Just when it might seem the toughest time for Arizona to fix its slow start problem, the Wildcats have done it anyway.
With the final week of fall semester classwork hovering over them – and the upcoming road trips and Christmas break to look ahead to – the Wildcats managed to keep their heads down and lead Michigan 10-9 after 12 minutes on Saturday.
On Tuesday, they led Oakland 9-2 at the first media timeout and 26-4 midway through the first half.
“You can see we have more of a confidence about us as a group, more togetherness, more cohesion, and that happens with practices and games,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “We’re no longer starting out in a different way than we would have played the rest of the game. I feel we’re starting out in a more aggressive fashion that represents truly who we are.
“That helps with the final score and helps set the tone especially at home. We chose this starting lineup for a reason. There’s no reason that we are continuously coming to the first media timeout tied up two, having 2 or 4 points, and then from that point picking it up.
On Tuesday, “We got off to a fast start. Brandon Ashley set the tone. T.J. (McConnell) found him a couple times. He set the tone. And those guys should set the tone being as who they are as players.”
Ashley actually had all of UA’s first seven points Tuesday, with a three-point play, three-pointer and 1 of 2 free throws. McConnell assisted on both of Ashley’s initial field goals, and finished with 10 assists and no turnovers.
“This season, one of our big problems has been that we get off to slow starts,” Ashley said. “So one of our main focuses as of late is to get off to better starts and get those stops that can lead to those transition baskets.”
Ashley had 15 points and led the Wildcats in rebounding with eight. Four of those came on the offensive end and, as Miller likes to say, good things happened for the Wildcats after he pulled those down.
The first offensive rebound led to a foul, after which he made 1 of 2 free throws. After the second, he made a tip-in. The third, he made a layup. Only the fourth didn’t produce points, leading to a miss by Kaleb Tarczewski in the second half.
“One thing we’re talking to (Ashley) a lot about is being more of a factor on the offensive glass,” Miller said. “He had four tonight and how many of them translate to him getting fouled or him converting? When he does that and then does the other things he does, he’s a very good offensive player.”
Arizona wound up getting eight points in transition, 21 off Oakland’s 14 turnovers and 21 second-chance points off its 15 offensive rebounds.
“I think we’re a lot better” in transition, Stanley Johnson said. “We have a lot of athletes, guys who can play in space.”
The 101 points marked the fourth time a Miller-coached Arizona team has hit three digits. The Wildcats also did so at Cal on Feb. 5, 2011, in that 107-105 overtime when MoMo Jones nearly ripped off the Arizona logo on his chest from hitting it so hard. They did it in regulation against Bryant, in a 100-60 blowout on Dec. 22, 2011, and early last season against Fairleigh Dickinson, a 100-50 game on Nov. 18, 2013.
Miller started his postgame press conference by crediting his team for working through academics.
“This is a difficult time of year for them, with final exams and finishing up papers,” Miller said. “Most of our players still have a final exam and in some cases multiple papers and finals to finish up here in the next couple of days so they’re juggling preparations for a home game and also the academic workload and the pressure to perform on these tests. So from that perspective I was very proud of their focus. I thought they came out and were ready to play.”
They'll need to stay focused even after exams, the way Miller spoke. He said the Wildcats could get beaten in either of their next two games, road contests at UTEP on Friday and at UNLV on Dec. 23.
“Certainly we respect UTEP and UNLV and playing on the road is a different challenge,” Miller said. “Our players’ focus is to get ready for UTEP. We have to go there and play an outstanding game against a well-coached team that has a number of good players.
UTEP’s Vince “Hunter is a very, very good NBA prospect, someone I watched this summer with Rondae (Hollis-Jefferson) and Stanley at those (NBA prospect) events. He was there deservedly so and he looked really good. So they’ve had some good wins already and they’re going to be ready to go. If you were them, you’d be ready to go. It’s a great opportunity and we have to be at our best on Friday.”
Hunter tied his career high of 26 points while leading UTEP to a 80-62 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday. The Miners have sold out Friday’s game at the 12,000-seat Don Haskins Center.
ASU was overwhelmed in a loss at Marquette.
Three games involving Pac-12 teams today (all on Pac-12 Networks, but the Oregon game won't be on Pac-12 Arizona):
Loyola Marymount at Stanford, 7 p.m. MST
Cal State Northridge at Oregon, 9 p.m. MST
Grambling State at Washington, 9 p.m. MST
Our full coverage from Tuesday's game: A game story, sidebar, seen-and-heard notes and a photo gallery.
The box score and play-by-play are attached as PDFs.
