Arizona Basketball forward Ira Lee has something to prove. He can now check off holding a Press Conference alone and nailing it off his list.
Ira Lee never wavered when it came to his commitment to play Arizona Basketball as a Wildcat for Sean Miller. He proved he is up for the challenge as he took one more step and tackled a press conference on his own. He came across confident and authentic.
Lee’s first solo press conference (ArizonaWildcats.com) came this week as the team came off a solid win against Alabama and is preparing for a trip play the Lobo’s in New Mexico. You couldn’t have asked for more genuine responses. But maybe the media in the room didn’t catch on to the underlying messages in his answers?
That’s where we come in. Here are six underlying themes in his responses.
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1. The team is a very quiet team right now.
Lee mentioned that the team was “quiet” and he felt that was an issue. Lee thinks Rawle Alkins will change that for the team, “He talks a lot , but he can back up what he says so I think we need that because we are a very quiet team right now.”
No one picked up on that comment. I would have asked him what he means by quiet?
For me, he is talking about leadership on the court. Plain and simple. Leadership is not quiet.
The team needs a leader, a vocal leader that holds his teammates accountable on the court. In ten games, there were plenty of chances for different players with experience to become the leader, the floor general, the TJ McConnell of 2017, but so far we haven’t seen or heard too much in this space.
This is Alkins chance to show he can be that player who is a leader on the court.
2. Ira’s confidence didn’t dip!
“I wouldn’t say my confidence dipped, you know I mean of course we were a little down, you lose three games in a row you’re gonna to be down,” explained Lee, “But these types of things you just have to learn how to look forward, you know, forget about the past and just know what you gotta do to get better.”
This was a genuine response, a response of a competitor, a baller. All you hear or read about was that the Arizona Basketball team lost its confidence. That media theory has just been rejected by Lee. You cannot play for Arizona and not have confidence; you wouldn’t have cut it.
There is a reason why you were recruited by Sean Miller and his staff, and one of the most important skills or personality traits that is hugely important is being able to play on the big stage.
This backs up our theory that the team, or at least just Lee, did not give up in the Battle 4 Atlantis. They just needed more time to learn Miller’s defense.
Now we see Purdue climbing the AP Top 25 rankings. The Boilermakers a higher caliber team than originally thought. The same with SMU! SMU is in the top five teams in the AAC, tied in wins with Wichita State at eight. Both teams play juniors and seniors with a lot to prove and much more experience than most of the Wildcats
3. The team feels they need Rawle’s energy, especially on defense.
Lee and Alkins have great chemistry, and before the season started, Lee promised the King a Championship ring. This is what we have been saying all along, one significant piece of the Wildcats pie is the tenaciousness of Alkins. Lee practices against Alkins in practice and it helped him prepare for Alabama.
Lee explained that Alkins brings a lot of energy on defense. That Alkins is an older guy. He noticed how happy King Rawle was back on the court, and also was paying attention to his defense and how he went after the ball. “He plays the game with a ton of passion — we definitely need that right now,” said Lee.
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4. The Team is now playing as a unit on defense.
“We’re playing as a unit on defense,” explained Lee, “You know we have a lot of things to fix, but it’s getting better.”
This means they are learning and playing ‘we’ ball not ‘me’ ball. In the Bahamas, we saw ball hogging on offense, and barely any communication and missed assignments on defense.
“I think I’m getting better, you know as far as my knowledge of the game, especially on defense. You know in High School I really didn’t play defense like that, as far as man-to-man group defense. I never did that.”
Lee said everything was “All new” to him and the freshman on defense.
5. He knows and relishes what it means to play for Arizona.
Ira is concentrating on his team, not the competition. Even if he did watch the ASU vs. No. 2 Kansas game, he wouldn’t give ASU satisfaction of knowing he is paying attention. One reason is that LeeTime is from Arizona and he understands the rivalry; he knows he should not give ASU any satisfaction by letting them know he is paying attention. “They’re on a roll, but we aren’t letting us affect what we’re doing,” said Lee.
We love this!
Lee does not shy away from competition, he is prideful and understands exactly what he was signing up for, “I mean we’re Arizona, everybody’s gonna give us their best shot, it’s going to be a packed house, but at the same time, those are the games we live for.”
6. Miller’s man-to-man defense is new for the freshmen.
After the Bahamas losses, I couldn’t resist, and I wrote about a few things Sean Miller could try with his team moving forward. I was supposedly schooled on social media or lambasted my idea when I suggested the Cats should throw in a zone defense because that’s what they know and learn while growing up. Most fans and media argued that the players never played zone, so it’s hard to teach, blah, blah, blah.
Really? That’s not what I have observed when I cover high school sports!
Well, according to Lee, he played zone or ISO ball (isolation ball) in AAU and high school. Lee told the media he never played man-to-man group defense in high school, but he is learning every day. “I’m still learning, I’ll have a few mistakes here and there, but I feel by the time Pac-12 comes. I’ll be good,” said Lee.
He feels man-to-man defense and defensive rotations are something relatively new for him. “Yeah I think that’s a weak point for most of us — everybody knows about AAU, it’s showtime ball,” explained Lee.
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BRAVO IRA, BRAVO! It’s refreshing to get each players thoughts on how they feel they are doing and their team is doing. You expect guarded answers. You expect maybe deer in the headlights answers. You did not get that with Lee. His interview with Brandon Randolph and I at the Ballislife All-American game was one of the most fun interviews I have done. I, for one, am looking forward to what LeeTime looks like as he learns more and shows us he should not be under the radar, but we should be laser-focused on his play AND his insight.