Miller benching Max and not benching Smith is just mind bogglingly enraging.
Miller says he benched Max for taking a quick 3 before half. Yet Miller keeps Smith in after he has 3 trouble possessions at the start of the half.
Miller also say Nico for way to long in the 1st and second half. He also used all our timeouts in the 2nd half. This was not a well coached game by Miller at all.
See Miller talking about benching Max.
https://twitter.com/AGWildcatReport/status/1221307226339467264
How many postgame press conferences of miller "owning" the loss do we need before he gets better or we move on? I'm over it
I assume you meant Benching Green?? Pretty sad when he tells the press that MAx didn't play because he shot an errant 3....wtf...what if he made it??? CSM is an idiot. Whats to say that when MAX came back in he might start the 3 barrages again..and game over...keeping him out was just a very poor coaching choice.
Wow
https://twitter.com/DavidKellyKVOA/status/1221339351419965440
This is really an awful coaching move by miller. If anyone has earned the right to take that quick three, it was Max. He had just made 9 of em in the previous two games.
I don't even know what to say to this. I am beyond frustrated.
Stupid Hazzard: It was a stupid play by Hazzard; one probably born out of lack of playing time/experience.
Stubborn Miller: (1) If Miller gave Hazzard more playing time in these last few games like he deserved then maybe it does not happen and (2) the time of punishing players for mistakes is over. At this point you need to win the game, so so leave the players in the game that give you the best chance to win the game. In the 2nd half, Hazzard (even with his defensive deficiencies) would be hard pressed to play as poorly as Green and Smith.
Quote from: PacSouthwest on January 26, 2020, 10:06:11 AM
Stupid Hazzard: It was a stupid play by Hazzard; one probably born out of lack of playing time/experience.
Stubborn Miller: (1) If Miller gave Hazzard more playing time in these last few games like he deserved then maybe it does not happen and (2) the time of punishing players for mistakes is over. At this point you need to win the game, so so leave the players in the game that give you the best chance to win the game. In the 2nd half, Hazzard (even with his defensive deficiencies) would be hard pressed to play as poorly as Green and Smith.
Exactly. Who the hell takes a shot with 10 seconds left in the half, when you're up by a mile? assu had momentum, leading in the 2nd half because Hazzard didn't play like a Senior. Miller had to prove a point...but it was a costly point because nobody else could hit a shot to save their lives in the final 20 minutes.
On Miller benching Hazzard. He's gone 9-16 from 3 recently & gets benched for 1 mistake?? We then proceed to shoot 0-8 from 3 & couldn't buy a bucket in the 2nd half at asu. Max deserves more minutes & a green light to shoot as much as he wants. Let em play coach! So frustrating!
Dylan Smith trash talking the asu crowd after every shot he makes in the 1st half was embarrassing. Smith is a 5th year senior who choked yet again at the free throw line missing 2 free throws(choked at Oregon missing front end of 1 and 1 also). There's no excuse. You can't miss those free throws! Freshman Nico Mannion goes up next and drains 2 free throws like nothing right after that.
Apposing coaches know that Dylan will crumble in crunch time and if he's playing in an end game situation he'll probably miss key free throws and we'll lose. Smith playing 32 minutes in a game is an absolute joke and he needs to come off the bench and be taken out of end game situations. I just don't think Miller will take Smith out. He'll live and die with Smith just like he did with PJC.
Jacob was not happy with Miller either.
For the record I thought Jacob should've gotten a little playing time as a walk-on his senior year since he could shoot and our team was lacking a shooter.
https://twitter.com/JacobHazzard/status/1221298302282420224
https://twitter.com/JacobHazzard/status/1221300463267532800
Quote from: WILDBeaker on January 26, 2020, 11:11:12 AM
On Miller benching Hazzard. He's gone 9-16 from 3 recently & gets benched for 1 mistake?? We then proceed to shoot 0-8 from 3 & couldn't buy a bucket in the 2nd half at asu. Max deserves more minutes & a green light to shoot as much as he wants. Let em play coach! So frustrating!
