For the third time Sean Miller has earned the Pac-12 Coach of the Year award. The adversity has been well documented for the Arizona head coach this season from losing one of his players for the season to a third serious knee injury to his top returner for 19 games because of a suspension and a bevy of other set backs in between. It may have been his best coaching job at UA and the other coaches in the conference agreed giving him the award over Dana Altman and the other coaches in the Pac-12 this season.
Arizona heads into Las Vegas and the conference tournament as the second seed overall, but Miller's job leading his team to a 27-4 record and 16-2 in Pac-12 play was certainly something to see over the course of the year. Miller called it a grind after Saturday's win over Arizona State securing a share of the regular season title.
"This is by far the proudest I have been of our coaching staff and our team since I've been at Arizona," Miller said Monday. " ... There were just too many times from October on when we didn't know our outcome and we didn't really know our future. We got hit with a lot of different things that could have derailed us. And if I give my honest answer on why it's because of the incredible foundation and support that we have here at Arizona."
The season has set up the Wildcats for another strong run in March and Miller's award was just one of the honors UA picked up Monday.
Despite finishing second in the conference Arizona, as it has traditionally done under Miller, has relied on different players throughout the year so not one player necessarily shines over the other. Still, if there was one player who fit into that mold it was freshman power forward Lauri Markkanen who presented matchup problems for other teams and showed why is projected as a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft this year.
For his efforts Markkanen was the sole Wildcat to make the Pac-12 first team Monday with teammates Allonzo Trier and Kadeem Allen being named to the second team. In addition to those honors. Markkanen and Rawle Alkins were named to the All-Freshmen team as well.
Although Allen didn't win the conference's defensive player of the year award he was part of the Pac-12 All-Defensive team.
Arizona now gets to wait until Thursday to start its road to the Pac-12 Tournament title in Las Vegas facing Colorado or Washington State at 7 p.m. MST.