After leading the Wildcats to a sweep of Colorado and Utah over the weekend, Dusan Ristic was rewarded twice on Monday.
First, the Arizona senior center picked up his first-ever Pac-12 Player of the Week after averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 84.2 percent in the two games.
Second, he went to practice Monday … and wasn’t clobbered by his coach or anyone else for taking that late 3-pointer against Utah. That play had called for lobbing Deandre Ayton the ball inside.
“I’m happy it went in for his … his safety,” guard Allonzo Trier said Monday, smiling. “Because if it didn’t, boy, it would have been a long, I don’t know ... it wouldn’t have been good.”
Not only does Trier know how UA coach Sean Miller works as well as anyone on the roster, but he’d also seen the video clip of a Miller’s notably displeased reaction to Ristic’s made shot.
“Yeah, it was ugly,” Trier said of Miller’s reaction. “He wasn’t feeling it at all. But we’ll take it.”
Of course they did. Ristic’s late 3-pointer gave UA a four-point lead against Utah with 1:40 left, enough for them to hang on for their 15th win in 16 games, and demonstrated that the senior center isn’t the same guy he was earlier in his Arizona career.
During his weekly news conference Monday, Miller praised Ristic publicly for the fifth straight time, counting his postgame news conferences in UA wins over Stanford, Colorado and Utah plus weekly pressers on Jan. 22 and Monday.
“I’ve never seen him have more confidence,” Miller said. “It’s something that players have to gain within themselves. We can help them a number of ways as a coaching staff but hard work over a long period of time, success in games — consistent success — that allows young kids to feel good about the next game and who they are.
“It makes them feel really good about all that they’ve sacrificed, that it’s worth it. Because they’re seeing the benefits in the game.”
Having been teammates with Ristic for three seasons now, Trier also said he’s noticed improvement, too.
“He’s always been able to score (with his) back to his basket and do things offensively,” Trier said. “I think he’s another guy who has moved up the chart, allowing him to do be able to do some more different things. We understand what he brings to our team. He’s really good for us so we have to utilize him the right way.”
The right way may not always involve a 3-pointer, Miller says, but a lot of other things.
“I don’t think with Dusan we’re gonna live and die by a 23-footer for a game winner by him,” Miller said. “There’s plenty of other shots, including a shot closer to the basket by him, that would be better for our team. But it does say a lot about him feeling it and feeling good about himself. You’d rather have a guy with great confidence who’s a really good player than the contrary.”
Ristic became the third Arizona player to have won the Pac-12 weekly award this season, with Trier having won it after the first weekend of the season (Nov. 13) and Deandre Ayton winning it on Dec. 3 and Jan. 1.
UA re-enters Top 10
For the first time since their fateful trip to the Bahamas, the Wildcats appeared in the Top 10 of the major Top 25 polls.
Both the Associated Press Top 25 media poll and the USA Today Top 25 coaches poll moved the Wildcats to No. 9, the highest since Arizona was ranked No. 2 heading into the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Arizona dropped out of the polls after losing three games in the Thanksgiving week event and didn’t return to the AP poll until Dec. 11, when they were ranked No. 23 after wins at UNLV and over Alabama at home. The Wildcats have mostly floated around the teens since then.
The move to the Top 10 comes just as Arizona enters the second half of Pac-12 play, and Miller indicated it wasn’t something he wanted to focus on at this point.
“If you start to think too much about the bigger picture or where you’re ranked or where you’re going to be in March,” Miller said, “you’re going about things the wrong way.”
In any case, ESPN’s Bracketology moved UA up to a projected No. 3 seed. The Wildcats’ RPI is 14, its Sagarin rating is 15 and its Kenpom rating is 27.
Alkins returns
Miller said forward Rawle Alkins was cleared to return to practice Monday and did not have soreness in his right foot after working out before Saturday’s UA-Utah game.
Alkins missed three of Arizona’s past four games with renewed pain in the foot that was surgically repaired on Sept. 27, but Miller said Alkins does not have a new break, a stress reaction nor any issues with the screw that was inserted to repair the fracture.
Alkins is expected to play at Washington State on Wednesday, though Miller said it would probably be less than the 34 minutes he logged at Stanford on Jan. 17.
“I’m hoping (he has) a couple of good days of practice,” Miller said, “and implement him into that game, and just take that next step.”
The Wildcats are scheduled to practice again Tuesday before flying to Spokane, Wash., and then busing to Pullman before Wednesday’s game.
Bombs away
Washington State is averaging by far the most made 3-pointers in conference play (11.1), and the Cougars hit them at the conference’s fourth-best rate (37.7 percent).
Miller is hoping that has the attention of the Wildcats, who are defending 3-pointers at only the eighth-best rate (36.3) in the conference. Arizona gave up 12 of 26 3s at Utah on Jan. 4, though the Utes were more limited on Saturday at McKale (7 of 19).
“They shoot from four, sometimes five different spots and it’s dangerous when a team especially at home plays with that type of mindset,” Miller said. “And if you look at our team (defending 3s) been our Achilles’ heel at times.”
