Arizona Wildcats Productivity Report: Arizona’s bigs came up small vs. Oregon State

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Surprise: Another rushing of the court after an Arizona loss (YouTube video screen shot, click on photo to access video)

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WHAT IS PRODUCTIVITY RATING?:
PP: Productivity Points (Points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocked shots, FGs made, FTs made added together and then subtracted by missed FGs, missed FTs, personal fouls and turnovers)
MIN: Minutes played overall
PR: Productivity rating per minute played (Productivity points divided by minutes played)

OREGON ST. 58, ARIZONA 56
PRODUCTIVITY RATING
* — STARTERS
[table sort=”desc”]
Player,Pos,PP,MIN,PR
*Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,26,34,.765
*T.J. McConnell,PG,23,35,.657
Gabe York,SG,12,25,.480
Elliott Pitts,SG,5,17,.294
*Stanley Johnson,SF,6,26,.231
*Brandon Ashley,PF,2,29,.069
*Kaleb Tarczewski,C,1,23,.043
LESS THAN 10 MIN,,,,
Parker Jackson-Cartwright,PG,-1,7,-.143
Dusan Ristic,C,-1,4,-.250
TOTAL TEAM,,73,200,.365
[/table]

PAC-12 RPI RATING
Present RPI ranking of the Pac-12.
[table=”desc”]
Rank,Team,Ovr,Pac12,SOS,Top50
No.9,Utah,12-2,3-0,20,2-2
No.11,Arizona,14-2,2-1,59,2-0
No.40,Stanford,11-4,3-1,79,2-1
No.64,Colorado,9-6,2-1,27,0-4
No.69,Washington,11-4,0-3,155,2-1
No.73,UCLA,10-7,2-2,28,1-6
No.85,Oregon St.,10-4,2-1,172,1-1
No.91,Oregon,11-4,2-1,109,1-2
No.104,California,11-6,1-3,99,1-2
No.115,USC,9-7,1-3,74,0-2
No.117,Washington St.,8-7,2-1,128,0-2
No.138,Arizona St.,8-8,0-3,82,1-3
[/table]

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OREGON ST. 58, ARIZONA 56

Arizona’s lowest productivity rating of the season last night (.365) coincided with frontcourt starters Kaleb Tarcewski and Brandon Ashley combining for only three productivity points in 52 minutes.

That’s a combined productivity rating of .058, far below their combined season rating of .515.

Arizona coach Sean Miller, a football fan, did something similar to a football coach pulling the starting quarterback after an ineffective three quarters. He sat Tarczewski and Ashley in the last five minutes of the loss, but even then, it did not matter as Oregon State continued to hit shots and be the aggressor against the Wildcats’ smaller lineup.

Miller and his staff are looking for more consistency from Ashley and Tarczewski, especially on the boards and on defense, in addition to contributing on the offensive end.

In last night’s loss, they combined for only nine points on 3 of 11 shooting from the field, three rebounds (Tarczewski had none) and one turnover without an assist.

Tarczewski, with a struggling season productivity rating of .477, has yet to lead the team in productivity in a game this season. Ashley (.550 for the season) has led the Wildcats once, in their win over Gonzaga, when he posted a ,500 rating.

After that victory over Gonzaga, Ashley was lauded as the difference maker for the Wildcats. Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic tweeted: “Arizona might have the best wings in the country, but no one is more important to its Final Four hopes than Brandon Ashley.”

Since that game 37 days ago, Ashley has posted a subpar .480 rating in eight games. He was at .618 overall after the win over the Bulldogs.

The change in confidence is at the defensive end when Ashley is matched against smaller, more athletic forwards. His lateral quickness is lacking against such players like UNLV’s Christian Wood and Oregon State’s Daniel Gomis. That leads to frustration from Ashley and Miller and it showed in both losses.

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Fed up with #arizonawildcats defense again, Sean Miller considers mixing in some zone & other notes from Corvallis: http://t.co/xM2I5TKEHc

— Bruce Pascoe (@BrucePascoe) January 12, 2015

HOW ARE THEY DOING?
Present RPI ranking of Arizona’s non-conference opponents. Arizona is No. 9 with a strength-of-schedule ranking of No. 85.
[table=”desc”]
Rank,Opponent,Rec,Result,Date
No.7,Gonzaga,15-1,UA/66-63 (OT),12/6/14
No.45,SDSU,11-4,UA/61-59,11/26/14
No.84,Michigan,9-6,UA/83-50,12/13/14
No.97,UNLV,9-6,UNLV/71-67,12/23/14
No.107,UTEP,11-5,UA/60-55,12/19/14
No.128,K-State,9-7,UA/72-68,11/25/14
No.135,Gardner-Webb,7-6,UA/91-65,12/2/14
No.144,Missouri,6-8,UA/72-53,11/24/14
No.188,UC-Irvine,6-8,UA/71-54,11/19/14
No.189,Mt.St.Mary’s,6-9,UA/78-55,11/14/14
No.203,Oakland,4-12,UA/101-63,12/16/14
No.256,Utah Valley,5-9,UA/87-56,12/9/14
No.284,CSUN,3-13,UA/86-68,11/16/14
[/table]

Ashley’s struggles in the losses to UNLV and Oregon State have coincided with those of starting wing player Stanley Johnson. His productivity rating for the season is a respectable .720. In the two losses, Johnson has posted a rating of only .387.

