Keep the ladder handy. Don’t put away the scissors.

By doing nothing this week, the Arizona Wildcats have not-played their way back into contention for a share of the Pac-12 title, enjoying the view while the league front-runners took a collective face-plant near the finish line.

If everything continues to go UA’s way Saturday — the final day of the regular season — Sean Miller and his guys could be snipping the nets at McKale Center.

On other hand, the Cats could still drop to a fifth seed for next week’s conference tournament in Las Vegas and miss out on the first-round bye that goes to the top four seeds.

Yeah, plenty at stake Saturday when Arizona State comes to McKale Center.

“Tying for first, that means a lot,” Miller said. “A lot of things would have to go our way, including us beating ASU. That’s the focus for us.”

(more…)

Sean Miller is looking for a harder edge on defense. Photo by Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller talked about it just last weekend. Defense. It’s not so easy to turn it on after you’ve turned it off.

And it was so off Wednesday night. Way, way off.

The Cats couldn’t flip the switch against USC. They stumbled and bumbled around the Galen Center, losing to the Trojans 89-78 in a damaging game to Arizona’s NCAA Tournament seeding and hopes of winning the Pac-12 championship.

“This was our worst defensive performance of the year,” Miller said in his postgame radio interview on 1290-AM, “and it couldn’t have happened at a worst time.”

Arizona gave up a 3-point play to forward Eric Wise 15 seconds into the game and just kept on giving up easy baskets.

USC shot 58.1 percent in the first half and 65.2 percent in the second half. The five players the Trojans used in the post positions combined to make 19 of 25 shots.

“Just a complete breakdown,” Miller said.

(more…)

Sean Miller was glum over his team’s second-half defense. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

There are times when Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller comes into a postgame press conference with a specific message. Saturday was one of those days.

Yes, he praised the effort of senior wing Kevin Parrom, who scored a season-high 19 points, saving Arizona with a flurry of three 3-pointers in a 72-second span of the second half as the Cats held off Washington State, 73-56.

And Miller talked some about the recent improvement of freshman 7-footer Kaleb Tarczewski, who scored a career-high 12 points.

Most of his other time at the interview table, spanning nearly 13 minutes, was spent talking like a disappointed father about this theme: (Take your pick of the money quote):

(more…)

Nick Johnson scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

This was the team that beat Florida, that beat Miami, that beat San Diego State, that was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation.

The Arizona Wildcats, after a sleepy opening 12 minutes, ran Washington out of McKale Center on Wednesday night, winning 70-52 and showing all the pieces that can make them dangerous in March.

The 3-point defense wasn’t “pathetic” — which is the word coach Sean Miller repeatedly used Tuesday in describing his team’s recent effort in that area.

The Cats didn’t back-slide in the second half, another Miller criticism.

They were physical, out-rebounding Washington by six.

They got scoring punch and balance from several players.

They didn’t have to deal with any drama … and, man, was that nice.

“It was a fun game,” said senior forward Solomon Hill, who led Arizona with 19 points, 14 of which came in the first half. “One thing we talked about before the game was to have fun. I think we had gotten away from that.”

(more…)

Was it the late-half turnover? Photo by Douglas C. Pizac-USA Today Sports

The conclusion of Arizona coach Sean Miller after a 68-64 victory at Utah: “We leave here with a great road win, but for me, it’s more of the same for our basketball team.”

Not being able to put games away. Inconsistent offense. Poor shooting. Disappearing defense.

But what really frosted Miller was a segment late in the first half.

Arizona had the ball with a 10-point lead, but a turnover by Mark Lyons led to a fast-break layup by Brandon Taylor.

“When we have the ball at the end of the half, we’re the worst team in the country,” Miller said in his postgame show on 1290-AM (KCUB).

“Not only don’t we get a shot, but we turn it over and we give them a breakaway, which we did again in this game.”

(more…)

Sean Miller is especially questioning his team’s defense of late. Photo by Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller isn’t one to panic. At least publicly.

His summation Thursday night of the state of the team — “20-4,” he said succinctly — serves both as an affirmation of Arizona’s success and as a shield to criticism.

Hard to argue with the record, right?

But this hardly seems like a time to be yelling, “Scoreboard!”

The ninth-ranked Wildcats have lost two in a row — at home to Cal and Thursday night’s game at Colorado, 71-58 — and haven’t looked good in the process.

The Bears outscored Arizona 17-2 at the start of the second half and led by double digits.

