By McKale Center standards, Sunday’s crowd at McKale Center was nearly at midseason form. Over 13,000 fans greeted Arizona’s fast-paced 90-69 win over Illinois with consistently spirited noise, especially when the Wildcats put the game away in the second half.
So afterward, coach Sean Miller was asked about his team’s faster pace and, then, about all the energy that was created in the building.
He chuckled.
“Are you trying to get me to play faster?” Miller said.
Clearly, Nico Mannion and Josh Green are OK with the idea. Five-star guards known for being best in the open court when they signed on to Miller’s program a year ago, Mannion and Green thrived in Sunday’s matchup.
Mannion had 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting, with nine assists to five turnovers, showing the ability to quickly initiate offense and also the maturity to not to run out of control, pulling up for a midrange shot or passes as the defense dictated.
Green, meanwhile, logged 36 tireless minutes, throwing down 4 of 7 3s and scoring 20 points overall while helping UA’s defense improve in the second half.
Combined with forward Zeke Nnaji, who had 13 of his 19 points in the second half, UA’s three freshmen put up a performance that Miller called “spectacular.”
With Arizona having shot 55.3 percent overall, Miller also noted that, yes, he does want them to keep pushing things.
In fact, Miller said he may have more confidence in this team to play at a faster pace than any other he’s coached at Arizona.
“I would think so, because it's not just one player," Miller said. "When it really is good basketball, you have a number of different players that are threats, and we really have that in transition. That's why sharing the ball and taking care of it is the name of the game for us as we play fast."
Over two games so far, Arizona has averaged just 14.1 seconds per offensive possession, the 21st lowest rate in Division I, and far less than the 17-plus seconds that Miller’s teams historically average at UA.
“We want to push the ball. That's one way we can use our depth,” Miller said. “But one thing that never changes is playing fast doesn't mean you're playing smart. I mean, when you win on the road, you have to be able to get stops, you have to rebound and you have to play smart basketball.
“If you can do that at a faster pace, especially when you have a deep team, awesome. That's the one thing that I think we're learning. But as you can see, I think we have a pretty good starting point. We're better when we're pushing it, and in particular with Nico, I've really been on him to push it and I thought tonight he did a great job in that area.”
As it turned out, the fact that Illinois likes to run fell right into the Wildcats' hands. Illinois committed 22 turnovers which led to 20 Arizona points, fueling the Wildcats’ fast break and more than offsetting the 16 UA turnovers that concerned Miller a bit.
“If we took a few turnovers away, we'd have had a really big night," Miller said, "because we had just head scratchers there at times.”
Miller said Sunday's game also brought out the best in Green, who wasn’t cleared to play fully until late August after undergoing shoulder surgery in April.
“He played with a lot of confidence,” Miller said. “His 3-point shooting has really improved. When he first came in June, he had missed a lot of time with his shoulder. He's really worked at it and when you work hard, good things happen.”
While Mannion said the Wildcats have been focused on playing fast since the team fully arrived over the summer, he said it’s been a bigger emphasis lately.
UA scored only 74 points in a Nov. 1 exhibition win over Chico State but averaged 91 over their first two games.
“The past two weeks we’ve been kind of focused on it even more, getting the ball up the floor, getting into our sets quick," Mannion said. "When we do that … we’ve got guys who can make the right play, great passers. So when we’re playing unselfish and fast, things go well for us.”
Rim shots
-- Four-star Chicago guard Adam Miller says he'll commit on Nov. 21, a day after the fall signing period ends, and choose between Arizona, Louisville and Illinois. Miller previously also listed ASU, Kansas and Wake Forest on his list of finalists.
By committing on Nov. 21, Miller will join the trend the trend of top players who commit just after the fall signing period, as Nnaji did last fall, thus technically keeping their options open in case things change in the spring. Referring to that scenario on Twitter, Miller said that was “exactly” his intention.
ν Arizona moved up two spots to No. 19 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, while a total of four Pac-12 teams made the poll for the first time since Jan. 9, 2017. Oregon moved to No. 14 while Washington jumped in at No. 20 after beating Baylor, and Colorado moved in at No. 25 after beating ASU. Washington and Colorado were the two top vote-getters among unranked teams in the preseason AP poll.
Overall, the Pac-12 is 18-1 so far in nonconference play, with the only loss by ASU to Colorado in China during what was considered a nonconference game.
