2016 NCAA tournament: 5 Keys to success for Arizona Basketball

Sean Miller has to figure out how to motivate and lead his Arizona Basketball team to go far in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, what will it take? 

The Arizona Wildcats have had a rollercoaster of a season; they lost Ray Smith to injury and Elliott Pitts to personal reasons, not to mention the multiple key injuries and illness to different players along the way.

What a journey it’s been.

Wildcats fans were hoping their team would finish the season strong since the team was now healthy and had played together for awhile. It seemed that was going to happen after the close win over Cal and lambasting of Stanford at home in McKale.

The fans couldn’t have sent off their team to Las Vegas any more confident than they were after the Stanford win. Most we polled (45%) feel the Wildcats will only make it to the Sweet Sixteen, 25% believe they will make it to the Elite Eight and 13% think they will lose in the first round. Can’t blame them for not entirely believing in the team.

After a rocky start to the Pac-12 tournament, allowing the Buffaloes to score 58 points in the second half, the rest was going to be easy, right? It would be time to get revenge against Oregon. After all, the Cats got Colorado and Cal back, why not Oregon? We only lost by a few points the last time. Oregon seems to be able to shoot three-pointers at will over the Wildcats defense, but the Wildcats came back and were within one free-throw of winning!

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What can Miller do to help this team go far in the tournament?

CHANGE UP THE DEFENSE:

Miller tried double-teaming against Colorado, and it worked well. No team is going to expect Arizona to come out playing that type of defense. If you watch AAU teams these days, they play with a lot of trap defense; they also use a full court press.  So the younger players are used to playing that type of defense, and maybe pulling a full court technique would help throughout the game, not just when the Cats are desperate.

Change it up Sean! Show these teams something they haven’t seen in the tapes.

USE HIS ENTIRE TEAM:

There has to be a role for each player on the team. If the offense or defense stagnates, put Justin Simon or Chance Comanche in the game, don’t leave players on the bench. If they have fresh legs and no fouls, put them into at least get physical with the other team, take a few charges, something.

When Miller benched starters instead of freshman, it seemed to be a great motivator. The pressure comes off of the seniors, and they relax cheering on their young protegé. Even if for two minutes, it has worked in the past, so why not make it part of the strategy. If for no other reason, the other teams are not focused on those players, they are studying tape of the starters.

Give them one or two key things they are responsible for the time they play. Just fouling, just stealing the ball, just passing the ball to the centers, or whatever is missing. Seldom does the team box out, frequently you see the other team in front of the Wildcats under the basket. How hard is it to get in between the basket and your player?

If no one is rebounding or boxing out, put in someone willing to do just that. Not saying for extended periods of time, just for a little time to give a rest to players who aren’t performing for whatever reason.

Simon is always good for a basket. So if the Cats go cold, stick Justin in there for a minute or two.

MOTIVATE EACH PLAYER DIFFERENTLY BUT BRING THEM TOGETHER AS A TEAM:

It seems each player is playing for something but not the same thing. Allonzo Trier, Kaleb Tarczewski, Gabe York, Ryan Anderson, and Mark Tollefsen have the NBA on their mind. The tournaments are an NBA tryout of sorts for players entering the draft in the fall; this is do or die time. This pressure may be getting to them. There were 20 scouts including Danny Ainge at the Utah game, and although some players weren’t aware of their presence, it seemed some were.

The other freshmen just want to play, that’s it; ‘put me in coach, give me a try’.  The sophomore and Junior guards are battling for playing time, and each show flashes of brilliance in games, it just isn’t consistent. The sophomore forward, Dusan Ristic, started out strong but for some reason has faded into the background of late, and freshman Chance Comanche has emerged as the bench post player.

If Miller hasn’t figured out how to motivate certain players, he can hold a meeting with the parents and get a sense for what their son might need as far as motivation. Sometimes parents are the best people to advise a coach on their child.

