Arizona's first loss should serve as an early reality check
FULLERTON, Calif. — In the aftermath of a 69-65 loss to an unranked Providence team whose best player spent half the game on the bench in foul trouble, Arizona coach Sean Miller made a startling yet telling statement.
"I leave this game feeling very, very good about our team’s effort," Miller said.
Comments like that from Miller are his way of tacitly acknowledging that this Arizona team does not have the talent that previous editions have boasted. Those Wildcats coasted on occasion yet still captured back-to-back Pac-12 titles. These Wildcats can dive for every loose ball, scrap for every rebound and still lose to an unheralded opponent.
Their best player is a skilled but undersized power forward unlikely to make the NBA. Their defensive stopper is a junior guard who could scarcely crack the rotation the past two years. One of their point guards is a junior college transfer who's more of a scorer than a distributor and the other is a deft passer but stands just 5-foot-8.
Whereas the past few Arizona teams could count on established stars like Nick Johnson and T.J. McConnell or future lottery picks Stanley Johnson and Aaron Gordon, it was telling who Miller turned to Friday night when the game was on the line. With his team down by two and less than 30 seconds to go, Miller drew up a ball screen for Parker Jackson-Cartwright and unproven backup center Dusan Ristic, resulting in a game-clinching turnover.
"We learned a lot over the last two days as a basketball team," Miller said. "One of the things we've learned is that room for error, that margin and that gap that we've experienced the last couple years isn't there right now. So our effort level has to be there every play."
Arizona's loss was only its first of the season, but the manner in which the Wildcats have compiled a 5-1 record confirms Miller's point. They needed overtime to get past a winless Santa Clara team on Thursday and they didn't take their first double-digit lead at home against Boise State the previous week until less than four minutes remained in the game.
Turnovers have been a month-long issue so far for Arizona, which had 21 on Friday night to up its season average to 14 per game. The Wildcats also are shooting a meager 28.3 percent from behind the arc, good enough for 293rd nationally.
Arizona could count on its elite defense to make up for wayward shooting nights in previous seasons, but these Wildcats are a notch or two below in that level as well. So far they're 36th nationally in points per possession, a sizable drop after finishing second and fourth the previous two years.
The lack of a defensive stopper was evident when Providence star Kris Dunn carved up the Wildcats on some of Friday's most crucial possessions. Dunn had the game's final 10 points, most notably the go-ahead pull-up jump shot in the lane with 32 seconds remaining.
“We have such a long way to go on defense, it’s not even close," Miller said Thursday night. "The last two years, if you saw Arizona play, you saw two of the nation’s best defensive teams and we are just starting the ascent to potentially one day arrive somewhere in the stratosphere of that."
This Arizona team doesn't have the sky-high ceiling of the previous two, but there's certainly room for growth.
The Wildcats are already a dominant rebounding team, a strength they'll only improve upon when starting center Kaleb Tarczewski returns from the left ankle injury that has bothered him all season. It's also difficult to imagine Arizona being this poor a 3-point shooting team all season considering Gabe York, Elliott Pitts and Marc Tollefsen are all shooting at well below their career averages.
Perhaps the biggest X-factor for Arizona is freshman guard Allonzo Trier, a five-star recruit whose ability attack off the bounce and draw contact is a skill none of his teammates possess.
Frequent turnovers and defensive lapses have caused Trier's playing time to fluctuate, but Miller now seems to realize he has to give the 6-foot-4 wing some more rope and let him play through his mistakes. While Miller glared at Trier and gestured at the shot clock after the freshman let it expire without taking a shot midway through the first half Friday night, the Arizona coach did not pull him from the game like he might have previously.
"We have to develop Allonzo, I know that," Miller said. "He has shown glimpses. I have no doubt he'll get there, but he's just a young player working through things right now."
So how good can Arizona be? Can the Wildcats still live up to their preseason top 15 ranking and contend for a third straight Pac-12 title? A lot of that will depend on how Trier develops, whether the outside shooting and ball handling improves and if Arizona's defense can transition from good to elite by the end of the year.
Entering the third week of the season, Miller is still searching for the ideal rotation or lineup combination, something he didn't have to deal with the past couple seasons.
"There's not an obvious answer," Miller said. "There's a lot more question marks than answers."
It's all part of the challenge of having a roster that's deep and versatile but doesn't have the same margin for error as previous Arizona teams did.
- - - - - - -
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
