The Arizona Wildcats basketball team came to Southern California, added two wins to their record and took third place in the DIRECTV Wooden Legacy Tournament, but it didn’t come easy.

Final Score: Arizona 68 Boise State 59

“It’s nice to come to the Honda Center and leave with a victory,” – Sean Miller

Nice is an understatement. It has to be more than nice to squeak out a third place slot without your star player, playing three games in four days, and almost losing your other star player a couple of times during the tournament. Let’s use the word ‘glorious,’ or ‘a relief,’ or a maybe even the word ‘miracle’ depending on how you viewed this weekend’s games.

Entering and playing in tournaments early in the season are a part of the process of getting your team ready for conference and NCAA tournament play. Coaches take their team outside of their comfy home arenas to play against competitive teams and learn about what your team needs to work on. Besides, it gives the freshman some time to learn the system live, and it gives the team time to get used to each other in pressure situations.

That is exactly what the Wildcats did. The Wildcats faced plenty of pressure situations over the last four days, so they should be right where they need to be, still learning and cleaning up what isn’t working so well. Miller reminded reporters once again that this team is not where last year’s team was at this time, so basically, don’t expect it to be.

The concept of ‘learning from playing early in the season’ is missing for some Wildcats fans who have no patience and forget that last season, Stanley Johnson was hogging the ball and T.J. McConnell, and Miller were schooling him all three games. Johnson didn’t catch on until the team started conference play, and even then there were some lessons to learn.

In this consolation game for third place, Allonzo Trier came down the court a couple of times and either ignored or didn’t see an open Gabe York or Kadeem Allen. Granted, his coaches and fellow teammates were all yelling at him or coaching him from the bench. Trier played with much more confidence today and had some moments of brilliance to boot plus he tied Kadeem Allen for the highest score of 13 points.

Miller explained (via Steve Rivera), “Allonzo scores easily (but) it’s a matter of him adjusting to the game on defense and him understanding the team aspect of things.”

York, for the record, was back to shooting in double digits, with ten points, two steals, four rebounds and two assists. York had more success dribbling in from the side, but not so much when dribbling up the middle, both him and Parker Jackson-Cartwright were met with a wall of Bronco’s.

Assists are where the Wildcats need improvement; they only passed for a score nine times. This isn’t lost on Miller; he consistently asks his player to pass the ball, rotate, pass, and pass some more.

The Cats turned the ball over 17 times again in this game, that’s now three straight games with 17 or more turnovers, that needs to get fixed and fast. It seems the team is missing a floor general, a point guard who talks, instructs and constructs plays on the court. Last year that player was T.J. McConnell, and this year, we have yet to see anyone step up although you have seen Tollefsen and Anderson trying at times.

In the first half of the Game against Boise State, two things were brutally obvious. One, the Wildcats could not guard the basket in the paint, the Bronco’s made one reverse lay-up after another. And two, bounce passing into the middle of a zone with a whole bunch of big feet in your way is not the way to get the ball inside.

In the second half, head coach Sean Miller was using every part of his body and face to convey what he wanted the team to do. Literally, his arms, his legs, his eyes, his emotions, and his voice. His voice got raspier as the game went on, we don’t know if the team understood what he was saying, but it was quite clear that the team at times was not doing what he wanted them to do. For instance, it would seem when Trier wanted to shoot or drive, Miller wanted the team to pass the ball around.

Nov 26, 2015; Fullerton , CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller reacts during the second half against the Santa Clara Broncos at Titan Gym. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

During the game, Ryan Anderson went down twice. The first time, he could hardly walk and had a serious limp, but the trainer worked with him, and shortly after walking it off, he came back into the game and made a difference. The second time, it looked like he tore an ACL or was seriously hurt because he was loudly screaming in pain.

Miraculously, and because Miller needed him to win this game, after about five minutes of reeling in pain, he dragged himself over to the bench, walked it off, had his ankle taped up and got back into the game. This time, however, he wasn’t as active, he didn’t transition when he didn’t need to, but he still helped the offense. Anderson ended the game with ten points, one block, and seven rebounds.

