Arizona Basketball: 5 Things on Wildcats' Holiday Wish List

It has been a picture-perfect start for the Arizona Wildcats so far this season.

After surviving two early tests against San Diego State and Gonzaga to compile a 9-0 record as of Dec. 12, Sean Miller’s team appears to be firing on all cylinders.

So what can you ask for a team that already seems to have it all? 

Well, you can hope for things to stay the same and continue to cruise along for one. Or, you can do a bit of wishful thinking and keep asking for more.

Here is a look at a few things that can make any Arizona basketball fan jolly this season.

The Arizona Wildcats managed to earn a No. 1 seed in last year’s NCAA tournament, despite having one of their best players in Brandon Ashley miss nearly half the season due to a foot injury.

They were eventually knocked out in the Elite Eight by Wisconsin in overtime, but who knows what could have happened for that team if Ashley had stayed healthy.

The expectations are high once again in Tucson this year, with the Wildcats currently ranked at No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll and considered as a title contender.

Fortunately, there haven’t been any major injuries to any Wildcats so far, and they can only hope it remains that way.

Knock on wood, Arizona fans.

Defense was one of Arizona’s biggest strengths last season, with the team allowing just an average of 58.6 points per game.

This year, that number is slightly higher at 60.1 PPG, but head coach Sean Miller knows his team can do much better in that category, and it starts with what he sees in Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. 

In Miller’s philosophy, the key to great defense lies in the unselfishness of the player, and he sees that in the sophomore forward. 

“Rondae (Hollis-Jefferson) has it. He had it last year, and he has it this year, where it doesn’t matter how many points he scores or what just happened—he’s the same,” Miller said, according to Tucson.com’s Bruce Pascoe. “When you look at him, you never question he’s unselfish. You just know he is because of how he plays.” 

Hollis-Jefferson’s numbers may not jump out at you, with him averaging just 1.1 blocks and 0.8 steals per game this season, but it’s the pressuring and helping—things that don’t show up in the box score—that he provides on defense that has keyed some of Arizona’s success so far this season.

One of the more impressive showings of Hollis-Jefferson’s defense came on Dec. 6 when he guarded every position during Arizona’s overtime win over Gonzaga.

Count on him to keep bringing the defensive intensity and for it to rub off on the rest of the team.

Freshman Stanley Johnson has been every bit as good as advertised so far this season.

He currently leads the Wildcats with 13.8 points per game and ranks second on the team with 6.4 rebounds per game.

Chances are, he will be on of the top picks in next June’s draft, but that does not mean he cannot find ways to improve while he’s with Arizona.

One of the few flaws in Johnson’s game at the moment is the amount of his turnovers (2.4 per game), and most times these turnovers occur off offense fouls or crowded areas when he is trying to penetrate the paint.

Johnson will need to learn to adjust to the college defense and bigger bodies inside and understand he may not be able to power his way through the competition like he used to in high school. 

Once he can adapt to that and gain a better control of his body, he can perhaps find ways to distribute the ball more as well (1.4 assists per game) and become a much more efficient player for Miller and the Wildcats.

For a player as skilled as Johnson is, there is still plenty of upside left.

Despite a perfect 9-0 record, the Wildcats have been prone to slow starts so far this season.

Part of the problem can be attributed to Miller’s strategy with his lineup, with him opting to use Hollis Jefferson off the bench. 

But Hollis-Jefferson provides such a spark for the second unit that Miller may not get elsewhere, so a shuffle in the starting rotation may not be the best solution.

That’s where T.J. McConnell and Kaleb Tarczewski need to step it up more for the Wildcats moving forward.

McConnell has seen his shooting percentages drop significantly in comparison to his numbers from last year. He is currently shooting 38.6 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three-point range after he shot 45.4 percent and 36.0 percent, respectively, during the 2013-14 season. 

Tarczewski’s numbers have diminished as well, with his points and rebounds per game numbers last season drop from 9.9 and 6.3, respectively, to 8.0 and 5.4 this year.

Arizona will need these two starters to provide more production in the early going in order to take the pressure off its bench and win games more comfortably.

Timely photography and social media can be a deadly combo sometimes.

With that being said, I present to you some of Sean Miller’s finest portraits. 

Credit to ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan for the find and of course the person who was genius enough to make this the newest Internet sensation. 

Also, to save you guys the time of scrolling through the comments on the Reddit page, the best one goes to the username “Antonton” for writing, “He looks like the lovechild of Bobby Moynihan (SNL and Joe Lo Truglio (Brooklyn Nine-Nine).”