Winning the initial four minutes or so before the first media timeout has always been a big emphasis of Sean Miller teams at Arizona, but it hasn’t worked out so well in the Wildcats’ two losses.
They were down 17-2 early against Michigan State and 17-5 against Gonzaga, though the Michigan State game was the season opener and the Gonzaga game was UA’s first start without Parker Jackson-Cartwright at point guard.
“I think we’ll be a little bit more sure of ourselves moving forward,” Miller said. “Certainly that’s our job, my job, to get our team locked in and more organized (at the start) but that’s the problem with somebody gets hurt… a lot of times you haven’t had the opportunity to reshuffle the deck.
“We’ve had teams that I think all of us look back on and say 'that was a really good college basketball team' and we had those same issues. There are teams who get off on really good starts but on the road don’t seem to be that team. I think it evens out over time. We have a lot of first-time starters. With Dusan, Lauri, Rawle and Kobi, it’s 4 of 5 have never started in college, so the more they get used to going out there the better.”
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Miller said the Wildcats were “a nervous team” at the start of the Gonzaga game, and said the Zags’ early two 3-pointers created the wrong defensive response.
“Sometimes a couple of 3-point shots go in and their answer is to worry only about that guy. Only their man,” Miller said. “In other words, it’s `Coach, he’s not going to make any more because I got him.’
"But there’s a lot more on defense than just defending your man man and if you think about (Gonzaga center Przemek) Karnowski, he’s really what I would call the first really good low post scorer we’ve played against. We definitely wanted to provide more support and help.”
Might be worth noting, too, that Arizona trailed UC Irvine at halftime two seasons ago at McKale, and for most of the second half although Rondae Hollis-Jefferson dunked over 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye and the Wildcats eventually went on a 15-0 run to take over.
Here's the school-produced notes from Arizona and UC Irvine (and Missouri, which is hosting Miami, Ohio, at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network's alternate feed.)
Our advance coverage is enveloped in a notebook leading with Allonzo Trier's sudden clearance for expense-paid travel, and a scouting report. Both are attached to this post.