You're exactly right. His favorites (Getting's, Green and Smith) were much worse and make stupid mistakes. You'd think Miller would recognize the hypocrisy before speaking about it. Just goes to show how stubborn, single-minded and driven by his failed philosophy to realize this.
Hazzard was terrible in the first half. Stood no chance guarding ASUs guards. Does anybody actually think Miller would keep him in the game because he might start hitting threes to counter his inability to defend? And the play before halftime with ten seconds left, jacking up a crazy shot and giving ASU even more momentum to end the half killed us.
Also, how many times has Miller cautioned fans about playing fast on the road and taking quick threes, the game can get away from you real fast. I for one was fine with the benching. At this point, Hazzard is a great three point shooter at home. His defense has been great at times, but he didn't have it at ASU. Trying to get back in a game, or stay in a game by shooting threes is never going to work. EVER. I know Josh Green had a terrible game, but he can still defend and rebound, so you bet your ass you keep him out there.
Green had a bad night. This was not typical of him, so I wouldn't pull him for Hazzard unless he was injured or in early foul trouble.
Dylan and Stone? Absolutely.
Max did not play well when he was out there a missed 3 an layup an a tournover that led to a layup however he deserved a oopurtunity in 2nd half to see what he could do Arizona could not shoot in 2nd half an nico with foul trouble really hurt.
I'm hearing that Miller specifically told the team not to take a shot until right before the time was going to run out in the 1st half. Max didn't play because he chose not to listen to the coach and he shot the ball with 13 seconds left which gave asu the ball and Martin goes on to score before halftime.
I now understand why Max was pulled. As a coach if you have a player goes against what you just told him then you have to make a point of benching the player for insubordination. Yes, maybe he could've put Max in at some point, but Max shouldn't have done that. If he listens we may have won the game.
Okay now I understand why he was pulled - those two points were basically the game winning points. What I still object to was how Miller handled it. He could still have put Max back in sometime in the second half and had the same teaching goal IMO. It is still a very frustrating game for me as a fan.
Your using one incident to justify the way Miller interacts with players. He does not have the ability to motivate and set the tone for the team. Honest question when was the last time anyone seen the team relaxed and enjoying the game? I see it when the team is playing a cup cake opponent and leading by a large amount, but against even an average opponent it hardly ever occurs. JMO
They've had lots of fun this season. The 1st half of the asu for example. Then they decided they had the game in the bag and started to get lax and not play defense in the 2nd half.
Quote from: Wildcat4life on January 28, 2020, 08:44:33 AM
Your using one incident to justify the way Miller interacts with players. He does not have the ability to motivate and set the tone for the team. Honest question when was the last time anyone seen the team relaxed and enjoying the game? I see it when the team is playing a cup cake opponent and leading by a large amount, but against even an average opponent it hardly ever occurs. JMO
Pulling Max didn't lose the game. The team shot poorly, Nico had zero assists and we gave up a lot of offensive boards to smaller players.
That's not on Miller. Arizona had a bad half. Despite trying to slow the momentum with timeouts, the team was just off.
Miller confirmed this in his press conference moments ago.
https://twitter.com/RKelapire/status/1222235117063569408
One more thing on this, I regret making the title of this thread "Miller benching Max is mind bogglingly enraging"
I now realize that we as fans can not really judge the coaches decision when he benches players. The reason being is that we do not know the full story. Miller did let us know that he told the team not to shoot until the last second of the half & Max did not listen. We do not know anything else. We don't know if Max got crazy with Miller in the locker room and started hitting or throwing things or maybe he just told the coach he's going to do what he wants mocking him. We just don't know. We do know that Miller said it's over and done with. I know a lot of fans will still say that Miller was wrong and maybe he could've let him play some in the 2nd half, but we don't know the full story.
QuoteWe do know that Miller said it's over and done with.
his press conf comments on this were fantastic, coaches managing their players "happens all of the time" and everyone on the team has moved on