SALT LAKE CITY– Allonzo Trier never met a shot he didn’t like, because that is what endless hours in the gym provides you, confidence. The junior has changed this season and for the Wildcats and himself, for the better. Trier has unexpectedly become one of Arizona men’s basketball’s main playmakers due to his ability other than shooting.
It has been a long journey for Trier, long considered one of the best scorer’s in the nation since his arrival to Tucson. But his path this year is two-fold, to lead the Wildcats to the Final Four and to increase his NBA draft prospects. Both appear to be trending up, something you may not have expected from watching past games.
“When you’re a scorer like him sometimes you try to make plays that aren’t there, because you’re so accustomed to scoring and maybe when he was younger he would do that,” Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. “He’s smarter now and he plays for the win. Some of the best passes tonight happened by him playing with the ball.”
In a key moment during Arizona’s 94-82 win at Utah, senior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright received his fourth foul. The momentum was already in the Utes favor and came to a crescendo with a layup by Utah’s David Collette to tie the game with six minutes left.
However, this was the moment Trier took the reins, doing little more than simply running the offense, but that was all the Wildcats needed. His play was able to keep Arizona afloat while buying minutes for PJC, it may seem small in its’ significance, but keeping Arizona composed was just what the doctor ordered.
“Man, he’s just a pro’s pro, he doesn’t gets rattled,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “He’s never too high, never too low…He just delivers every game. It’s fun to watch him just grow and watch him lead and watch him be the constant overall leader that we need him to be.”
Seven points, five rebounds, five assists and one turnovers on just five field goal attempts may seem small if you judge Trier by his preseason expectations as an All-American. However, All-Americans do what their team needs them to do in order to win games, and by that measure Trier was spot on.
“When he took that point guard position, I actually think he played great at the one and he made some great passes,” Rawle Alkins said. “Allonzo is a great player, when he is not scoring he does a lot of other stuff and pass to create for others and he can rebound.”
Merging his scoring and playmaking abilities make Trier an even more dangerous threat, it does for Arizona as well.
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