The Buffs outscored UA 20-4 during a 9 minute, 41 second stretch that spanned halftime and led by as many as 15.

“We played hard,” Miller said in his postgame press conference Thursday. “It wasn’t as if I was yelling at our guys to play harder.”

(more…)

Sean Miller still has a long way to go to be the best coaching Miller in the Pac-10/12 era. Photo by Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports

UCLA is retiring the basketball jersey of Reggie Miller tonight as the Bruins take on USC at Pauley Pavilion.

That got me thinking about a list I put together in late spring 2009, not long after the Arizona Wildcats hired basketball coach Sean Miller.

Pondering how common the last name of “Miller” is, and clearly having too much time on my hands, I researched the 10 best Millers of the Pac-10 era. Every school, every sport.

It’s a formidable list, with my top three choices all being members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, so Sean Miller has quite a lot of work to do.

But in just 3 1/2 seasons of work, Sean has carved out a spot somewhere in the top 10, so it’s time for an update.

Here are the top 10 Millers since the conference expanded to 10 teams in 1978:

(more…)

Gabe York (No. 1) has done plenty of cheering from the bench this season. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Gabe York’s time might be coming.

Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller isn’t going to commit to anything but said it is a “possibility” his freshman shooting guard could be part of the game plan as the team heads into Thursday night’s game at Washington.

York had sat on the bench for seven games until playing the final 8:11 of Saturday’s rout of USC, hitting 2 of 5 3-point shots en route to seven points.

That performance — combined with a positive attitude, good work ethic, improving defense and a nice outside shot — has given Miller another option as he tries to squeeze more improvement from his 17-2 team in the back half of the season.

“The hardest thing for a freshman is to not play at all,” Miller said.

“He’s handled it well. What has happened because he’s handling it so well is he has continued to practice, he’s continued to stay involved. And he’s talented. About two weeks ago, you could start to sense he continued to get better.

“For us, adding him into the game, whether that be in place of somebody or just another player, gives you that ability to make a shot, a three.”

(more…)

Pittsburgh point guard Sean Miller, on a fast-break against Providence, could have passed the ball ahead to Demetreus Gore. How boring that would have been.

Gore could have scored, probably easily, from the left side. Instead, Miller delivered a no-look pass to the right to rumbling Jerome Lane. He caught it in stride past the 3-point line and barreled toward the basket, rising up with the ball in the right hand and finishing with one of the most famous dunks in college basketball history.

Lane shattered the backboard … and ESPN’s Bill Raftery, gathering his thoughts for several seconds, screamed out the now-famous four words, “Send it in, Jerome!”

That was 25 years ago today.

“A lot of people call it ‘The Dunk;’ it’s definitely ‘The Pass,’” Miller, the Arizona Wildcats head coach, said with a smile at a local news conference two years ago. “The dunk wouldn’t have happened if the pass didn’t happen.”

The pass, the dunk, the call, live on.

This week, ESPN deemed Raftery’s words the 10th-best call in sports. The New York Times was among several media outlets reminiscing today about the play.

Said Miller, “It’s an experience that very few will ever have.”

UCLA coach Ben Howland is 3-5 against Arizona since Sean Miller arrived in Tucson. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona and UCLA haven’t met as ranked teams in basketball in nearly six years.

The Wildcats went through the choppy waters of the transition from Lute Olson before emerging with Sean Miller at the helm, navigating Arizona into calmer seas as the Pac-12′s most stable program.

Coaching, tradition, facilities, recruiting, fan support … nobody has it better than Arizona right now.

Then there’s UCLA. While the Cats were mired in coaching issues, falling from the Top 25, the Bruins went to three consecutive Final Fours from 2006 to 2008. Since then, UCLA has missed the NCAA Tournament twice, jumping the track with a myriad of player defections and, as described by Sports Illustrated last season, combustible chemistry and rosters filled with knuckleheads.

The league’s bellwether programs have been up and down, failing to intersect as ranked teams since Feb. 17, 2007, when fifth-ranked UCLA won at 19th-ranked Arizona 81-66. That would be Olson’s last time coaching against the Bruins.

It was Olson, almost 30 years ago, who began to make this a rivalry, usually the must-see Pac-12 matchup of the season. The programs have combined to at least share 20 of the past 27 regular-season conference championships.

The rivalry was roaring the late 1980s, catching the eye of Miller, who was a point guard from Pittsburgh at the time.

(more…)