, we really had a very good performance against an excellent team.”

And then… guess what Miller added?

“Now the other thing Stanford does against every opponent, not just us, is they really draw the charge,” Miller said. “The way it's being called, we have to adjust, I have to adjust. We have to get into position and take the charge on and off the ball. We have to force the action so that we can get a few of those plays if it's one sided and we have seven to 10 offensive fouls in a game, and we're not doing that to our opponent.

“It heavily favors the other team. We have to do a better job of adjusting, drawing the charge, and making these hard plays on the ball and putting us in a position to get an offensive foul. And then if it goes back and forth, it evens out. But even in the five games before tonight it's not been to our advantage. We’re addressing it with our team.”

As for Baker’s individual offense, well, he’s never been one to talk too much about himself.

“Just wanted to win,” Baker said. “Simple as that. Just wanted to win. I didn't play well enough for us to win for sure. And it doesn't really matter at this point, because we didn't get the win. So we just have to learn from this and continue to get better.”

But Miller had a few things to say about Baker, who is now shooting 52.2% overall and 47.6% from 3-point range after six games.

“I probably should bring up Jemarl Baker,” Miller said, pivoting from a question about how UA handled its first road trip. “Offensively he was a monster. He played great, and he's off to a great start. If you think about the first six games he's played, he's already been in the PAC 12 player in a week once and tonight in the second half I thought he was really, really good.

“Like everybody, there's certain things maybe defensively he could do better. But if it wasn't for his offense, we wouldn't have had a chance to be in the game tonight.”