Fed up with his team’s defensive effort – and the potential reason behind it – UA coach Sean Miller laced his press conference today with some strong words.
He said the Wildcats' inconsistent defensive efforts points to being “selfish” – as NBA rumblings may be a factor in the back of their heads -- and noted that the “tremendous challenge” of keeping this particular group can “suck the life out of you.”
Here was the full context of those remarks:
“We say it here a lot -- if you’re a totally committed team on the defensive end, it’s really hard to say your team is selfish and if you have a team that picks and chooses how hard we play on defense then I think everybody would have the right to call our team selfish,” Miller said. “Because what happens is you’re more worried about what you’re doing. You’re more worried about how the game’s going for you.
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“You’re disappointed that you didn’t get a shot in the last few minutes and your mindset and effort level isn’t on the play at hand -- it’s on what just happened. You start to think about that the stats that you’re gonna get on offense aren’t going to be good enough to be an NBA player and you start to think about the NBA and then you get a phone call after the game or a text message saying you’re not doing enough on offense and the whole thing goes to…”
Miller didn’t finish that sentence but you can imagine how he might have.
Miller said similar things two years ago when the Wildcats lost their edge, in part to a bit of individualism, but said this team is probably ahead of that one.
“Two years ago we had an excellent season,” he said. “One of the parts of that season was we had pockets of the Pac-12 where we unraveled defensively and it didn’t cost us a great season but it probably cost us a conference championship or maybe that next level. Instead of being right at the cusp of a number of great things we weren’t quite able to break through because our defense never really became excellent. Last year you saw what it felt like to be the best, or among the best.
“Where we’re at this year, we’re kind of in between. In many ways we’ve advanced beyond perhaps where we would have been two years ago but we’re nowhere near where we were last year.”
Miller was asked how he can guard against a team becoming selfish.
Short answer: It’s really tough.
Longer answer:
“I think with the great teams in college basketball (you) realize with team success, a lot of great individual accolades follow,” Miller said. “With a lack of team success very few follow. Not everybody believes that but it’s ongoing. It’s about working at it every single day in today’s climate of college sports, especially in basketball, because guys can leave in a year or a semester, two years. It’s about really working at that team unity and togetherness every day. It’s not easy.
“It’s difficult and I would say this team in particular is a tremendous challenge to make sure that we’re united and about Arizona and about team and about defense every day. It can suck the life out of you.”
With all that in mind, what’s the latest NBA projections for the Wildcats? Here’s the latest 2015 mock draft from Draft Express: Stanley Johnson is at No. 8, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at 18. Brandon Ashley has fallen out of both rounds while Kaleb Tarczewski is hanging in at 59. No Wildcat is listed in their 2016 mock draft.
NBADraft.net has Johnson at No. 3 and Hollis-Jefferson at No. 30, with Ashley (41) and Tarczewski (44) in the second round.
FWIW, I talked to an NBA scout in Oregon who said he wouldn't be surprised to see Johnson go as high as No. 1. ...
Miller will rejoin Billy Donovan’s USA Basketball staff again next summer, for the U19 World Championships in Greece in late June and early July. Donovan was the head coach of the U18 team last summer, with Miller and Providence’s Ed Cooley as assistants.
The duty will cut significantly into Miller’s camp and recruiting time but he indicated it’s worth it.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” Miller said. “From what I understand, it’s one of the most competitive world championships in our sport. It’ll be a thrill and an honor to be part of it especially with the same coaching staff.
“I really enjoyed my experience last year. Not only is there camaraderie, but you get better as a coach learning from different opinions, especially when you put yourself in a position to go compete against some of the best coaches in the world. You see how they do things, share ideas and hopefully come back here and do things even better. It’s a commitment level, but it’s one that I’m thrilled to be able to make.”
The U19 team will likely have many of the same players as the 2014 U18 team that won the U18 Americas qualifying tournament last June. Johnson and UA signee Allonzo Trier both played for that team.
When I asked Miller if he expected to see Trier but probably not Stanley Johnson -- who is expected to be involved with the NBA draft at that point -- he offered this:
“You think Stanley’s going pro?” Miller said, smiling. “I don’t know. The team’s not picked but I would assume some of the names you’re talking about will be part of the training camp. I will tell you there’s an amazing talent level to make that team. It will be difficult for anybody to make it.”
