Arizona Basketball: Did the Wildcats forget how to box out?

Watching the Arizona Basketball team play in the last two games has fans asking, ‘Did the Wildcats forget how to box out?’

Boxing out is simply getting between your guy and the basket and using your body and hands to make sure you get the rebound, and they do not. Basically, as a player and within the rules, you make sure the other team does not get the chance to get the ball. The Arizona Basketball team needs to make sure they do this from here on out.

Boxing out is one of the most basic defensive moves a basketball player can make, yet it escapes the best of players from high school through the pros. Stanford’s Reid Travis could not be guarded by the Wildcats on Wednesday night, part of that was because of the lack of boxing out by Arizona’s players. Boxing out is something that is easy to forget to do, but it will be essential to winning games going forward.

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This wasn’t lost on Arizona Basketball head coach Sean Miller, “It’s one guy after another that is getting beat off the dribble. If you don’t guard the basketball, then you’re not going to play.”

I coached recreation basketball for 12 years, and the one thing that I had to remind my team throughout each game was to box out. I thought it was just young kids who forget to box out, but that’s not the case. I spent five seasons behind the Loyola Marymount Women’s Basketball bench while Coach Julie Wilhoit always reminded her team to box out.

If that wasn’t enough, I sat behind the Lakers bench, and I witnessed something that shocked me, Byron Scott had to remind his team consistently to BOX OUT!

Apparently, we are not the only team that has boxing out lapses, the Bruins while playing the Ducks got a similar reminder from our sister site @GoJoeBruin.

I couldn’t help but yell at the TV and Tweet about the lack of boxing out in the last two games the Wildcats have played against the Trees and the Ducks. It was infuriating. When the ball goes up, that’s when you find your man; you get between the basket and your man, plain and simple.

Fortunately, Sean Miller also realized this lack of boxing out as a major issue he wants to fix, and he is warning his bigs he will sit them on the bench if they forget to perform this simple task. He did not name any one player by name but did point out. Chance had missed a few but was clutch at the end of the game making his free-throws. Coach is warning player he will sit them if they don’t defend the basket.

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We will see if he goes through with it, he had warned to play Keanu Pinder more and instead he kept Lauri in the game and waited to the last minute for Lauri to get his mojo back. Come on Cats! You can do it! Bear Down Arizona and BOX OUT!