Sean Miller had his share of excuses to choose from, and he touched on a few.
In Arizona’s 84-80 loss to Gonzaga on Saturday night, the Wildcats missed 21 of their first 26 3-pointers. Point guard Nico Mannion, hounded by Gonzaga’s Ryan Woolridge and targeted quickly off screens by everybody else, was just 3 for 20 overall even though Miller says he’s over his back issues.
Then there’s the experience factor. While Gonzaga lost four starters from its Elite Eight team last season, six of the nine guys Arizona played weren’t around at all last season.
“We have a lot of new things,” Miller said, “a lot of new people.”
Besides, this was Gonzaga, a team that has won 10 straight road games and has now beaten Pac-12 teams nine straight times, including over a trifecta of expected Pac-12 contenders this season: Oregon, Washington and Arizona.
Losing to the Zags, even at home, has long stopped being an embarrassment for anybody.
“There’s a reason they’ve had 20-plus years of success,” Miller said.
But at the same time, Miller was also beating himself up somewhat afterward. He spent the first five minutes of his postgame media interview session analyzing and fretting before he took a single question.
“I know I covered a lot,” he said in conclusion, “but I guess I have a lot on my mind.”
Here’s how Miller viewed how he and the Wildcats could have been better:
1. Gonzaga’s smaller lineup threw Arizona off.
Before and after Saturday’s game, Miller praised Gonzaga coach Mark Few, and the coaches’ mutual respect is one reason they keep playing each other nearly every season despite the 1,100 miles between them.
So the shrewdness of Few’s decision to go smaller late in the second half and during portions of the second, using power forward Killian Tillie just 19 total minutes (Tillie also sprained an ankle late in the game), couldn’t have come as a complete surprise.
But the Wildcats’ response to that decision, Miller said, could have been better.
“They didn’t really play how they usually do — they went smaller for longer periods of time,” Miller said. “When they play (the 6-7 Corey) Kispert at the four, it really changes a lot and forced us to go smaller. And you know what? We’re just not as advanced or ready with that group, as they are.
“That’s not the only reason that the game went towards Gonzaga, but it is part of the reason. That line up right there just got us out of rhythm.”
It didn’t make it any easier, Miller said, that guard Admon Gilder came off the bench to score 13 points, hitting all four 3s he took. Gilder entered the game shooting 31.3% on 3-pointers.
“Coming into the game, he had not shot well,” Miller said. “He hit a couple of corner 3s off the bench ... that gives them additional firepower. But I just wish we were better and more equipped to deal with what they did, once they started shifting between small and big. We got out of sorts.”
2. Gonzaga’s players were well-placed.
While Tillie played only 19 minutes, he collected seven points, five rebounds, three assists and a block despite shooting only 2 of 9. He played both power forward (in bigger lineups) and center (in smaller ones, when Filip Petrusev was out of the game).
“That’s the thing about Gonzaga — they put their guys in roles,” Miller said. “Like, Tillie was 1 for 6 from 3 and it felt like he made four just because he is such a threat.
“He had a couple great looks that he didn’t make, but they put him in a position to get those 3s, and some of it was they were small and they put him at the five ... and when we went small and they went small, we’re not as prepared. ... I’m disappointed in that.”
Then Miller said again that Few was smart to go with the smaller lineup.
“Maybe I’m over ... giving it too much credit,” he said. “I don’t think I am.”
3. The Wildcats didn’t maximize Zeke Nnaji’s abilities.
The freshman forward scored 16 points and picked up 17 rebounds — the only Division I player to have as many points and rebounds against a Top 25 team this season — but seven of his points were of his own making on putbacks or free throws he made after collecting an offensive rebound.
Miller couldn’t help but imagine what might have happened if Nnaji’s teammates fed him more often.
“I have to do a better job of getting him better opportunities on offense — off of rolls, in the middle of the lane, not just in the post,” Miller said. “If you look at his 10 shots, he probably got four or five by himself on second shots. That’s not enough. And that’s my responsibility, and we have to correct that for sure.”
Gonzaga frequently trapped Nnaji when he did receive the ball, but Miller said the Wildcats have to be better about getting the freshman the ball in situations where he can’t be trapped.
“That’s one of many regrets that I have about tonight,” Miller said after the game. “When we really needed to be able to do that, we couldn’t do it and that hurt us.”
For what it was worth, Miller said he had talked to Nnaji beforehand about regaining some “reckless abandon” inside, and Nnaji appeared to agree, saying his nine-point, seven-rebound performance against Omaha on Wednesday wasn’t enough.
“I know I didn’t have a good game against Omaha,” Nnaji said. “I really just needed to bounce back and get back to playing more physical. I give credit to my teammates because they’re boxing out, especially on the defensive end, allowing me to get some easy rebounds.”
4. The zone haunted them.
In part because Nnaji has been so effective inside, and because the Wildcats have been a good-shooting team outside of their losses to Baylor and Gonzaga, Arizona hasn’t attracted a lot of zone defenses so far this season.
But with the Wildcats shooting just 30% in the first half and hitting only 1 of 15 3-pointers before halftime, Gonzaga sprinkled in some zone that Arizona couldn’t easily deal with.
“When you change defenses right now against us, we’re inexperienced against that,” Miller said. “We’ve just got to really take our time.
“We’re a difficult team to zone when you think about our personnel, but I don’t blame Gonzaga for trying it because we were shooting so poorly.
“Mixing it in made a lot of sense, and it’s among many things that worked. It worked.”
