With his team’s defensive efficiency ranking down to just 106, Arizona coach Sean Miller didn’t hide his frustration during his weekly news conference Monday at McKale.
“This is my 14th year as a head coach and this is may be the worst defensive team,” Miller said. “In the first year here at Arizona, you gotta recognize who we would have been then. It’s hard to even evaluate what we did. So much was going on and maybe my first year as the coach at Xavier but other than those two, this is it for sure.
“Every team has its strengths — we certainly have a number of them — and every team has their weaknesses and it’s up to the coach and staff and players to commit towards things that we can improve. And we’re hard at work I’ll tell you that, at trying to become a better overall more consistent defensive team.”
Miller's memory is correct, according to the Kenpom ratings he's referring to (Kenpom measures efficiency as points scored/allowed per 100 possessions, a stat that gives context to rating an offense or defense).
Miller's first UA team was 108 in 2009-10 and all of his Xavier teams were 86 or better except his first one in 2004-05, when the Musketeers were 158.
The Wildcats’ loss at Washington gave Miller a chance to see close up what kind of defensive effort he is looking for (not in style, of course, since the Huskies play a 2-3 zone).
“The first eight, 10 minutes of the game, they set the tone by being ferocious, ready,” Miller said. “I thought they were the quicker team. They beat us to a number of second shots, loose balls, and the tone is set a lot of times at this time of year.
“If you’re soft, this isn’t the place, this isn’t the time of year to take the court, and I thought our team for the most part played with some good energy themselves sand togetherness but you’ve gotta be ready at the beginning. If you dig yourself a hole and you’re always playing from behind, that in and of itself takes away from your energy and keeps the crowd on an away court electric. I think the start of the our game set the tone for a lot of things.”
Miller said the Wildcats are challenged “personnel-wise” on defense. He elaborated:
“Each of our guys has the opportunity or growth but collectively there’s a number of team things we can do,” he said. “It starts with the oldest players on our team but it’s not exclusive to them. There’s no finger pointing. When things are going well and you win, everybody should get the credit and if you have a tough loss like we did at Washington, you have to recognize we lost to a good team, a team that played with tremendous spirit and effort.
“On our end the way we lose is very consistent. We’ve talked a lot about defense. This is also simultaneous with our defense. I think this could be our best offensive team I’ve had as a head coach. Our numbers reflect that and we’ve had a lot of great moments offensively.
“Really the same thing happened in a number of our home games as it did at U-Dub, that is we matched points, had a hard time getting stops and we fouled at the end, but ended up getting two more, five more, points than the opponent. You start playing in those one-possession games and sometimes the ball isn’t going to bounce your way.
On whether the trouble is mental, Miller said:
“I think everything’s on the table. I think maybe a number of our players are blessed more on the offensive end than maybe they are on the defensive end. But I’ve never seen a team, and maybe they are out there, that can have the collective success and go deep into the tournament and win championships because they play one side of the basketball. And as an individual player, I don’t know anybody who gets where they want to get to when they leave college, if they (only) play when the ball is on their side of the court.
“Those are two goals we have. We want to win and each of our guys would like to leave Arizona and go on to play professionally but you have to be able to defend and play offense. For us, the skills are really tilted in favor of our offense.”
Miller was asked if he’d consider throwing in a zone at this point of the season. Basically, he said the same problems could pop up.
“We have to look at mixing it in but there’s gonna be a lot of wide open shots that go up if we play zone,” Miller said. “I think sometimes a fan who hasn’t played the game (says) `Hey, lets go and put up a zone and that’s gonna cure all. It can maybe change the dynamic in a particular possession, give a different look.
“(Some) possessions in a game you go to it to create a little uncertainty or to keep them off-balance, but when you start reinvesting yourselves. … you can put up a zone but guys have got to be committed and move their feet, they’ve gotta communicated, or you’re gonna go down the same like defensively as we are with our man to man.”
Miller said Rawle Alkins wasn’t sore after playing at Washington but also “wasn’t himself” while going 2 for 11 from the field with two turnovers against the Huskies.
Alkins took Thursday’s practice off after playing 16 minutes at WSU and UA has been trying to strike a balance between keeping him healthy but also in rhthym.
“It’s difficult,” Miller said. “When you miss practices and you shut down and you’re back and you have a minute restriction you look back and say he missed 11 weeks before he did anything. In fairness to Rawle, we’re hoping he can really hit his stride down the home stretch but we’re playing with that right now. He hasn’t had any extra soreness from this past game which is a great sign, but we’re all looking forward to the day when he can be a part of what we do. I think it certainly has to be frustrating with all that he’s gone through with his foot.”
Miller raved about how both UCLA and USC are playing and then added a not surprising remark considering his concern about defense.
“With our defense the way it is, they could put 100 on us, both teams,” Miller said. “So it’s a great, great challenge and hopefully it’s a challenge we’re up to.”
UA dropped four spots to No. 13 in the AP Top 25 poll, while ASU dropped out and no other Pac-12 teams appeared.
The Wildcats’ RPI is 18, their Sagarin rating is 14, and they’re 23 in Kenpom.
In the bracket projections, ESPN has UA as a No. 3 seed and CBS has the Wildcats as a No. 5.
The Wildcats will get a true measurement of where they stand when the committee announces the top four seeds in every region to date, during an announcement at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on CBS.
