Arizona Basketball: Miller and Tarczewski, it is what it is
It takes two to Tango, and on Thursday night, it took an entire Arizona Basketball team.
We have all had that day where we yelled back at a parent, a teacher, a coach or anyone else in a place of authority, haven’t we? There is no doubt that there is an abundance of admiration between the Wildcats head coach and his four-year center Kaleb Tarczewski, it has to be like a parent-child relationship.
The kid pushed his dad’s button when the dad was extremely pissed off already and getting more frustrated by the minute. That last straw just sets you off; I get it.
Miller wants the world for Zeus, and Zeus wants the same for Sean. I think Miller went too far, he knows it, and I think Zeus said the wrong thing, and he regrets it.
The altercations during the game this last Thursday night was a Tale of a coach who had everything to lose in one game for the season and his legacy, and a team who, for whatever reason, didn’t rise to the occasion. Miller knew how important this game was to him, the school and his team. Let’s forget the fans for the moment.
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The game was important to Miller because he is on the verge of his 300th career win, his team could have risen in the rankings and the polls, he could feel vindicated that all he has worked on with his team would actually work and the team would be on the right track again. Just like any prominent basketball coach, Miller is being watched, photographed and taped 24/7, so he has to keep that in mind.
As far, Zeus, he is working on a record, he could be the most winningest Wildcat in Arizona Basketball History, but that wasn’t accomplished alone, after all, it is a team sport. Zeus also need to show that he is an NBA caliber player.
The team as a whole seems to have slipped into a slump chemistry-wise, they do celebrate good plays, and as recently as a week ago, looked like a team on the rise. Something must be going on most of us don’t know anything about, and that is something a team does and should keep to themselves. But, sometimes that locker room stuff spills onto a game, and that is just what happened. It’s not our business.
Miller had all the pressure of the world on his shoulders, and he felt it. He is used to having a team who responds to a particular type of coaching. This team has had to deal with devastating injuries and an ever changing line-up. Not your typical season. Maybe the team responded to the pressure, with the winning streak on the line, to just fold? It looked like Miller did just that at the end of the game.
Who knows what happened at half time? The mood was set in the first half. You could see the rest of the players stone faced as Miller was giving all his frustrations to a player who is like a son to him. Zeus just pushed Miller’s button, but the frustration was for the whole team to witness and the world. The message was loud and clear; Miller is struggling to figure out how to get the most out of his team and the season.
If you analyze the game, Dusan Ristic missed rebounds as well, Ryan Anderson had a great game statistically except for the glaring five turnovers, Zeus’s stats were pretty good as well, he just didn’t shoot enough or get offensive rebounds. Dorsey was on fire and no one was willing to make any hard fouls, isn’t that how you stop a player from driving to the basket?
The Wildcats shot 61%! They just didn’t shoot enough baskets, and the turnovers killed them.
Leadership comes from the leader, and Miller needs a player to step up and be the leader. In the beginning,] of the season the Leader seemed to be Zeus, but after he had got hurt, it looked like Anderson was going to step up. On Thursday night, it seemed not one Wildcat got his troops going, talked them up, got everyone on the floor in a huddle, or anything we are accustomed to seeing from the T.J. McConnell era.
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We can sympathize with the coach, we can sympathize with the players, but as fans, we are still on the outside, we do not know what is really going on. Pitts is still out, and that is hurting the team. Allonzo is hurt, and that is hurting the team. The team has lost three extremely close heartbreakers, and that takes it’s toll, but when it’s an away game it’s easier to take, to break a record 49-game winning streak, that is not so easy to swallow.
And so it is, and we move on. Hopefully the Sportscologist has helped the team figure it all out and we will see a much more together team tonight. Or, we will see only four Wildcats on the floor playing as Miller warned us.
Either way, I am Done with the chat rooms and Twitter rants. I am tired of arguing about kids being soft these days, they are, get over it. Now, not all of them are, but as millennials and being of this generation, they are different, and the baby boomers of the world need to get over it, and find a way to relate to them. They are our future, and they are wonderfully complex innovative and a cohesive group of young men and women. They are the future.
Forgive and forget, and let’s just call it a day and move on, shall we?
BearDown Arizona!