Despite a week of national basketball love, and a weekend sweep that gave them a one-game lead atop the Pac-12, the Arizona Wildcats might have been the unhappiest team in America on Sunday.
Or at least coach Sean Miller wasn’t happy. It was difficult to tell if his players felt the same, since none was made available after the UA beat Washington 77-66, but it’s safe to say Miller hopes they’re troubled, at least to the point where some discomfort might make them refocus before a pivotal trip to Oregon this week.
“I’m not sure we’ve been as focused in our approach this week as we have been,” Miller said. “We have to get that back. Doesn’t mean we have a lot of guys who are full of themselves or don’t get along. I’m not saying that. But if you see a crack in the armor, you don’t want it to grow. You want to fix it and move forward.”
The win moved the Wildcats to 20-2 overall and 9-0 at the midway point in Pac-12 play, and alone in first place after 8-1 Oregon was upset at Colorado on Saturday.
All that might sound well and good for the Wildcats, but Miller didn’t make too much of it. Instead, Miller spoke after the game about some issues the Wildcats had seen earlier this season, but have mostly fixed since.
They struggled early against Washington’s zone defense, committing nine first-half turnovers while trailing 33-31 at halftime, and couldn’t keep the Huskies’ offense off the glass: Washington had 18 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points, allowing the Huskies to stay in the game despite the fact that the UA shot 13 more free throws and had just four turnovers after halftime.
Of course, Miller also talked about all that at length with his players, at halftime, and for a long time after the game. He also appeared to send an individual message to point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright by playing him only 13 minutes, while he didn’t play reserve forward Keanu Pinder at all.
“We didn’t play our best in either of these two games,” Miller said, also referring to UA’s closer-than-it-looked 79-62 win over Washington State on Thursday.
“And when you’re trying to do some of the things we’re trying to do, you have to understand how difficult it is to be ready game in and game out. When you’re not ready, then the game doesn’t feel right and you get in some tough battles with some teams where you thought, ‘Man, maybe tonight we’re gonna be fine.’”
Such a mentality was tempting for the Wildcats to fall into after last weekend. After Arizona beat USC and UCLA in Los Angeles, the Wildcats jumped into the Top 10 of the major polls while a flood of national media rushed to tell their story. They were, all of a sudden, a Final Four contender, getting Allonzo Trier back from his PED suspension and winning a shocker at Pauley Pavilion.
Even Miller bathed reluctantly in that glow. He has always tried to maintain a never-too-high, never-too-low outlook and this, clearly, was too high.
“This last seven days has been one accolade after another,” Miller said. “I feel it even with me. Nobody even rang my phone for four months, and this week I could have been the guest on every talk show known to college basketball because of what we did in L.A.
“You have to be able to handle that. It’s so much about the next day, it’s about what makes you a good team. I’m concerned going to Oregon.”
The Wildcats did do plenty of good things Sunday.
Five of them scored in double figures, while Allonzo Trier added eight rebounds and three assists to his 12 points, and the UA shot 45.3 percent from the field and made 7 of 13 3-pointers after missing their first eight long-range shots.
The Cats also held Washington to just 39.1 percent shooting.
“They make it hard on you to score,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said.
“They play great position defense. They usually make you shoot over the top of them, and they’re in good position the entire time. It’s hard to find them out of position.”
Kadeem Allen led the way defensively as usual, while collecting 14 points, six rebounds and five assists. He had five of the UA’s 14 turnovers but also might have had a lot to do with how hard Washington star Markelle Fultz had to work for his 16 points (Fultz was 8 of 23 from the field and missed all four 3s he took).
While Miller praised Allen as usual, Fultz gave him a mixed review.
“I think he got a couple of calls going his way, a charge when they said I pushed off,” Fultz said. “He’s a good defender, but I don’t feel like he bothered me. I still got to the rim. I’m pretty cool to go against him like that.”
Fultz hit a jumper with 10:57 left to cut Arizona’s lead to just 52-49, and Washington trailed just 61-55 with six minutes left.
Dunks from Kobi Simmons and Trier put UA’s lead back up to 10 points with 3:29 left and the Wildcats kept it more than a two-possession game the rest of the way.
But it was still a close enough call that Miller may shudder when he thinks of what would happen with a similar effort during Saturday’s showdown at Eugene, or even Thursday at Oregon State. That’s why, before the Wildcats move forward this week, Miller wants to move back a bit.
“For a long period of time, this year’s team has been as consistent as any team that I’ve had,” Miller said. “That’s why we’ve gotten to this point. All of a sudden we don’t want to lose it because things are going well.
“Sometimes you need a loss to wake you up, and we don’t want that to happen.”
