It was hard to tell Arizona freshman Daniel Batcho had October surgery on his right knee the way he warmed up before the Wildcats’ game with USC on Thursday, spinning and elevating to dunk in the layup line.
But there’s still that other issue of learning and growing in the Arizona system. Already pegged as a backup post player this season, Batcho still has yet to fully practice with the Wildcats at a time when they have only two months left in their season.
So Miller indicated he was not counting on Batcho for games anytime soon.
“He’s still recovering from his knee surgery and we’re going to take it slow,” Miller said. “He’s at the very very beginning stages of practicing with us and I think it’s unlikely that he’ll see the court in games this year. But I do think over the next couple of weeks he’ll be able to practice and contribute on a daily basis. The most important thing is that his knee is continuing to strengthen and strengthen. He’s not having any problems post-surgery.”
Asked if the Wildcats could use Batcho next month if they ran into a situation like they did Saturday at Washington State, when all four big men were mired in foul trouble, Miller said “we’re just not there yet."
Is a sore ankle throwing off Jemarl Baker, who is a combined 2 for 21 against WSU and USC?
Miller was asked if Baker was limited by it after it was mentioned on a UA broadcast that Baker tweaked his ankle against the Cougars.
“He could be limited,” Miller said. “He was able to practice (Wednesday). But he did turn his ankle in the Washington State game. I think Jemarl will be fine. We’ll be careful tomorrow and like all of our players and our coaching staff, put this game behind us, learn from it, grow from it and have a chance to compete against a very good UCLA team.”
Azuolas Tubelis didn’t express a whole lot of enthusiasm for his 31-point effort because of the loss but Miller, even as he was filled with concern about many other areas, didn’t lose sight of what the Lithuanian freshman did.
“I mean, it was an awesome game,” Miller said. “There’s not too many freshmen that I’ve coached who have 31 in a Pac-12 game against the talent level that was on the court against him. He’s getting better and more comfortable. A big reason we were in the game for most of it was just his individual effort.”
He just couldn’t pick up Baker and Akinjo the way they had picked him up.
“There have been times in the first 10 games when Azuolas has been in foul trouble,” Miller said. “He’s had his freshman moments, his freshman mistakes, but we’ve relied on our backcourt. We’ve relied on some guys who have been really consistent, and tonight it almost flipped. He was terrific and we needed those guys to be better shooting the ball.”
And better at defense, of course. Not only did Miller go on about the effort that let USC hurt UA inside and outside, shooting 58.5% overall but Ira Lee wasn’t happy about it either.
“It wasn’t just the bigs messing up, it was us as a group,” Lee said. “It was a group dysfunction. They were getting in the paint. We weren’t building walls. They were able to straight-line drive us whenever they wanted to and when they do that that makes their bigs’ job a lot easier.
“Next game we’re going up against another good group of bigs and we’re gonna have to tighten up those things.”
After spending much of the early season learning the Wildcats’ system and the rules – he had no idea he would be called for a technical when he hung on the rim after a dunk against Montana -- Tubelis did acknowledge that his success Thursday has something to do with being more familiar with the rules and system he is playing within.
“Yeah, I feel more comfortable and I’m working very hard in practices,” Tubelis said. “Gets better every day so we’ll see.”
His job won’t get any easier Saturday. UCLA center Cody Riley had 22 points and 13 rebounds in the Bruins’ 81-75 win at ASU on Thursday, while the versatile Jaime Jaquez has been playing power forward after Chris Smith was lost for the season with a torn ACL.
“My hope is that we can bounce back and the same nine guys who are gonna play against UCLA,” Miller said of his rotation. “We have to respond and be better.”
