Those who say Sean Miller’s authoritarian style of coaching stifles the freedom of Arizona basketball players must not have been paying attention during last week’s loss at Colorado.
Freshman guard Kerr Kriisa wore lime green shoes. Not any of the school colors, but lime green. They were so noncompliant, so strikingly out of place, that you wondered how Kriisa snuck them past a strict, controlling coach.
But if you take a closer look at Arizona’s basketball program, all you see is change.
The Wildcats are unranked.
Today in Sports History: February 13th
Here's a look back at sports happenings on this date in history, Feb. 13.
They have not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2017.
Their player-acquisition model has shifted to one loaded with transfers and foreign players.
And for the first time in years, the Wildcats actually seem to be improving as the season grows. They seem to be having fun.
This isn’t to say Miller has modified his sphinx-like approach to the game much. Kriisa was given his first college start in Thursday’s 70-61 win over Oregon State but was removed after 1 minute and 56 seconds.
What? Who does that?
Miller said, in part, he shook up the starting group because “it keeps everybody on their toes.”
Conversely, Kriisa is “on his toes” because he quickly learned how fleeting a starting role can be.
Late in the second half, Kriisa reentered the game with 4:59 remaining. A play or two later he threw a risky cross-court pass that looked like it would be intercepted. It wasn’t.
But before Kriisa’s pass was safely caught by a UA teammate, Miller swiftly signaled Terrell Brown Jr., to get back in the game.
Kriisa didn’t return until the victory was secured with 24 seconds remaining.
This isn’t unusual in college basketball. Washington State’s frenetic Kyle Smith is Exhibit A of over-coaching. Unless you are Payton Pritchard, Oregon’s fidgety Dana Altman doesn’t often allow any of the Ducks to play through mistakes.
A day after Arizona thumped Oregon State 98-64 in Corvallis a few weeks ago, Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle sequestered his coaches in a seven-hour meeting. Seven hours? Hey, get a life.
This isn’t to suggest Miller is mishandling Kriisa or any of the Wildcats. Kriisa played 19 minutes Thursday. That’s about what you’d expect for a first-time starter whose name isn’t Deandre Ayton or Lauri Markkanen. He scored eight points on 2-of-7 shooting, had one assist and committed one turnover.
If there’s one positive Arizona can take from a season in which it instituted a postseason ban, it’s that the Wildcats’ four freshmen appear to have a future that will extend beyond one season at McKale Center.
Predicting the future in modern college basketball is so tricky that you can soon look foolish. Believing that Kriisa, Bennedict Mathurin, Azuolas Tubelis and Dalen Terry will return for the 2021-22 season is guesswork.
Plus, it’s probably close to 50/50 that junior point guard James Akinjo will resist the urge to jump to the developmental NBA G League the way rising Pac-12 standouts Tyrell Terry of Stanford and Tyler Bey of Colorado did this season.
Anything goes. Remember Kobi Simmons, Brandon Randolph, Rawle Alkins and Brandon Ashley?
As Arizona prepares for Saturday’s noon tipoff against Oregon, Miler could echo Altman, who — after winning Thursday at ASU — said, “I feel like we’re only scratching the surface. There is so much more there.”
Maybe not this year — not for Arizona, whose season is scheduled to end in two short weeks, on Feb. 27. But there’s no denying this is a just-scratching-the-surface roster.
Here’s an example: When the Wildcats lost a crushing 73-72 overtime game to the Ducks last season at McKale, freshman center Christian Koloko had a chance to win the game with two free throws with 0:01 on the clock.
He missed badly. It was painful to watch. Koloko just wasn’t ready for a moment like that.
“Last year I was kind of a terrible foul shooter,” Koloko said Thursday after making 4 of 5 free throws against the Beavers. His mechanics have significantly improved. He has gone from a 35% foul shooter to 62%.
If he stays through his senior year, Koloko could become an all-conference player. But that’s one of the many ifs at work.
If Mathurin, Tubelis, Kriisa and Terry all stick around — if they improve as much from now to February 2022 as Koloko has done in the last 12 months — Arizona will surely battle UCLA and Oregon to win the Pac-12. The Wildcats might actually be favored.
The great unknown is whether Arizona will be eligible for the 2022 postseason, or if Miller, whose contract expires in 16 months, will be the man coaching Koloko and Kriisa and their scratching-the-surface teammates.
In a year in which Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas have fallen from the Top 25 — an unpredictable season in which a freshman from Estonia wearing Steve Kerr’s number and lime green shoes has broken into Arizona’s starting lineup — the best advice is to enjoy the moment.
Nobody can be sure how long any of this will last.
