Arizona Basketball: Is Sean Miller to blame for the three losses?

Arizona Basketball has now lost three times this season, for many reasons, but many think Sean Miller is to blame. Should he be?

Arizona Basketball is now 10-3 on the season and all three of those losses had common themes. Poor shooting, being outrebounded, turnovers, lack of effort for 40 minutes, but ultimately should Sean Miller be the one to blame? In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to pass the blame onto the head coach for the team’s poor performance. Let’s take a deeper dive into this and look at both sides of this.

As a head coach, Miller can only do so much from the sideline. He isn’t the one actually taking the shots or turning over the ball or even not rebounding. So to say it’s Miller’s fault for his team’s poor shooting is unfair. Yes, he can advise his players to look for a better shot or design a play to get the best shot possible, but in the end whoever is taking the shot has to be one to make it, not the coach.

When it comes to being outrebounded, again there are two sides to this. Miller can emphasize how important it is for everyone to box out their man and attack the glass, during practice or during the game, but like shooting, he isn’t the one out there grabbing rebounds. Boxing out your man is one the basic fundamentals of basketball and if his players aren’t doing that, that’s on them.

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Against St. John’s, Miller did limit Ira Lee and Dylan Smith’s minutes because of the overall poor performance, that’s what a coach should be doing. If his players aren’t performing, their playing time should be limited. That I agree with. It does impact his rotation, due to Stone Gettings being out, but if certain players are not helping the team, they should be on the bench.

I know some people may not agree with this, but ultimately it’s the role of the head coach to make these hard decisions, before or during a game. Miller did also to try mix things up during these three losses, including sprinkling in zone defense against St. John’s, which helped. That is something he does need to do more of.

The one big reason for these three losses was lack of effort. Slow starts, not hustling after loose balls and getting outworked on both ends of the court for most of the game is 100% on the players. Again, Miller can only do much to make sure his players are ready to. They are the ones though on the court and have to be ready to go right from tip-off. They weren’t.

Lastly, the play calls at the end of the games fall on both the players and coach. It’s the head coach’s responsibility to design a play but it is then up to the players to execute that play. Against St John’s, it wasn’t a terrible play but seemed to be somewhat poorly executed. Better play, in my opinion, would have given the ball to Zeke Nnaji inside…just saying.

Agree or disagree with our views here, please let us know what you think.

If you haven’t already, check out Arizona Women’s head coach Adia Barnes’s new podcast. In her first episode, she interviews Sean Miller, allowing fans to get know more about Miller on a different level:

https://twitter.com/AZATHLETICS/status/1203776502283685888?s=20

light. Must Read. Arizona Basketball: Wildcats suffer disappointing loss to end 2019

It’s easy though as any outside to place the blame of these three loses on head coach Sean Miller, that’s fair. His players though are to blame as well when they aren’t executing. I do want to mention as well those fans who are indicating that Sean Miller should be fired because of these loses is crazy. What he has done for this program for the last 11 years, has not been easy. Yes, he hasn’t won a national championship yet, but there are a lot of top head coaches who haven’t. It doesn’t make him a terrible coach. It’s only three losses, this team will be fine. As always, Bear Down Arizona!

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