The Wildcats can ill-afford any of their players to have substandard games. Miller is in search of consistency from all of them, from Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

Four regulars are now below .500 for the season — Gabe York (.490), Tarczewski (.477), Jackson-Cartwright (.463) and Elliott Pitts (.268).

Miller has 15 regular-season games to raise their productivity ratings along with correcting Ashley’s slump. A lot of time remains in the process, as he calls it.

With his track record and the talent involved, there is reason to believe the productivity will come on a more consistent basis.

3 top observations of #ArizonaWildcats’ loss at OreSt: Zone ahead?/As Stanley Johnson goes so goes UA/What loss means http://t.co/EEsN3k1Epg

— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) January 12, 2015

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SEASON PRODUCTIVITY RATING
[table sort=”desc”]
Player,Pos,G,S,PP,MIN,PR
R.Hollis-Jefferson,SF,16,3,335,415,.807
Stanley Johnson,SF,16,15,326,453,.720
T.J. McConnell,PG,16,16,273,471,.580
Brandon Ashley,PF,16,16,258,469,.550
Gabe York,SG,16,13,177,361,.490
Kaleb Tarczewski,C,16,16,209,438,.477
P.Jackson-Cartwright,PG,16,0,76,164,.463
Elliott Pitts,SG,16,1,62,231,.268
AVG 5-9.9 MIN,,,,
Craig Victor,PF,8,0,38,57,.667
Dusan Ristic,C,16,0,66,134,.493
AVG 1-4.9 MIN,,,,
Matt Korcheck,PF,6,0,17,18,.944
Drew Mellon,SF,3,0,1,6,.167
Trey Mason,SG,4,0,-3,6,-.500
Jacob Hazzard,PG,6,0,-5,7,-.714
TOTAL TEAM,,16,,1830,3225,.567
[/table]

ARIZONA PAC-10/12
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR:
[table sort=”desc”]
Name (Year),G,S,PP,MIN,PR
Derrick Williams (2011),38,38,1190,1141,1.043
Sean Elliott (1989),33,33,1128,1125,1.003
Chris Mills (1993),28,28,838,870,.963
Sean Elliott (1988),38,38,1167,1249,.934
D. Stoudamire (1995),30,30,964,1092,.883
Mike Bibby (1998),35,35,905,1124,.805
Jason Terry (1999),29,29,877,1107,.792
Nick Johnson (2014),38,38,848,1254,.676
[/table]

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ARIZONA SCHEDULE/PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS
[table sort=”desc”]
Date,Opponent,Results,TeamPR,Productivity Leader,Pos,PP,MIN,PR
Jan. 11,Oregon St.,58-56 (L),.365,Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,26,34,.765
Jan. 8,Oregon,80-62 (W),.590,Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,26,25,1.040
Jan. 4,ASU,73-49 (W),.530,Dusan Ristic,C,14,11,1.273
Dec. 23,UNLV,71-67 (L),.446,T.J. McConnell,PG,28,39,.718
Dec. 19,UTEP,60-55 (W),.395,T.J. McConnell,PG,23,35,.657
Dec. 16,Oakland,101-64 (W),.835,Craig Victor,PF,13,10,1.300
Dec. 13,Michigan,84-50 (W),.640,Stanley Johnson,SF,31,27,1.148
Dec. 9,Utah Valley,87-56 (W),.710,Dusan Ristic,C,23,18,1.278
Dec. 6,Gonzaga,66-63 OT (W),.435,Brandon Ashley,PF,19,38,.500
Dec. 2,Gardner-Webb,91-65 (W),.745,Parker Jackson-Cartwright,PG,17,13,1.308
Nov. 26,San Diego State,61-59 (W),.525,Stanley Johnson,SG,29,37,.784
Nov. 25,Kansas State,72-68 (W),.540,Stanley Johnson,SG,21,25,.840
Nov. 24,Missouri,72-53 (W),.525,Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,25,23,1.087
Nov. 19,Cal-Irvine,71-54 (W),.610,Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,31,29,1.069
Nov. 16,Cal State-Northridge,86-68 (W),.605,Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,26,22,1.182
Nov. 14,Mt. St. Mary’s,78-55 (W),.660,Rondae Hollis-Jefferson,SF,28,21,1.333
[/table]

ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He has also written articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.