Arizona basketball: Wildcats’ freshmen experiencing ‘baptism by fire’

Arizona’s freshmen have had no choice but to play through their mistakes

Sean Miller hasn’t had a choice.

His freshmen have to play — a lot.

With the Arizona Wildcats down to seven scholarship players, they need all hands on deck just to get through games intact.

Three of those seven players — Lauri Markkanen, Kobi Simmons, and Rawle Alkins — are freshmen and not only do they have to play a lot, they start.

And lead the team in minutes played.

The good news? That trio is getting valuable experience and is ahead of the learning curve as they continue their transition to college basketball.

The bad news? Freshmen make rookie mistakes and, in this case, they have to learn from them and make adjustments on the fly.

“Baptism by fire,” Miller called it.

So far, Arizona’s freshmen have handled it as well as one could expect, if not better.

The trio are Arizona’s leading scorers. Markkanen is averaging a hair over 16 points per game, while Alkins and Simmons are hovering around 12 points per contest.

All three are shooting over 36 percent from 3, too. And that doesn’t even take into account what they’re contributing in the other facets of the game. Markkanen, for example, is Arizona’s top rebounder while Simmons and Alkins provide athleticism on the wing.

In short, Arizona would be in deep trouble without its freshmen.

“The role of our three freshmen cannot be understated,” Miller said after the 64-54 win over Grand Canyon on Wednesday. “We are depending on them to make scouting decisions that are usually reserved for an older player, guarding really good players, playing heavy minutes. They have to score and play well for our team to win. It’s bringing out the best in them.”

Unsurprisingly in that victory over Grand Canyon, it was the Wildcats’ freshmen that led the way. Simmons had a team-high 13 points, while Alkins and Markkanen each added 11.

“They’ve done a great job of helping the team and I think they’re going to keep it up from this point because they’re still learning our system and they’ll be better and better,” junior center Dusan Ristic said of the freshmen.

And they need to be better, even if they have already been invaluable to the Wildcats’ success.

Miller used Simmons and his defensive rebounding ability — or lack thereof — as an example.

The springy 6-foot-5 guard has just 18 defensive rebounds through 11 games.

”He’s not used to defensive rebounding,” Miller said. “He’s never really had to do it. And a number of times what he does is he plays really hard defense and then he leaks out. Well, when you’re playing against a team like Grand Canyon, you need all five defenders on the glass. And I think if you look at his statistics on the season…He’s averaging one defensive rebound.”

And that’s exactly how many Simmons grabbed against GCU — one.

“If he keeps rebounding hard the next couple of games he’s going to tie as many defensive rebounds as Parker (Jackson-Cartwright),” Miller joked, followed by a long pause. “Parker is 5-8 and he hasn’t played in the last four games.

“(Kobi) has to rebound for us.”

If he doesn’t? Simmons — and his team — learn the consequences the hard way.

“If he doesn’t rebound, it hurts our team,” Miller said. “What better way to teach him that than to see the repercussions when you don’t block out? So, that’s part of why (the freshmen are) growing up.”

It’s why “baptism by fire” is both a good thing and a bad thing.

On one hand, it forces the first-year players to play through their mistakes — for better or worse — and thus expediting the learning process.

At the same time, it puts Arizona at risk of losing when those same rookie mistakes pile up.

The Wildcats might be able to get by against teams like Grand Canyon or UC Irvine when that happens, but they might not be so fortunate against Pac-12 teams or Saturday’s opponent — Texas A&M.

“We’re a work in progress in a lot of ways for a number of well-documented reasons,” Miller said after a tough win versus Grand Canyon. “Do I think [the freshmen] are developing? No doubt about it. (But) that doesn’t make us feel good on a night like tonight or on Saturday (against Texas A&M because) you don’t have a lot of room for error when you make a lot of mistakes.”

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You can follow this author on Twitter at @RKelapire for more Arizona basketball coverage.

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