'We have to be smarter': USC, UCLA expose Wildcats' flaws in rare sweep at McKale

After his frustrated, overwhelmed defense sent too many guys to the free-throw line for a second straight game Saturday, Arizona coach Sean Miller shared a saying that speaks to teams who foul too much.

“Undisciplined teams or players are coached by an undisciplined coach — and fouling is discipline,” Miller said Saturday after UA’s 81-76 loss to UCLA. “Sometimes it might be you’re outmatched or outmanned. But for the most part if you have a problem as a team (with) fouling, that’s something that we or I have to correct.”

Miller was stewing over the fact that the Wildcats fouled the Bruins 25 times, allowing them to go to the line 32 times and convert 27 free throws. UCLA ended up scoring 15 more points from the line than Arizona, more than enough for the Bruins’ fourth straight win at McKale Center — and more than enough to negate James Akinjo’s 25-point, eight-assist effort.

All that happened two nights after the Wildcats allowed USC to take 15 free throws in the first half Thursday, keeping the Trojans in position to eventually pull out a 87-73 win over UA despite shooting just 40% from the field before halftime.

Miller was not happy to see USC reach the bonus (seven fouls, allowing one-and-ones on defensive or loose-ball non-shooting fouls) after 10 minutes in the first half and hit the double bonus (10 fouls, allowing two free throws on non-shooting fouls) after 12 and a half minutes.

“We’ve got a couple guys just absolutely hammering the other team,” Miller said. “It’s not basketball. And we have to adjust, our players have to adjust, I and our staff have to do an even better job coaching and teaching them, because fouling is a big part of the game of basketball, and we’re on the wrong end of that right now.”

Basically, Miller said, UA was a “horrible defensive team,” as exposed by the increased talent level of USC and UCLA.

“We have to be a smarter,” Miller said. “You know, when the ball’s in and around the basket, you have to show your hands. The way you’re physical is by moving your feet, using your chest so that the guy has to go through your body — but you don’t come down on him at all.

“We have a couple guys playing 9-10 minutes and had four fouls. That’s a problem. The game’s too fast for you. I think that’s just us coaching it, teaching it, talking about it.”

Akinjo said part of the problem was that Arizona is still a young team, the kind that is “always gonna have some struggles and bumps in the road,” while Miller also said inexperience was a factor.

But the two Wildcats who had the highest fouls per minute against UCLA were veterans: Ira Lee had four fouls in nine minutes while Christian Koloko had nine in 14 minutes.

Akinjo had four fouls but that could hardly be faulted in a game when he had 25 points on 8-for-16 shooting plus eight assists to just one turnover, while ever-improving freshman Azuolas Tubelis had four fouls in 30 minutes – but also 15 points and eight rebounds.

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Meanwhile, after Miller has previously complained that UA’s offensive fouls have been in part because they weren’t adapting to the officiating –—“we have to join the party and flop,” he said after UA beat Eastern Washington last month — Miller had only a faint critique of the whistle this time.

Mostly, he indicated, it was all on the Wildcats.

“We fouled, giving up second shots, especially when we went zone, and had a hard time guarding dribble penetration, one on one,” Miller said. “Some of our fouls are undisciplined and then some of them are on offensive rebounds and, you know, I’m confused. It all depends on what night we’re playing. What’s an offensive rebound foul, and what isn’t? I don’t know what that is out here. I don’t. But that’s a story for another day.

“The things that we can correct, we have to correct because our defense is our problem.”

The silver lining, Miller said was that at least the offense was working. Not only did Akinjo do a 180 after missing all nine shots he took against USC but Tubelis had another second-straight strong offensive night (6 for 12) while Bennedict Mathurin continued to make a case to start.

Mathurin said “coming off the bench is not really a problem,” but, if nothing else, Miller indicated he needs more minutes and more opportunities whenever he gets them. Mathurin had 11 points, one rebound and three steals in 22 minutes against USC and eight points and four rebounds in 21 minutes against UCLA.

“Now that we’ve played the games that we’ve played, we’ve got to give him a bigger role, we have to get him in there more,” Miller said. “From a defensive perspective, he’s gonna make plenty of mistakes, but being that he’s 18 years old and freshman, I have great faith that two weeks or four weeks from now, there’s some things that Benn’s going to be better at than he is now, because he’s so young.”

Shooting 48.1% overall and 41.2% from 3, Mathurin is also one of the Wildcats’ most efficient offensive players despite his youth. Tubelis (48.9%), Jordan Brown (56.4%) and Lee (61.3%) have all been effective shooters inside, while guard Terrell Brown is still shooting 43.4% overall despite a 1-for-9 effort against UCLA.

With nine turnovers against UCLA, Arizona also has now gone six straight games with 11 turnovers or less.

“This team has learned how to score,” Miller said. “We can do it inside, we can do it off the dribble, we have guys coming in off the bench that are scoring for us. And we’re not turning the ball over.

“But we can’t get the value out of that, because we just have no answer on defense — straight line drives, in and around the basket — and the fouling is just off the charts right now.”

Rim shots

• Miller said guard Jemarl Baker would probably get an X-ray on his injured hand but UA said he was still being evaluated Sunday. Baker injured his hand in the first half, Miller said, and tried to play seven minutes in the second half before leaving for good.
• Arizona is scheduled to play next at Oregon State on Thursday but the Beavers have paused for COVID-19 issues and aren’t likely to return to practice at least until Tuesday. “We’re just operating as if we’re going to play the game and go on the trip,” Miller said.