When Arizona lost senior center Kaleb Tarczewski to a strained muscle in his foot more than a month ago, the Wildcats didn’t miss a beat. They won seven of the eight games that he missed and backup Dusan Ristic performed admirably in his stead. A little more than a month later, Arizona finds itself in a similar situation as freshman Allonzo Trier is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a broken hand. This time, however, the Wildcats are going to have a much tougher time plugging the hole.
In a conference full of talented freshmen, Trier has quietly been one of the best. His immediate impact has been a big reason why the Wildcats have been able to weather their talent exodus from last season. Not only does the Seattle native lead Arizona in scoring (14.8 PPG), but he is also the team’s most efficient scorer (64.0% TS%) thanks to his success scoring from inside the three-point line and his ability to make free throws at a near-80 percent clip. He is still a work in progress defensively, but he is the team’s second-best three-point shooter (35.1% 3FG) and has been borderline irreplaceable in the lineup. And therein lies the biggest issue for Arizona moving forward – it doesn’t really have anyone on the roster who can suitably replace him. Ironically enough, when Tarczewski went down, Trier was the primary beneficiary. Before the big man got hurt, Trier hadn’t yet eclipsed 30 minutes in a game and was averaging 11.6 PPG. Since that time Trier played at least 30 minutes in all but three games and was averaging a more robust 16.1 PPG. The problem now is that the perimeter-starved Wildcats don’t have another five-star freshman to take his place in the rotation.
The obvious candidate to pick up the slack is junior Elliot Pitts. Pitts is familiar with the system, can shoot the ball from deep and is the same type of rangy athlete as Trier. The only problem is that Pitts hasn’t played since early December due to what the team still calls “a personal issue.” Without him available, the default candidate to replace Trier in the lineup is fellow freshman Justin Simon. Simon is a great athlete and was a highly-recruited player in his own right, but head coach Sean Miller hasn’t been willing to play him as many as 10 minutes per game short of a blowout. The last thing Arizona needed coming off its terrible trip to California was an injury to one of its guards. Gabe York has been arguably the team’s best player but the point guard duo of Kadeem Allen and Parker Jackson-Cartwright have been inconsistent. The Wildcats’ offense has necessarily taken a step back from last season’s blistering pace but it has been kept afloat in large part because the team makes almost 50 percent of its shots and Trier (62.8% 2FG and 58.7% eFG) is a big part of that. He also ranks eighth in the conference in fouls drawn per 40 minutes and there is little doubt that Arizona will miss his ability to create his own offense.
The Wildcats were the odds-on favorite to pull away from the pack and again win the Pac-12 a mere week ago. Now they are 1-2 in conference play and will miss their best scorer for at least the next month. The silver lining is that a broken hand has a relatively cut-and-dry recovery period. Without trivializing the injury, it has a more straightforward recovery process than a torn ACL or high ankle sprain. If the recovery estimates for Trier are accurate, the freshman should be back in the lineup with enough time to shake off the rust before the NCAA Tournament. In the meantime, Miller may want to consider covering the rest of his team in bubble wrap to ensure this is the last of the major injures.