Parents are also a sounding board for the players, so you want all the parents to be on the same page with the same message as the coach. The parents may be the only fans in Rhode Island cheering on the team other than Zeus’s family who lives close to the venue.

Bottom line, it doesn’t seem this team has the chemistry that last season’s team had. It took Stanley Johnson about 2/3 of the season to get in the team mindset, but when he did and didn’t need to have the ball in his hands all the time or didn’t have to be the hero, he played team ball, and it worked.

Because of injury, Trier didn’t play for several weeks, and maybe that had something to do with the fact they seem to play still for himself. Hate to say that, but it seems sometimes he doesn’t know if he is supposed to shoot or pass. Remember the time he passed and got an assist? Oregon wasn’t expecting it, so he needs to be motivated to pass sometimes and to stay in the moment. It’s okay if he isn’t the hero, he just needs to play his game and be a great teammate.

If each player on the team doesn’t have the same goal as the head coach, then they are not going to win, they need to all have the same team goal.

ASSIGN A LEADER AND MOTIVATOR ON THE BENCH AND ON THE COURT:

This has been something difficult for Miller this season. Every team has it’s own personality and this team has multiple leaders who don’t seem to want to be the Alpha male.

There are many leaders on this team; all have a different style. Zeus and Anderson seem to be the ‘under the radar’ type and York is a great cheerleader on the bench. York could step up and be a cheerleader on the court, during the game.

Looking to the recent past, we are talking about a Nick Johnson or T.J. McConnell type of motivator. Someone needs to come out of their shell; it could be Jake Hazzard, just needs to be someone Miller can count on to keep the energy up on the team. Not someone yelling at their teammates, but someone who is symbiotic with coach Miller and knows what to say to each person to get their head in the game.

We haven’t actually seen one player hyping up all the rest of his teammates all through the game no matter what. We have seen a few huddles on the court which is a step in the right direction, bit we don’t see it until the second half.

Whoever that leader is, they need to have some player-only meetings to get the team to groove, get on the same page, and find themselves so to speak. It can’t hurt.

TURN OFF THE OUTSIDE WORLD, HIS TEAM NEEDS TO BELIEVE THEY CAN GO ALL THE WAY:

Wildcats fans get bummed out listening to the talking heads about their predictions. Not many pundits are loving Arizona or seeing them get past the first or second rounds.

The Wildcats as a team have to believe they are under-rated, that they have what it takes and can be the National Champions. There should be no doubt in their mind, and they should be able to visualize how it will feel when it happens.

If they go in listening to all the naysayers, including Wildcats fans, it will just bring them down. They have to believe they can do it. In the NCAA tournament, attitude, confidence, and fearlessness can get you anywhere.

Seth Greenberg has Arizona going to the Elite Eight, and we think that is because he covers the Pac-12 all season long. If you are so inclined, show him some adoration on Twitter. David Gardner, Ted Keith, and Luke Winn have the Wildcats getting to the Elite Eight, but the rest of the field (six reporters) in ESPN’s bracket predictions article either have them losing in the first or second round.

Remember the Florida Gulf Coast 2015 team led by current USC head coach Andy Enfield? Enfield’s team was the first ever 15-seed to make it to the Sweet 16, the Trojans were impressed by that and hired him, they haven’t been disappointed. How about when

What about when Kevin Ollie‘s seven seed, UConn Huskies, came out of nowhere to win the tournament in 2014 when no one thought they could? Those teams believed they could beat any team at any time and they did.

Put aside that Arizona is one of the top two teams traveling the farthest. Also, ignore the fact that Joe Lunardi is predicting they don’t make it out of the first round, saying he thinks they lose to Wichita state. If the Cats buy into any rhetoric like that, then all is lost. Most fans feel if they make it past the first round, they have an excellent chance of moving forward.

More wildcats: ZonaZealots Arizona Basketball Bracketology Roundtable

What do you think is the key to success for the Wildcats? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter.

BEARDOWN ARIZONA!