Arizona Basketball: Five adjustments Sean Miller could have tried to win Sweet 16

Still feeling the sting from the Arizona Basketball team’s loss in the Sweet Sixteen? You are not alone!

We are not writing this post to slam Arizona Basketball Head Coach Sean Miller and his staff; they pulled out an excellent result to what would otherwise be a disaster of a season. Injuries and suspensions hit Miller’s program again this season, and he once again had to push his team through and overcome the obstacles. He is a élite coach, a coach many other programs are jealous of and are praying would leave for their school.

Fans feel disappointed, I feel depressed, and Sean and his team are disappointed. Miller blamed himself partially for the loss. We are all trying to get over not making it past the Sweet 16. Wildcat Nation is still trying to wrap their minds around their busted brackets and broken hearts asking, “How did they lose that game?” Some, as usual, are calling for the coaches head, others are suggesting what adjustments could have been made during the game. That got us thinking.

Maybe, just maybe, Coach Miller didn’t feel comfortable? He had mentioned that he wasn’t taking off his coat during the games at the tournament, he had learned his lesson with the sweaty shirt conundrum and didn’t want to be haunted by media and social media. There is something special about Miller ripping his coat off and kneeling on one knee, and resting his face on his fist. Maybe not taking off his coat had an effect? Just an observation.

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Miller and his team will get over it by concentrating on the positives. The post game interviews made it clear and unanimous: The team was very proud of their season, a historic season. And it was. They went 32-5, were Pac-12 Champs, and Pac-12 Tournament Champs.

Clearly, if you look at the season as a whole and disregard the expectations, the possibilities, and the outcome, being three points from the Elite 8, it ain’t too shabby. It’s just for fans, and for Miller, this is an all too familiar scene, losing by three or fewer points.

When asked about what folks would say about Miller coaching the game and the outcome, Allonzo Trier said it best, “The guy has his basketball team 32 and 5? They probably don’t know much if they’re questioning him from that standpoint. I totally have faith and belief behind my coach that he knows what he’s doing, not somebody else [points over his left shoulder] who’s trying to judge him.”

The referees did help decide the outcome of the game, and you won’t change my mind. There were two key calls that could have made a difference.

The first call was the over-the-back call on Lauri Markkanen. It wasn’t overly physical, and the refs could have let it go, but they didn’t. They did, however, on Arizona’s last play, NOT call an over-the-back foul when Kadeem Allen suffered the same fate while trying to get the rebound. The refs should have called it.

The second missed call was crucial, and the showed it a couple of times on replay. When Dusan went up for the floater, he was fouled, he was hit on the arm. Now at the end of this huge game, usually referee’s call every little foul including intention fouls, but they swallowed their whistles on these two little but huge misses. Dusan Ristic doesn’t even remember what happen. He told the Steve Rivera, “I don’t even know, maybe he hit me but it doesn’t matter, I could have done a better job.”

But Rawle Alkins reminded us, through the Daily Wildcat, that they didn’t lose the game in the last-minute. “Today we didn’t execute on offense and defense,” said Rawle, “We had three chances to win. But that didn’t cause us to lose the game. Those three plays didn’t cause us to lose the game. It was the whole game.”

I find in the NCAA tournament, it’s not what got you there that wins the games, it is the exquisite execution of the game plan, utilizing the element of surprise, and most importantly the confidence the players and coach display on the court on game day. Teams that pull a play out of their arsenal that no one has seen before, or a defense that teams would think you would never throw at them have a better chance of winning in this one-and-done environment.

So let’s just say you were the coach that night. Remind yourself that you would be in an incredibly intense situation that most of us couldn’t handle for more than 60 seconds. What would adjustments would you have made?

Here are five of mine:

No. 5 – Trap/Double-Team  More

When the Wildcats attempted to double-team down low, it worked if I remember correctly it either caused a turnover or made it harder for them to score. If only to make it more difficult for the other team to score, it was worth trying to double/triple up more often. It worked during the season when they surprised their opponents with this technique, but for some reason, it was abandoned during the game.

Trevon Bluiett was hitting his shots in the first half, scored roughly 18 points, but he started missing in the second half. Xavier moved to two other players. Maybe the could have double-teamed whoever had the ball? It’s tiring, but you had bench players to sub in for that.

No. 4 – Try Pressing

It’s so simple. The Shockers shocked the Wildcats last season with the press, and early in the game. It completely threw off Arizona’s guards, and it won the game for the Shockers.

I don’t know if Miller doesn’t believe in pressing or feels his team is vulnerable pressing, but we seldom see any press from Arizona. This is a question I have wanted to ask for years, “Why don’t you utilize the press more during a game, do you just not believe in it or do you feel the team is vulnerable?” I would be asking for so many fans who have asked us that question.

No. 3 – Zone Defense/Hard fouls

Change up the defense and play zone or even different zones on and off throughout the game to keep them guessing. There was no guess work needed for Xavier. The Cats were going to show them a man-to-man defense most of the game save maybe on one play. I understand, it is safe and feels good to stay with the defense that you have pretty much perfected, but they showed during the season they CAN play a zone, and they did a pretty good job of it!

The Musketeers got to the paint way, way too often, most times right under the basket. Maybe a Zone could have kept them out a bit more? And why not resort to committing some hard fouls? Another surprise element, “Wow, all of the sudden the team is getting more physical, what’s up with that?” Putting in Keanu Pinder for some hard fouls would have been an option. Want to go to the basket? No, No, No! Maybe they would have thought twice before they attempted a layup or cutting towards the basket?

In addition to playing zone defense, breaking Xavier’s zone defense was a challenge for the team, they didn’t seem to play like it was the last game of the season. That’s the intensity you need to win these high-pressure games.

No. 2 – Play all three bigs at one time

Where was Chance Comanche in the second half? Who had the maybe only dunk in the game? Somehow Chance finds himself open under the basket. He is sly like that. We all know that Dusan Ristic has a mean floater, he can score, but he struggles on boxing out. Somehow, Lauri and Dusan found themselves on the outside of a Musketeer pack under the basket when they needed to get inside.

I forgot who talked about basket crowding on one of the college basketball TV shows, but I didn’t forget it. The broadcaster had said something about how Xavier wins basketball games: They crowd the paint. On the last few plays, we saw Xavier players on the inside around the basket and the Wildcats on the outside, or one Wildcat overblown in the middle by a bunch of Musketeers.

No. 1 – Save your time-outs!

It seems whenever Sean Miller was out of timeouts this season, or ever, his team seems to lose. During the game, Miller called a time out for one play before the media timeout. Granted, if I were coaching, I would have wanted to call a timeout about every five minutes, I get it! During the game, I was acutely aware of this little misnomer, so I was watching his timeout calling. As soon as he called his last one with 1:09 left on the clock, an eternity in college basketball, we tweeted this out:

Here is Sean Miller’s take postgame:

Once again, I hold a candle to Sean Miller and the Wildcats. I could not do what they have done. Let’s be honest; there are very few people in this world with the talent in basketball that they have individually or collectively.
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I was not there, it was not my job, and it is easy to play Monday morning quarterback. It just felt good to get some of this off my chest. We are sure you have your own ideas, let us know in the comments!