If the Arizona Wildcats really want more shooting from Justin Coleman, they can always feed him a pre-game meal of Kalua pork, barbecue chicken, some mac salad and two scoops of rice.

Maybe even give him a pair of flip-flops so he can properly shuffle over and pick up that Hawaiian plate lunch, too.

Because, outside of his Maui Invitational all-tournament effort last month, Coleman has been a different offensive player this season.

The Wildcats’ graduate point guard averaged 20.7 points and shot 57.1 percent from the field, including 58.3 percent from 3-point range, over three games in the Maui Invitational. He had a career-high 28 points and six 3-pointers against Gonzaga alone in the prestigious Lahaina event — but he’s attempted only 5.4 shots a game since returning to the mainland, shooting at a 42.1 percent rate.

One of those field goals fell in for the go-ahead 3-pointer in Arizona’s 70-68 win over UC Davis Saturday at McKale Center. But overall in nine games away from Maui, Coleman is shooting just 40.3 percent and 21.0 from 3-point territory.

Yet there’s a couple of points suggesting Coleman overall is on the right track.

One, Coleman is still the Wildcats’ most efficient shooters overall behind center Chase Jeter. He shoots 41.9 percent overall from 3-point range, and 51.0 percent from 2, giving him an effective field goal percentage of 56.5 that Kenpom rates No. 322 nationally.

Invisible within those numbers is Coleman’s ability to take and make clutch shots, as he did much of the time when the Wildcats needed a boost in Maui.

And on Saturday, when a broken-down play left the Wildcats deep in the shot clock with just over a minute left, Coleman shuffled over to the right to create space distancing himself from defender Siler Schneider — and fired the ball in with four seconds left on the shot clock.

“He had no choice. It wasn’t like the play worked,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “It’s hard on those scramble plays. Are they going to be in a zone or a man? You execute, the ball gets in, you just don’t want your guys to panic at that point.

“One of the things we talked about is if we get it in and the shot doesn’t present itself, we still have nine seconds. Just make sure we get the ball back to Justin, and he can make a play — and obviously, thank goodness, he did.”

So, Coleman is clutch. Didn’t matter that he had taken only one previous shot Saturday, which missed, nor than he had only hit two 3-pointers over the previous six games Arizona played upon returning from Maui.

“We know Justin can play like that,” Jeter said. “We’ve seen that play from him before. Coming down to Hawaii and hitting big shots for us, that’s something we expect from him, and I know he expects it from himself. I know he isn’t thinking about missing shots on the court in the game. … He’s a tough dude.”

The second point about Coleman’s role is this: He’s a true point guard who doesn’t look to engineer much for himself when running the offense.

Especially, Coleman said, when he has so many options around him. Not only is Jeter averaging 12.8 points and 7.0 rebounds, but Brandon Randolph leads the Wildcats in scoring (16.6 points per game) and Brandon Williams is the team’s most prolific 3-point shooter (67 tries, though just a 26.9 percent rate so far).

“I have a lot of great players I play alongside like Chase Jeter, who’s been playing extremely well,” Coleman said. “Brandon Randolph, whose been averaging (16.6) points every game. Brandon Williams also is a good player. I’m playing alongside a lot of great players, so every time I penetrate I get those guys shots and I let them do what they’re best at.

“My job is to penetrate and create for others as a point guard.”

Nobody knows that better than Miller, himself a standout point guard at Pitt in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But, as he once did with T.J. McConnell, Miller is seeking to find the ideal balance for his latest point guard.

Unselfishly creating for others might be Coleman’s main job, but being able to hit shots that can keep defenses honest — and sometimes win games — can bring his game to another level.

“We want him to be aggressive,” Miller said. “We want him to shoot when he has the opportunity. He does such a great job of getting in the lane and making people better that I think some of it is taking his own shot and mixing that in.

“That could help him. I think it could help our team because he’s certainly one of our team’s best shooters.”

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