PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Kadeem Allen finally saw the team that he signed up to play on back in November 2013 when he was starring for Hutchinson Community College.
Only it was the team that will be advancing in the NCAA tournament by beating Arizona 65-55 on Thursday.
“Two years ago, I watched Arizona play and they were the No. 1 team in the nation,” Allen said after Wichita State bounced UA from the NCAA Tournament. “Tonight I saw the reflection of that team two years ago (in Wichita State). Very good team on defense and very good team all around. That showed tonight.”
The Shockers have the nation's most efficient defense according to Kenpom, and it showed as much as anywhere with how the Shockers made life miserable for Allen, who had 11 points and six rebounds – but also seven turnovers with only two assists.
“They made us uncomfortable a lot,” Allen said. “I had a lot of turnovers tonight and if I had kept my turnovers down to two or three, we would have had a better chance.”
UA coach Sean Miller has been critical all season of the Wildcats’ occasionally high turnovers, and their inability to string together 40 minutes of high-level effort and production.
But after Thursday’s game, he mostly talked about how much he’ll miss his senior class, and how the future could be better for those who return.
“When you watch us play next year, we’re going to have some of the guys who were part of this year’s team improved,” Miller said.
Then again, a little upgrading might also help. Already with Lauri Markkanen, Rawle Alkins and Kobi Simmons in hand, Miller is pursuing at least two more players to round out his 2016 class this spring.
One of them, of course, is Josh Jackson -- but Michigan State might be leading for him.
“It’s an important recruiting class, and I think for us to be able to hit it out of the park in the next month is big,” Miller said.
Allonzo Trier said of the UA seniors that “it was sad we can’t see them off in a better way.
“I’ll miss them and the guys who came back next year will be prepared so we don’t have this feeling again.”
Trier declined to say if he would test the NBA Draft waters, saying it was too early after a loss to talk about it, but new rules allow players to stay in until a week after the May NBA combine and still turn back to school.
Zack Rosenblatt spoke to Trier at length for this story.
Our game story and other coverage can all be found on our UA basketball page.
The final box score and final UA stats are attached as PDF files.
Tough day for the Pac-12: Colorado blew a nine-point halftime lead over UConn, and USC lost on a late inbounds play. But Utah rallied to beat Fresno State.
So that's only four Pac-12 teams left already, counting the three who start playing today:
Oregon State will face VCU, Oklahoma City, 10:30 a.m. (TNT)
Cal takes on Hawaii at Spokane, Wash., 11 a.m. (TBS)
And Oregon will face Holy Cross in Spokane, 4:30 p.m. (TruTV)
