The third time was the charm for the Arizona Wildcats and Sean Millerwho took his 300º victory in your 12º school season on Saturday by winning No. 17 USC on the road.
Our complete recap can be found on here, while below are Miller’s comments after Arizona overthrew the Pac-12 leaders to improve to 15-8 overall and 9-8 in the conference game.
In pulling a turn to his 300º game in Arizona: none “My thoughts were, I was very, very excited for my team and our coaching staff. Obviously, it was not easy, nothing was easy. We’ve been to some really tough games recently, in which I thought we played a lot, we played well and we just weren’t good enough to leave (with) the win. Tonight we were able to go from start to finish. I think it says a lot about our group of guys that they continue to fight. We really had to make an excellent game against an obviously very good and talented team. “
If this is like a playoff game for the Wildcats: “Each game in the final stretch is more or less like that, truth be told. I think our guys recognized that the USC had a great season, (is) competing for the Pac-12 championship. What do we have to play? We are playing for each other. We are playing for our program. We are playing for pride, our love for the game. If we manage to win some of those games in the end, I think it gives us something to feel good about, it gives our player something to feel good about. Tonight really falls into that category. “
When finishing 5-4 on the road: “In Pac-12, we played really good basketball on the road. We certainly didn’t defend the other night against UCLA. And in Utah, I didn’t think that in that particular performance we were really stuck and together. But all other games, win or lose, we really play a lot, we play well. That’s why tonight, being able to really break up, is a way of giving everyone a lot of confidence. ”
On the victory of the game on the line in the final six minutes: “I could feel at the four-minute mark that everyone was still very insecure, because we’ve been in this situation several times this year and it hasn’t always worked for us. It was nice to see us finish the game. “
In James Akinjo: “I think James is having a conference-only season. Statistically, if you look at its numbers, if you look at what it means to our team. He’s getting better and better, and I don’t think he always recognizes this, he’s controlling the game better than before. You can be a very good player and may not have the impact of winning that other really good players have. Tonight he just controlled everything. He can already score. But it’s like that extra 10 percent, that know-how, experience and knowledge of how to make moves that will allow your team to win. I really feel like he’s made a lot of progress in the last month, in the past six weeks. “
On Dalen Terry’s 2 point 3 point: “Of all the things that happened today, this is at the top of my list. No one is giving Dalen too much sugar right now. He had a very good time, it is important for our team. He is very important for our future and our program, and we believe him, I believe him. What I love about him more than anything else is his attitude. It just keeps showing up. He just keeps working. And it has been a while since he felt the shot go into action. But that does not mean that he stopped working early in the morning, before and after training. If you are talented and keep working, you will end up standing out. Our game in the state of Arizona, he’s a big reason why we won that game, because he got two three right. And tonight was the same, today was the same. So it’s great to see a young man with a great attitude getting well-deserved recognition and making the moves he made today. “
About the top USC 43-36: “We did not recover as well as we could against UCLA. It is very disappointing because it did not fail in the second half. There were no rebounds to get, but I thought UCLA really set the tone in the first half, because they hit 0 out of 10 on the 3-point line, which you know they are not going to go on like that, but now they would just stay one point. And why is that? Because they were the toughest team, and they got some really important second shots in the first half, and I thought that set the tone for many things in that game. We really talked to our people, our team, a lot about it. It doesn’t mean that they will respond, but they did. We were much more focused, much better physically. I think Azuolas had 12 rebounds at halftime today. If you have 12 rebounds at halftime against the USC, it’s an extraordinary effort. The recovery margin is a big reason why we won. Each of us in your teams has its strengths, and in meaningful games, you must put your strength on the table. Against Oregon and UCLA, we were unable to benefit, we were unable to bring that recovery force to the table and we lost both. “
On being able to recover after a defeat two days earlier: “You can only do a lot in practice now, get a good and quick recovery. It’s more about the discipline of being focused, being ready to go, being prepared. Our team was mentally ready to go tonight, we were prepared. Even though we hadn’t won the game, that’s how I felt when I watched the game. What’s really hard is losing the first game and learning from it, leaving everything behind to recover and getting the second game, especially when you’re on the road here in LA. I really give credit to our coaching staff and our players for really being able to recover and do that. “
On Christian Koloko’s difficult night: “I love Christian. Dude, he’s one of our greatest workers, he’s improved and is very important to our team. But we took care of it with him. He’s a great boy. He gets frustrated with the fouls, as many big guys do, (he) doesn’t feel like he’s getting the call, or the calls aren’t answered and he reacts. We talked to him a lot about it last year, especially in the final stretch, we discussed it this year. And he has to learn from that, it’s not a good move. I don’t want to say it any other way, but, like, I have the employees. I am the coach. We will solve this, but we are lucky because it is played like this, which often turns the tide of the game we played, we recovered, so I am happy that it happened. “
On the two great games of Azuolas Tubelis against the USC: “He is more comfortable against frontline players, even if they are great players, because he is very good himself. Where we have struggled with clashes is to force and really ask him to protect smaller wards and attackers, a skilled player. This is difficult for a 19-year-old freshman. I think that is one of the things that is really developing in him as a player, is that defensively we are asking him to do many different things in our attack. Sometimes it is being guarded by smaller and faster players, sometimes it is being guarded by bigger guys. And every time he plays, I think he gets more and more comfortable. He played a very good game. “
On Jordan Brown’s off-bench performance: “I thought Jordan Brown, this was one of his best games overall, too. You think Christian found problems while playing 10 minutes and failed, someone really had to work hard. I thought it was a double hit. It was Jordan Brown and Azuolas who did an excellent internal job. “
About what Brown needs to do to make this normal: “He just needs to grow old, he needs to acquire experience, more experience. Jordan, by game standards, is not a very experienced player. In his first year in Nevada, although he had a role, he was on a very veteran team and his role was not good. A year ago, despite training with us, he never played last year. And COVID affected him as much as anyone else. Not only did he not play for a whole year, we only saw him in August. The last time I saw him was in early March, and the next time I saw him was in August. We didn’t have the opportunity to continue working, so this is his real first year playing in college. He had a great time. He’ll be smarter on the court, he’ll get better and better. As you know, he can really score with his back to the basket. Now batting, being a better defender, just learning to be a better passer. JB is a really altruistic guy, but sometimes he moves and doesn’t recognize fainting. He’s starting to do that a little bit, so I just think this experience, a great offseason, more games, and I think you’re going to continue to see a more polished, better and better player overall in Jordan. “
As to why he told the broadcast team that he was confident his team would enter the game: “I just feel like I have a good pulse from our guys. We were disappointed with our performance against UCLA, especially in the high effort department. We approached that and felt that we would be ready. “
Enabled if the Oregon game will be played or next weekend is the end of the season: “We really don’t know. I mean, we are approaching that we have two more games on our schedule, maybe something will change this week. But this is how we are approaching it. “