Miller used his entire bench today. Justin Simon played for three minutes; Chance Comanche came in for one minute, both were active on defense and confident on offense. The big change was how long Miller left Allonzo in the game, 26 minutes. This means Miller is focusing on developing him more, which is a great thing for the team. Trier shot 5-6 on FG’s and 3-4 on FT’s scoring a total of 13 points. Allen shot 4-6 on FG’s and 4-7 on FT’s also scoring 13 points.

The Wildcat shot 53.6% in the first half and 43.5% in the second half, averaging 49%. Both Boise and Arizona made 33 points in the second half, so really the game came down to the advantage Arizona had in the first half scoring 35 points to Boise’s 26 points.

The Cats only shot eight three-pointers, and only made two of them. Miller told reporters that he spent the last day and a half preparing for the Bronco’s, part of that must have instructions on not shooting three-pointers, and maybe that’s why Trier didn’t pass to York when he was open?

A total of 44 fouls were called in this game, and it may have changed the outcome of the game with three players fouling out. It seemed like a foul festival. These seem to be the same referee’s who called the fouls on the Wildcats after those two turnovers in the Providence game.

It's a foul festival pic.twitter.com/TN8nOtct5d — ZonaZealots Go Cats! (@ZonaZealots) November 29, 2015

Ryan Anderson fouled out near the end of the game much to Miller’s disappointment; he wants Anderson to be a senior influencer and he needed him in the game as there were still a few minutes on the clock. His fourth foul was a ticky tack call by the ref. After three games of what you could call interesting foul calls, Anderson joked with one of them, “Sorry Ref,” he said, and he was rewarded with a technical foul and a frown from his coach. It was his fifth foul.

Sean Miller’s Wildcats had a nineteen point lead in the final game of the tournament, but let it slip down to six at one point. Trier made a monster dunk to which the bench exploded, and then Kadeem made a sweet 3-pointer (one of two in the game), and that sealed the deal for the Cats win.

What Miller was proud of was the Cats defense today that held the Broncos to under 60 points. Part of that was due to early fouls called on Boise’s Nick Duncan who had to sit on the bench for longer than his coach wanted him too.

Boise States Nick Duncan played less in this game than the last, 24 versus 39 minutes, this was because he seemed spent energy-wise and he got in foul trouble early. Chants of “Dunkin’ Doughnuts’ could be heard each time he sat down, and that alone should have been motivation for staying in the game. Duncan ended the game with ten points; he also fouled out. James Webb III scored the most points for the Bronco’s, he scored 17 points and made ten rebounds recording a double-double.

Tollefsen had also fouled out, but not before he made three blocks, one steal, ten points and five rebounds. Mark’s performance earned him mic time at the post game presser along with Kadeem Allen. Miller felt that Elliott Pitts and Allen played bigger than their height and Mark being a versatile defender were the high points in the game, especially with the fact that the team did not have Kaleb Tarczewski. But even that has its benefits, it allowed other players to get some much-needed game time practice.

Here’s the post-game press conference:

Arizona fans did not show up for this last game in the tournament, and most of the fans who did show up were pathetic when it came to cheering and supporting the team. The only time you heard the UofA chant was at the very end of the game. Even on Thanksgiving day a rowdy Wildcats fan crowd showed up and supported their team. Of course, the biggest and loudest crowds turned up on Friday, the one game the team lost.

The Wildcats have a week to heal. Zeus will get an MRI when he gets home, and we should all hope for the best outcome as his presence was sorely missed out there.

Miller also said they are hopeful it is tendon/ligament issue rather than structural. Similar injury that Kaleb had on his other ankle — Matt Moreno (@MattGOAZCATS) November 30, 2015

The team also has a week to get ready to play an unyielding No. 10 Gonzaga Bulldogs team next Friday in the state of Washington. Zeus may not be healthy by then; he was severely limping on Friday. He has become a great leader and presence on the bench. At the end of the game there were four coaches and three or four players yelling at the team on the court, it was great, and the energy was unreal.

The Cats started a new streak with one win, let’s hope they find themselves and pull it all together and get a win against the Zags.