Arizona's experience, versatility pays off as season hits home stretch
TUCSON, Ariz. -- There's no substitute for experience and playing well at the right time. And sixth-ranked Arizona has both going for it, as evidenced last week in a close-call victory against Utah.
Those traits will be essential moving forward, Arizona coach Sean Miller said Tuesday.
"You want to be at your best (now)," Miller said at his weekly press conference. "Part of it is health, but that can change at any given moment. We have had a good stretch of health. (And) we have a number of players who have been in (those) types of games before."
Timing is everything as the calendar flips to March, and Arizona (26-3, 14-2 in the Pac-12 Conference) it has at least four players -- junior Gabe York, senior T.J. McConnell, junior Kaleb Tarczewski and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson -- playing some of their best basketball of the season, and perhaps their careers.
"March is the month that you're judged in college basketball, whether we like it or not," Miller said. "Sometimes you can make the case too much emphasis is put on this month, but it's no different in any sport."
Said McConnell: "It's really good to be playing really good basketball in March. To get it from five, six, seven guys is pretty good. We need that rolling into these next two games and into Pac-12 tournament and NCAA tournament."
But first comes the final two games of the regular season, and the last two for many of these players at McKale Center -- Thursday vs. California and Saturday against Stanford.
Arizona needs to continue winning to have a chance at a No. 1 seed in the West.
"We can't really control that," Miller said of a possible No. 1 seed. "If we start thinking in those terms you get away from what is maybe the most important. We have two games at home. If we get too far ahead, we won't play well against Cal. Everyone in our conference can beat us. We've proven that."
Losing at home, however, has been a rarity. With Gonzaga's loss last weekend, Arizona has taken over the nation's longest home court win streak, now at 36.
While Arizona's veterans seem to be peaking at the right time, freshman standout Stanley Johnson has run hot and cold recently. Against Utah, Johnson went 3 for 19 from the floor and was benched in the game's final minutes.
"It wasn't as if I intentionally tried to punish anybody; I know it might seem that way," Miller said. "One of the things that happened at the end of game was Gabe York made some incredible plays, not only on offense but defense . . . he's been there so many times that we rewarded Gabe as opposed to punishing anybody else."
Miller said Arizona's collective effort vs. Utah was one of its best, but it's been that way for much of the last few weeks, save for a loss misstep at Arizona State. The bench has been important in helping bail out the starters a time or two, as well.
Dusan Ristic's performance against UCLA and York's in both of last week's wins over Colorado and Utah are perfect examples.
York has put together three consecutive strong games, hitting 12 of 24 shots (8 of 16 from 3-point range). In his last seven games, he's averaged 10.2 points, four rebounds and has had four blocked shots.
Hollis-Jefferson has averaged 7.8 rebounds and 11.8 points and has become more of an offensive threat, something he didn't show much in the first two-thirds of the season.
But it's probably Tarczewski who has made the most strides in the last five games, averaging 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds. He has not shot worse than 50 percent in any of those games.
"Everybody is now onboard with Kaleb because he's scoring more, he's catching the ball and doing a lot of things the fans can see," Miller said, adding his center has continued to do the things people don't see in box scores, including defense and court smarts. "He's one of the key elements to our defense the last two and a half years. ... He makes life a whole lot easier."
The fixture is McConnell, who has seemingly emerged as the front-runner for the conference player of the year award. In the last seven games, he's averaged 11.8 points, 6.4 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game. He's shot 32 of 61 during that stretch.
Given all that, it's little surprise Arizona is in the position that it's in -- the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament and one win away from the outright Pac-12 title.
"Every guy has had his moments, but that's why you need more than one, or more than just the starting lineup," Miller said. "You want to be a team in every sense of the word. "
Follow Steve Rivera on Twitter
