Arizona has a big week coming up in Los Angeles this week, and to preview the game Sean Miller decided to have a press conference Tuesday to give the media a glimpse into the week. Even though it is early in the conference season having two more road wins would be a big advantage for the Wildcats since those can be tough to come by this year.
Here are some of the notable topics discussed during Tuesday's press conference.
* When it comes to Kaleb Tarczewski, Miller said that his senior center will continue to come off the bench for now as the team takes things slow with him coming off the foot injury. On the plus side, Miller said there was no pain for Tarczewski after the Arizona State game and he is confident the big man will be able to play more minutes as time goes on.
* Even though Arizona might now let him off the leash too much this week his minutes will be important because of UCLA's big men of its own with Tony Parker and Thomas Welsh. Miller said slowing down those two forces inside - especially on the offensive glass - will be a big focus for the game plan as the Wildcats look to get a win in Pauley Pavilion this week.
"Thomas Welsh and Tony Parker combine for almost eight offensive rebounds a game," he said. "Parker more than four a game. You look at that part of their offense and that's something that whoever plays UCLA you're going to try and do a great job at taking as much of that away from them as you can. I'll start with that. If they do that against us it will be a hard night.
"We have to do a better job of keeping those two guys and their team off the glass, and if you do that I think you give yourself a better chance to be successful."
* One way you might see Arizona combat that size is by playing Tarczewski along with fellow big man Dusan Ristic. It is something that Miller had talked about earlier in the year, but the injuries to Tarczewski have put that plan on hold. Now that both big men are healthy it is something that Arizona plans to start sprinkling in as the season moves along.
"We have always envisioned playing those two guys in the game together for a stretch," Miller said. "Knowing that Dusan was well on his way to improvement and trusting Kaleb to do a lot of different things as a senior. It hasn't been in the cards because Kaleb hasn't been with us. We hope to move to that, and whether we can do that on Thursday I'm not sure, but it's something we would like to do for sure."
* Arizona and UCLA have really started to battle for the same recruits as of late and the Bruins have started to get their fair share of big-time recruits. When it comes to how the Wildcats approach things Miller said it is no different now that UCLA is starting to pull in some monster classes. And he also knows there is more that goes into it than just one game.
"I think the overall success of a program through a season has more of an impact," he said."Consecutive seasons, a four-year period. Now you just do the math, you catch someone in the seventh grade and they're a fan of college basketball and they're really thinking about where they want to go to school. They watch the success from seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth (grade) to me that has the most impact, and how the players in your program more than just a quick two hours."
* Miller continues to be happy with the progress his point guards make coming off a solid performance against ASU. Allen has continued to become a more fluid scorer within the offense and bring plenty of production while Parker Jackson-Cartwright has worked through a rough patch. Jackson-Carwright looked more comfortable Sunday and Miller likes the direction he is going in.
"I thought those guys did a great job in the last game," Miller said. "Kadeem is not just a point guard, he plays more than one position. Parker and him were in the game together some. I thought Parker did a great job of being a complete player ... a pass-first, true coach on the floor the other night. You can't judge him by his statistics in that game ... but in his minutes he really did a great job of running our team and also did a really good job on defense. I was happy to see that because I think one of the things that happened to Parker here over the last couple weeks of our nonconference is when you're in a shooting slump as much as you're gonna say 'that's not going to affect the other things I do' it does.
"And it started to take his confidence in some other areas, but the break was a good time for him. ... I was really excited to see him play well in that game."
Here are some of the notable topics discussed during Tuesday's press conference.
* When it comes to Kaleb Tarczewski, Miller said that his senior center will continue to come off the bench for now as the team takes things slow with him coming off the foot injury. On the plus side, Miller said there was no pain for Tarczewski after the Arizona State game and he is confident the big man will be able to play more minutes as time goes on.
* Even though Arizona might now let him off the leash too much this week his minutes will be important because of UCLA's big men of its own with Tony Parker and Thomas Welsh. Miller said slowing down those two forces inside - especially on the offensive glass - will be a big focus for the game plan as the Wildcats look to get a win in Pauley Pavilion this week.
"Thomas Welsh and Tony Parker combine for almost eight offensive rebounds a game," he said. "Parker more than four a game. You look at that part of their offense and that's something that whoever plays UCLA you're going to try and do a great job at taking as much of that away from them as you can. I'll start with that. If they do that against us it will be a hard night.
"We have to do a better job of keeping those two guys and their team off the glass, and if you do that I think you give yourself a better chance to be successful."
* One way you might see Arizona combat that size is by playing Tarczewski along with fellow big man Dusan Ristic. It is something that Miller had talked about earlier in the year, but the injuries to Tarczewski have put that plan on hold. Now that both big men are healthy it is something that Arizona plans to start sprinkling in as the season moves along.
"We have always envisioned playing those two guys in the game together for a stretch," Miller said. "Knowing that Dusan was well on his way to improvement and trusting Kaleb to do a lot of different things as a senior. It hasn't been in the cards because Kaleb hasn't been with us. We hope to move to that, and whether we can do that on Thursday I'm not sure, but it's something we would like to do for sure."
* Arizona and UCLA have really started to battle for the same recruits as of late and the Bruins have started to get their fair share of big-time recruits. When it comes to how the Wildcats approach things Miller said it is no different now that UCLA is starting to pull in some monster classes. And he also knows there is more that goes into it than just one game.
"I think the overall success of a program through a season has more of an impact," he said."Consecutive seasons, a four-year period. Now you just do the math, you catch someone in the seventh grade and they're a fan of college basketball and they're really thinking about where they want to go to school. They watch the success from seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth (grade) to me that has the most impact, and how the players in your program more than just a quick two hours."
* Miller continues to be happy with the progress his point guards make coming off a solid performance against ASU. Allen has continued to become a more fluid scorer within the offense and bring plenty of production while Parker Jackson-Cartwright has worked through a rough patch. Jackson-Carwright looked more comfortable Sunday and Miller likes the direction he is going in.
"I thought those guys did a great job in the last game," Miller said. "Kadeem is not just a point guard, he plays more than one position. Parker and him were in the game together some. I thought Parker did a great job of being a complete player ... a pass-first, true coach on the floor the other night. You can't judge him by his statistics in that game ... but in his minutes he really did a great job of running our team and also did a really good job on defense. I was happy to see that because I think one of the things that happened to Parker here over the last couple weeks of our nonconference is when you're in a shooting slump as much as you're gonna say 'that's not going to affect the other things I do' it does.
"And it started to take his confidence in some other areas, but the break was a good time for him. ... I was really excited to see him play well in that game."
