Since players are working on preparing for the end of the semester it was just Sean Miller up for this week's press conference to preview Arizona's Wednesday matchup with Texas Southern. Here are some of the important topics discussed.
* First and foremost, the same announcement that has been made all season long was made again Tuesday as the media was informed that Miller would again not be making any comment on Allonzo Trier's status as things remain the same as they have all year long for the absent sophomore guard.
* One of the big stories of Friday night's loss was Lauri Markkanen fouling out and a couple of the instances came on plays where he had to hedge. It's something that has been different to him and going up against a more seasoned squad like Butler it proved to get the better of the Arizona freshman. Miller said it will be a learning experience for his big man as things move forward.
"Now that that's happened I think he understands that much better the importance of executing that the right way," Miller said. "And as a coaching staff I think matchups and the value of him offensively supersedes at times what we want him to do on defense. We have to adjust."
* The final minutes is what did Arizona in during its first loss and Miller called on a lack of poise as a big reason why his team wasn't able to finish that game. After getting a chance to watch the tape and review things there are some things the UA head coach would have changed up a bit.
"At some point in each game and sometimes more than once they'll move their four to the five and their three to the four and have three other shooters," Miller said. "So they play small. You have to have an answer when they do that. Our answer ahead of time was to go with our smallest group if we weren't in foul trouble. That would be to play Kobi and Rawle with Parker and Kadeem and then play one big.
"Unfortunately we didn't have the services of Lauri, which was kind of a part of our dysfunction at the end. That was a group that although gave us a great run ... but when we got under the three-minute mark when it was just half-court basketball we were very inefficient. We weren't working together and that's simply because that group had never really been on the court before offensively in that situation. ... But if I had a do over we would have substituted and played bigger down the stretch because I think our team would have been that much more comfortable on offense."
* Ray Smith is through his surgery now and he's in the recovery process and Miller said the now retired redshirt freshman by far had his worst injury with the latest one. His knee injury this time around was much more severe than the other two but he remains in good spirits and once he is able to get through the semester his role as part of the team will increase Miller said.
"It was the worst of the three knee injuries that he's experienced," Miller said. "It's almost astonishing to say that because everybody saw his injury this time. That was simply he landed on a layup. He pretty much lost everything in his knee you know everything was torn. ... It's hard to believe, it really is."
* Parker Jackson-Cartwright is playing a lot of minutes for Arizona right now and Miller trusted his point guard with the ball a lot down the stretch and there were some uncharacteristic turnovers in Vegas by the junior. Still for Miller is is about getting experience and learning to play more minutes.
"I think Parker will settle in," Miller said. "He's been great at taking care of the ball. His assists to turnover is right around four to one. Obviously he had a couple decisions down the stretch that he didn't want to do and we didn't want him to do it with turnovers but that's not just on him - trust me. That's on the other four guys, that's on his coach for not having his team organized and I think with Parker it's learning how that turnover happened so next time he's that much more ready.
"We were 5-0 with Parker having the ball in his hands and a big reason we were 5-0 before that game was because of his decision making and his incredible assist-to-turnover ratio. He did a lot of good things in that game, and he's one of the guys I'm talking about that he's never played this many minutes and he's not been a true starter. ... Things like this sometimes happen."
* First and foremost, the same announcement that has been made all season long was made again Tuesday as the media was informed that Miller would again not be making any comment on Allonzo Trier's status as things remain the same as they have all year long for the absent sophomore guard.
* One of the big stories of Friday night's loss was Lauri Markkanen fouling out and a couple of the instances came on plays where he had to hedge. It's something that has been different to him and going up against a more seasoned squad like Butler it proved to get the better of the Arizona freshman. Miller said it will be a learning experience for his big man as things move forward.
"Now that that's happened I think he understands that much better the importance of executing that the right way," Miller said. "And as a coaching staff I think matchups and the value of him offensively supersedes at times what we want him to do on defense. We have to adjust."
* The final minutes is what did Arizona in during its first loss and Miller called on a lack of poise as a big reason why his team wasn't able to finish that game. After getting a chance to watch the tape and review things there are some things the UA head coach would have changed up a bit.
"At some point in each game and sometimes more than once they'll move their four to the five and their three to the four and have three other shooters," Miller said. "So they play small. You have to have an answer when they do that. Our answer ahead of time was to go with our smallest group if we weren't in foul trouble. That would be to play Kobi and Rawle with Parker and Kadeem and then play one big.
"Unfortunately we didn't have the services of Lauri, which was kind of a part of our dysfunction at the end. That was a group that although gave us a great run ... but when we got under the three-minute mark when it was just half-court basketball we were very inefficient. We weren't working together and that's simply because that group had never really been on the court before offensively in that situation. ... But if I had a do over we would have substituted and played bigger down the stretch because I think our team would have been that much more comfortable on offense."
* Ray Smith is through his surgery now and he's in the recovery process and Miller said the now retired redshirt freshman by far had his worst injury with the latest one. His knee injury this time around was much more severe than the other two but he remains in good spirits and once he is able to get through the semester his role as part of the team will increase Miller said.
"It was the worst of the three knee injuries that he's experienced," Miller said. "It's almost astonishing to say that because everybody saw his injury this time. That was simply he landed on a layup. He pretty much lost everything in his knee you know everything was torn. ... It's hard to believe, it really is."
* Parker Jackson-Cartwright is playing a lot of minutes for Arizona right now and Miller trusted his point guard with the ball a lot down the stretch and there were some uncharacteristic turnovers in Vegas by the junior. Still for Miller is is about getting experience and learning to play more minutes.
"I think Parker will settle in," Miller said. "He's been great at taking care of the ball. His assists to turnover is right around four to one. Obviously he had a couple decisions down the stretch that he didn't want to do and we didn't want him to do it with turnovers but that's not just on him - trust me. That's on the other four guys, that's on his coach for not having his team organized and I think with Parker it's learning how that turnover happened so next time he's that much more ready.
"We were 5-0 with Parker having the ball in his hands and a big reason we were 5-0 before that game was because of his decision making and his incredible assist-to-turnover ratio. He did a lot of good things in that game, and he's one of the guys I'm talking about that he's never played this many minutes and he's not been a true starter. ... Things like this sometimes happen."
