ANAHEIM, Calif. – For over three seasons, Sean Miller didn’t even have to think about who his starting center was.
Kaleb Tarczewski missed two games after spraining his ankle at Michigan as a sophomore but, otherwise, just kept popping in his 7-foot defensive presence in every game.
So, without him for an unknown period of time, what does Miller do now?
“We’re used to having him around,” Miller said. “To not have him, nobody has to tell me it’s different. It’s his size alone that dictates a lot of positive things for the team. But we can have him back as soon as Friday, or a week or two from then. But I believe unless something really surprises us, he will return.”
The possible odds based on that statement then: Tarczewski is doubtful for Gonzaga, probable for the Pac-12 season… with a small chance something is really wrong.
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UA will find that out early this week after Tarczewski gets an MRI.
“We have our fingers crossed that it’s more tendon or ligament than it is anything structurally,” Miller said. “That’s our hope. That’s how we feel right now. Believe it or not, Kaleb had an almost identical situation in his other ankle, which we’d gone through a lot this fall of dealing with, sitting him out and giving him time. Then he has almost an identical situation with this one.”
Ryan Anderson finished sixth in the Wooden Legacy all-tournament team, meaning he didn't make the first team even though he averaged 18.3 points and 10.0 rebounds over the three bracketed Wooden games.
Michigan State's Denzel Valentine was named the tournament's MVP, while he was joined on the first team by teammate Byrn Forbes, Providence's Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, and Evansville's Mockevicious.
It's pretty common for the two finalists to get two players each on these teams, so it's likely that Mockevicious' 15.3 rebounding average put him past Anderson. The Lithuanian broke a tournament record with 21 against Santa Clara.
Freshman wing Allonzo Trier may have turned another corner Sunday, and this time in the right direction. He had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 26 minutes to look more like the McDonalds All-American he is, instead of the freshman who struggled with five points and four turnovers against Providence.
That’s the way it goes a lot of times for the most talented ones, Miller indicated.
“The expectations of a high school all American are to come in and hit the ground running,” Miller said. “Each of these guys is different. If you would have judged Stanley Johnson on how he played in the month of November (last season), he wasn’t himself until he got to Maui and truth be told he had one good game in Maui. (He was named tournament after collecting 18 points and nine rebounds against SDSU in the championship game).
“It wasn’t until we got into conference play that he really hit his stride. That’s an example of somebody who’s a heck of a talent. Allonzo is getting better. He works really hard at it every day. These guys (UA players) well tell you there’s nobody who invests more in becoming a good player than Allonzo.”
Miller added this, too: “And I think from my perspective, it’s me being more patient with him and him not trying to be perfect.”
Not surprisingly, Miller appeared excited (and maybe relieved) that the Wildcats threw off their loss to Providence to show a lot of energy Sunday and manage their best defensive game of the season.
“It says a lot,” he said. “My hope is that the culture of our program… the things that we do, that we have great belief in that that translates to a situation like this.
“I don’t know if everybody was going to pick us as today’s winner, playing Boise for the second time, with Boise being a very good team and us not… having 21 turnovers (against Providence) and there were a lot of things that didn’t go right for us in that game.
“When you look at this game, it’s more of the same in terms of our improvement. We had five turnovers in the first half and in the second half, we had 12. So although we did some things better today, and we like our defense, we still have a lot of room for improvement. I think we’re excited to do that.”
Mark Tollefsen played only 22 minutes because of foul trouble Sunday but had a pretty full plate. Miller said Kadeem Allen, who has been playing both guard spots and Tollefsen have been learning new positions and the UA system at the same time.
“The only way (Allen) is going to be more comfortable and grow as a player is through game experience,” Miller said. “Tonight might have been his best game that he’s played at Arizona.
“The same for Mark. And in fairness to Mark, Mark’s been injured for a week (he missed some early preseason practices with a sprained ankle), Ryan’s been injured, Kaleb’s been injured, so we’ve bounced him around like a ping-pong ball.
"We’ve asked him to learn two positions and he actually plays three. Played the five, the four and the three in tonight’s game so he’s not going to be completely comfortable until that settles down. But every time he goes out there, he learns what we do at Arizona, feels more comfortable and these guys both are really on the right track.”
