Arizona basketball succumbed to pitfalls of roster turnover in 2015-16

On paper, sixth-seeded Arizona had more talent than its first-round NCAA Tournament opponent.

But more was a slim thing to bet on when parity began as and remained as the storyline of the Big Dance. Two five seeds and two six seeds went down Thursday.

A 65-55 loss to the 11th-seeded Wichita State Shockers ended the Wildcats’ postseason run the earliest of four tournament appearances under coach Sean Miller. Afterward, it was hard not to reflect on the why by recounting what Miller said days earlier, when his team bowed out to Oregon in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament.

“We have to replace half of our roster every year, and every once in a while you won’t quite be as good as you were a year ago no matter how hard you try,” Miller said at a podium in Las Vegas. “I think everybody knows that this year in the field, a lot of different teams can make their way.”

Count Wichita State as one of those teams.

Count Arizona as a team that never coalesced.

Roles never became set in stone, trust was never gained between coach and bench, and the continuity between the talent and the leadership on the roster was never navigated, never put together.

Blame can be strewn about, but maybe it’s most fair to say the Wildcats never found enough confidence as individuals or each other to weather a fight they got against the Shockers, who entered with the best defensive rating in the country.

always loved the intensity of coach miller, but he can’t want it more than the players…

— Solomon Hill (@solohill) March 18, 2016

Coach Miller is playing harder and he is not even on the court smh

— Kevin Parrom (@KevinParrom3) March 18, 2016

Wichita State took away Arizona’s post entries and dribble-penetration, holding the Wildcats to 27 percent shooting in the first half. For a team that creates shots few other ways, it was a death sentence.

By the end, the Shockers had forced 19 turnovers leading to 22 points and held Arizona to 20 field goals.

No, the Wildcats’ offense wasn’t expected to operate as smoothly as it had all year, but the fact that a team usually great at getting to the foul stripe only went to the line 15 times said much about the final result. Arizona wasn’t the aggressor in the loss.

And thus, the shell-shocked Wildcats met their match.

While Arizona relied too heavily this season on two seniors better cast as role players (Gabe York and Kaleb Tarczewski) and three more who showed inexperience in the postseason (Allonzo Trier, Kadeem Allen and Ryan Anderson), the bench wasn’t good enough to make up for the weaknesses, even in spot duty. Thursday, the second unit was outscored 27 to eight.

Miller’s focus turns to next year after the annual reset button is pushed.

This time, graduations more than NBA Draft defections will force turnover.

Arizona has two 5-star guards, Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins, plus power forward Lauri Markkanen possibly fighting for starting spots as freshmen. Small forward Ray Smith, if healthy after missing his freshman season due to a knee injury, could prove pivotal for a team that this season lacked a defensive presence on the wing.

The Wildcats are still hoping to add to their recruiting class.

“It’s an important recruiting class, and I think for us to be able to hit it out of the park in the next month is big. Hopefully we can do that,” Miller told the media in Providence.

Trier’s future looks uncertain. If he decides to return, he, Allen, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Justin Simon, Dusan Ristic, and Chance Comanche will presumably provide depth if they don’t win starting spots.

Allonzo Trier on his future with Arizona: “No comment.”

— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) March 18, 2016

The biggest disappointment this year: Unlike fellow power-houses like Duke and Kentucky (for now), Arizona, whose bar is also set high, failed to take advantage of a tournament field where few teams separated themselves from the pack.

It happens.

Like Duke and Kentucky, a talent depletion hit the Wildcats the same year it did most others.

The key in not letting one failed season get a program down?

Being prepared to make fans to forget this year with a deep run next.

“And as much as I would like to say, hey, I wish we could have won 30, we might have ended up right where we should have been, and now it’s up to us to grow from it, learn, and come back with a vengeance a year from now or whatever and be better,” Miller told the media after the loss.

“A year ago I stood up here at this podium a couple weeks from where we are right on the brink of a Final Four. I didn’t know Kaleb was coming back. I thought we were going to lose seven players. To think where we were then, and here we are, this is kind of how it feels when you lose as many as we did and bring in a few guys.”

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