Analyst Jacobsen: Sean Miller is a top-10 NCAA basketball coach

The season was not supposed to be over yet, especially given the matchup.

Yet, because the Arizona Wildcats could not hang on and beat Xavier Thursday night, their season — which featured a Pac-12 regular season co-championship as well as a Pac-12 Tournament title — is done.

Thirty-two wins, yes, but no Final Four in Glendale. Not even an Elite 8.

A guest of Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Friday, Pac-12 Networks analyst Casey Jacobsen pointed to Arizona’s inability to solve the various zone defenses Xavier employed as well as the 7-of-27 performance the Wildcats produced from three-point range.

“You’re not going to win hardly any games in the tournament when you shoot that poorly from deep,” he said.

Jacobsen went on to add he had no problem with Allonzo Trier’s three-point attempt in the final moments, a shot that rimmed out, because the sophomore was one of just a couple players who even looked like they wanted the ball in the game-deciding moments.

“There were a couple other guys who shrunk in that moment,” he said. “A couple of them are freshmen, so they get a pass in that moment, but a couple of them weren’t (and) they were kind of looking around like, ‘who’s going to take the shot?'”

There is no such thing as a pleasant tournament loss, least not for an Arizona program that seemed primed to get back to its first Final Four since 2001.

Virtually from the moment the clock reached zeros on Arizona’s 73-71 loss, talk about why it happened and where the program goes from here have been rampant. Much of that involves head coach Sean Miller, who in eight seasons has guided the Wildcats to six NCAA Tournament appearances with five Sweet 16s and three Elite 8s.

Just, no Final Fours.

Jacobsen was quick to praise Xavier coach Chris Mack, who helped lead the school to the Elite 8 for the first time since 2008, when Miller was the head coach. The Musketeers never strayed from their zone defense even while it was leading to the Wildcats crushing them on the offensive glass.

“This zone saved them, so you might give Chris Mack credit,” Jacobsen said. “Chris Mack is a fantastic coach, but against Arizona he didn’t have a lot options. If he goes man, I think he knows they eventually get worn down.”

Though Arizona outrebounded Xavier 35-27, including a 14-7 edge on offensive boards, the Musketeers shot 53 percent from the field while assisting on half of their made baskets and committing just eight turnovers. They did not wilt when the Wildcats went up eight with under four minutes remaining, and had enough left to go on a 12-2 run to close things out.

But while Mack may have had few options with his team Miller, with his collection of five-star recruits and future NBA players, should have had many with his. That the Wildcats could not find a way to beat Xavier’s zone and advance past a lower seed does not look good for Arizona’s coach, though Jacobsen does not put the blame on him.

The way Jacobsen sees it, there are few things a team can do offensively against a zone defense, which is designed to limit what a team can do offensively by taking away spots on the floor and passing lanes.

“I think Sean Miller’s one of the best, top-10 coaches in all of college basketball,” he said. “I’ve watched, personally, walk-through and practice zone offense hundreds of times over the three years I’ve been a broadcaster.”

Jacobsen’s point is that a coach can only do so much, because sooner or later it comes down to players. Arizona’s, did not step up on Thursday, but even with that disappointment, the analyst doesn’t see this failure as a sign that Miller and the Wildcats will never get over the hump.

“That’s what they said about Jay Wright at Villanova two years ago,” he said to that.

Wright guided the Villanova Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament title in 2016, but before that had made it to just one Final Four — in 2009 — in his previous 13 seasons with the school. Prior to the title, he had guided his team to five first-weekend exits in six NCAA Tournament seasons.

Miller does not compare to Wright exactly because, of course, Wright did make it to the tournament’s final weekend once before, in his eighth season with Villanova. But in terms of whether or not Arizona has one of the better coaches out West, the answer is yes.

“Besides Dana Altman, Sean Miller’s the next-best coach,” he said. “I don’t think anybody would doubt that.

Jacobsen said Miller has recruited well and besides, though he has yet to reach the Final Four, it is not as if they haven’t been close. He pointed to their back-to-back Elite 8 losses to Wisconsin, which were both incredibly close and incredibly disappointing for the Wildcats.

“This to me, this is as bad luck as anything else,” Jacobsen said. “Now this game, Arizona vs. Xavier last night, wasn’t necessarily bad luck, but we would be having a totally different conversation if maybe one of those two shots against Wisconsin a couple years ago goes in.”

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