There was at least one time this season when Keanu Pinder taught a lesson to the Arizona Wildcats.
That’s when he told them about Vegemite.
“I was a little scared,” UA guard Kadeem Allen. “But Chance (Comanche) said he tried it.”
After a Pac-12 Tournament game last week in Las Vegas, Pinder tried to explain why the vegetable extract is so popular in his native Australia, but failed.
“I don’t know,” Pinder said. “You just grow up eating it and get used to it.”
Maybe that kind of flexible attitude helped Pinder survive this season while the Wildcats and their coaches have done the bulk of the teaching with him.
If you don’t like the taste of Vegemite, keep trying it until you do.
If you don’t like the playing time you’re getting, keep trying until you do.
A junior from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College, Pinder has found a bumpy ride in making the jump to a team that received the No. 2 West Region seed in the NCAA Tournament it will play in starting Thursday.
Pinder averaged just 9.1 minutes per game in Pac-12 regular-season play and didn’t play at all in home games against Washington and USC.
As his teammates’ availability has fluctuated this season, he’s been the seventh man, the eighth man, the ninth man and in no-man’s land.
That’s changed in the last two weeks. In part because UA needed a smaller defensive look against ASU, Colorado and UCLA, Pinder has averaged 14.8 minutes over his past four games.
“It was definitely playing with my emotions,” Pinder said of his limited role at times this season. “But I stuck with it and just had to grind it out and be there for my teammates. I finally got my shot to prove I can play and it was just awesome. I just had to stay ready.”
That was never more true than during the Pac-12 Tournament final. Because UA coach Sean Miller didn’t want to risk foul trouble on Lauri Markkanen by having him defend crafty and skilled Oregon forward Dillon Brooks, Pinder made his first start of the year.
Pinder would be the designated foulee and, in that sense, it worked.
Pinder picked up three fouls and had two turnovers in the first five minutes. Yet, because Markkanen had no early fouls and only two throughout the game, Miller could call it a success.
“Dillon Brooks is extremely aggressive at the beginning of each half and he can really put fouls on your whole team, especially the player guarding him,” Miller said. “He did that to Keanu. I don’t want to say Keanu’s expendable, but in the role that he had, it’s better him than Lauri.”
Miller has been saying since the preseason that Pinder’s toughness, mobility and defense were needed in the rotation. But Pinder played the most when the UA was shorthanded in November and December and it wasn’t until Miller began more aggressively mixing and matching his rotation to suit the opposition that Pinder’s role grew.
In between, Pinder had a streak of eight games in which he played single-digit minutes or not at all.
If that hurt on the inside, Miller and teammate Parker Jackson-Cartwright say he was the same on the outside.
“I think he’s a professional,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “He comes to practice every day and just works extremely hard, puts his head down, does what coach tells him to do and tries to do it to the best of his ability. He just stays the course and when you stay consistent, work hard and stay ready, you can do well in big moments when your name is called.”
Like last week.
As it turned out, Pinder became more than just a foul-absorber in the Oregon game as it went on. He finished with four points and three rebounds over 12 minutes, and gave the sort of depth that Miller wanted in what was the Wildcats’ third tense game in three days.
“Keanu made some really productive plays when he was out there,” Miller said. “That allowed our team to rest some. We played nine players, and in a tournament, that’s important. Three games in three days can really wear on you.”
So can playing at altitude. Arizona will open with North Dakota on Thursday in Salt Lake City, at an elevation that both teams are familiar with — North Dakota by playing in the Big Sky while UA usually takes a Utah-Colorado swing every year in the Pac-12.
Miller said there’s a “fine line” in talking too much about altitude, being careful not to get his players thinking about it, but he’s also subtly tweaked his rotation over the years in games at higher elevations.
So Pinder could be on deck again right away in the NCAA Tournament.
He’ll be ready.
“It’s definitely improving,” Pinder said of his role. “I’m really happy with that. I really believe I can help this team win.”
Tip-ins
- Arizona moved up to No. 4 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. UCLA finished at No. 8 and Oregon at No. 9.
- The final ranking within the Top 10 earns Miller a bonus of $30,000, while he also picked up $50,000 for UA’s Pac-12 Tournament title, $20,000 for winning the Pac-12’s Coach of the Year and $40,000 for winning 25 regular-season games.
- Arizona opened as a 17-point favorite over North Dakota, and is a 10-1 pick to win the NCAA title, according to Vegas Insider. Bovada has the UA as a 9-1 pick to win the tournament.
- The Wildcats will make a required appearance on the floor at Vivent Smart Home Arena from 4:10 to 4:50 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday. Their pregame NCAA Tournament practices are typically held privately elsewhere.
