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“Oregon is becoming one of the best teams in our conference,� Miller said. “They’re fearless, play hard, they hustle and they just had a big win on the road at ASU. They came in here with some confidence about them. That’s what we expected.�

While the Wildcats turned the ball over on their first two possessions and totaled nine turnovers for the first half, Miller said their zone offense improved. They also faced a zone against Oregon State on Tuesday, when they had 10 first-half turnovers.

Certainly, the Wildcats were more efficient: UA had an offensive efficiency rate (points per 100 possessions) of just 97.48 points against OSU but put up a 117.5 rate on Saturday against Oregon.

With “the first half against Oregon State and first half Oregon, we combined for 19 – maybe that’s our zone attack and it also could be just sometimes players don’t make correct plays,� Miller said. The “first two plays of the game didn’t have a lot to do with zone. Had a lot to do with just for whatever reason we didn’t have a confidence about us for the first couple possession. But we’ll learn from it. We’ll play through it.

“Not every team is going to score 90 against Oregon. I can only go with points per possession and points per game. Even against Oregon State I know we had 21 in the first half but you have to remember we also had 41 in the second half so sometimes that happens in games. You have those moments when you don’t score but in the end it’s how did you end up doing. Our team is much more confident and better against any zone that you would have thrown out a year ago and I think we’ll only get more comfortable moving forward.

Miller said his decision to play Keanu Pinder 18 minutes Saturday after not playing him at all Thursday against Oregon State had to do with the foul trouble Dusan Ristic ran into as well as the smaller lineup the Ducks played as the game went on, going with power forward Kenny Wooten for only 12 minutes.

“Oregon State played big and we needed shooting and scoring against the way they play defense,� Miller said of not using Pinder on Thursday. “Dusan did a really good job (Saturday). It’s just once he got four fouls, Dana Altman is not gonna let him get away with playing with four fouls. He’s gonna take advantage of him and drive it, and they went small. They didn’t play Wooten. They went with their skilled lineup which we thought they might and Keanu and Ira Lee were the answers. And we went a little bit more with Keanu because he’s more experienced in that situation.�

Pinder actually started against the Ducks in the Pac-12 Tournament last season, though that was largely because Miller put him on Dillon Brooks instead of Lauri Markkanen, figuring that Brooks’ craftiness could result in Markkanen picking up some early fouls.

Pinder said matching up with the Ducks was somewhat easier without Jordan Bell around this time, collecting two blocks and a steal in his 18 minutes.

“I love blocking shots,� Pinder said. “Blocked shots come on transition baskets and that’s what really helps our team get energized.�

The 21 free throws Trier and Deandre Ayton combined for did not surprise Miller apparently.

“Nobody works harder than Allonzo,� Miller said. “He’s always in the gym. You know, some guys, you look at them (before a game) and you hope they’re awake. He’s already getting in 300th shots before the game.

“Deandre, I’ve never seen anyone like him. He has this unique skillset. I don’t even know if he works on his free throws outside of practice but I can tell you he’s heck of a shooter. He’s that person you play golf with-- you watch him swing one time and you’ve been taking lessons for three years and he doesn’t have to take lessons. He just has it. That’s him. That’s him.�

While Ayton and Pinder drew much of the postgame questioning, Miller ended his postgame media session by talking about Trier and Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

“I want to talk about two players who really deserve my attention,� Miller said. “One is Allonzo. A lot’s been made about his efficiency and you think about what he’s done this weekend. He played back-to-back two incredible games. Scored almost 50 points this weekend (Trier totaled 46) and was 11 for 11 from the free-throw line in a clutch game. He’s really playing well.

“And Parker, he had six assists to no turnovers, so out of our 17 turnovers, he had none. His assist-turnover ratio is now over 4 to 1 in conference play (28 assists to six turnovers), and once again he doesn’t get enough credit for the percentage he shoots from three (47.2)

“He had two bad games in a row where he doesn’t shoot the ball well but you gotta judge him on his numbers and I also thought he played really hard defensively in both games, did a good job against Payton Pritchard, and Payton’s a heck of player as well. So I thougth Parker was really our floor general and Allonzo played well.�

Miller also complemented Rawle Alkins, who had 13 points, three rebounds, six assists but five turnovers.

“I know he had a high-turnover game but I told Rawle before he came back that no matter how much he wants to be perfect, you don’t miss 11 weeks and just come back and be who you once were or who you want to be," Miller said.

“It is still gonna take some time. It is on the right track, thank goodness he’s healthy and playing, the best is yet to come for Rawle. He just had to work his way through a few things here and he will. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he doesn’t play great in the Bay.�

Our full coverage from the game, as well as PDFs of the box score and updated stats, are attached to this post.