Stat of the night

[rgdeuce]

Just checked the box score.. One minute left and Arizona only has one player with more than one assist. That player is Kaleb Tarczewski, with two.

[rgdeuce]

6 assists to 19 turnovers

[pokinmik]

Wichita forced us to initiate our offense so far out tonight. Their hands were up and in our face, and in the passing and dribbling lanes all night. We got harassed and let it happen. Wichita plays D the right way. They made us uncomfortable - that's the name of the game.

[catgrad97]

Credit to Wichita, but this team got what was coming to it.

[Gilbertcat]

Love how Az losing being an underdog and lower ranked is a huge upset in the media's eye. Dumb idiots are just pouring it on. Remember it all for an up year is coming.

[CalStateTempe]

The only one shining moment clip we'll be in is getting posterized.

[Frybry02]

Gave up 65 points and were never in the game.

[cats101]

Miller got worked

[Merkin]

No point guard on the team, that hurts for PGU, and especially a former PG like CSM.

[3goggles]

Love how Az losing being an underdog and lower ranked is a huge upset in the media's eye. Dumb idiots are just pouring it on. Remember it all for an up year is coming.

Hey duke lost in the first round to mercer before the loaded up and won the title last year! Just saying! BEARDOWN and bring on 16-17

[dirtbags]

it's too bad we hadn't played wichita state earlier in the season so our guys could have actually seen what a constricting defense is supposed to look like. and then hopefully emulate it.

great performance by wsu. i'm not s gregg marshall fan, but best of luck to the shockers on saturday vs. miami.

[3goggles]

Miller got worked

Not really this is all on the players

[Merkin]

Miller got worked

Not really this is all on the players

[pokinmik]

Love how Az losing being an underdog and lower ranked is a huge upset in the media's eye. Dumb idiots are just pouring it on. Remember it all for an up year is coming.

Hey duke lost in the first round to mercer before the loaded up and won the title last year! Just saying! BEARDOWN and bring on 16-17

Yep, we get JJ this will be the hope! Could definitely happen. Final Four in Phoenix will be epic.

[Bangkok Wildcat]

Credit to Wichita, but this team got what was coming to it.

Just had to congratulate some WSU cousins on FB....the only saving grace was they hate KU too . Didn't get to see this horrible game but am not surprised by this team.....just really sorry to see Zeus go out this way.

Am so ready for next year. This has to be the most under-performing Miller Arizna team to date.....of course having substandard guards, and no 3 thanks to injury didn't help......first round flame-out.....Haven't been this disappointed in an Arizona Basketball team in a very long time......

[gumby]

Game was a microcosm. Couldn't beat a good team outside McKale after the Gonzaga game. Couldn't handle strong guard play. Need a serious upgrade in the backcourt, a recommitment to defense and a shit ton of new shirts for coach.

[Spaceman Spiff]

it's too bad we hadn't played wichita state earlier in the season so our guys could have actually seen what a constricting defense is supposed to look like. and then hopefully emulate it.

great performance by wsu. i'm not s gregg marshall fan, but best of luck to the shockers on saturday vs. miami.

It really sucks to be the worse defensive team in a game. That really hasn't happened to us for years, but it happened a lot this year.

[rgdeuce]

For as bad as things were, the turnovers are whats jumping out at me. In a 10 point loss: 19 turnovers. Wichita State had 22 points off turnovers. Thats right, 1/3 of their points came off turnovers. Our transition defense has been brutal all year and last night was no exception. Wichita State would have struggled to even get to 50 last night if we took care of the ball. Sean Miller has talked about this all year, a team that struggles to defend who actually make it harder on themselves to defend with the turnovers.

And again, we got 11 less shots off than Wichita State. I remember it at one point being around 20. You are handing teams wins when you do that and you arent beating anyone in the tournament doing that except for maybe a few of the lowest seeds. And maybe some of those lower seeded teams actually take advantage and shoot well from the field. Wichita State was brutal offensively if you take away their transition buckets.

This team just had too many gaping holes to do anything in this tournament. All teams are going to have weaknesses and bad matchups, but we had too many different types of teams that could make us vulnerable. Teams with good athletic guards who could penetrate by our poor defending guards; teams with athletic bigs; teams with bigs who could stretch the floor; teams with bigs who could keep Zeus from bullying and getting his easy dunks inside and completely neutralize Andersons junkyard game (happened quite a bit down the stretch); teans with elite scoring bigs who could get Zeus in foul trouble and out of the game; teams that press or play high pressure to force our pedestrian point guards into turnovers, etc. you are covering a lot of teams in the tournament with all those. Add to the fact that we are an easy team to scout and gameplan for. Our flaws, all of them, are so apparent, you only need to watch film on a few games to pick all of them up.

Any one of the last three Arizona teams mop the floor with Wichita State last night. We had too many flaws and weaknesses and they exposed every single one of them and it should have been worse, but theyre pedestrian offensively so they didnt even really expose our defense outside of transition D because they couldnt shoot. If Wichita State was Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, we lose by 30 or 40 last night.

[Spaceman Spiff]

RG, I harped on focus and intensity in another thread, and I see the TO's as a symptom of a lack of focus and intensity. All year we had hosts of unforced errors, bad entry passes to the post, just straight coughing up the ball.

That for me is a complete hallmark of a team lacking in focus and intensity. You can play as hard as you want, but if you're not mentally into the game, you bleed possessions all over the place and you simply don't overcome that.

[pokinmik]

What's weird though is that this team, regardless of all the faults we've all been harping on the last 15 or so hours, was never blown out at all this year and we played a lot of good teams. Sure we had some desperation comebacks in some games where we were down so eat big, but still, nothing like last night...very surprising how they didn't come to play last night, right from the get-go. Credit to Wichita's D, they were relentless majority of the game and our guys wilted.

[rgdeuce]

RG, I harped on focus and intensity in another thread, and I see the TO's as a symptom of a lack of focus and intensity. All year we had hosts of unforced errors, bad entry passes to the post, just straight coughing up the ball.

That for me is a complete hallmark of a team lacking in focus and intensity. You can play as hard as you want, but if you're not mentally into the game, you bleed possessions all over the place and you simply don't overcome that.

Dont disagree, but there were plenty of turnovers that resulted in fast breaks where guys stood in the middle of the paint (Zo) and gave a half hearted effort to draw a charge, or guys gave half hearted contests on layups, or didnt even run back or did so half speed. And since these problems persisted all year, effort has to be part of the blame in terms of giving little effort to improve on those things or learn from the mistakes. For as many mental breakdown turnovers we have, we had plenty due to lazy passes, guys not working to get better passing angles and just lofting an entry pass in, or guys getting pressured and guys just standing there instead of running to the ball to help. I think its both mental and effort.

[legallykenny]

Game was a microcosm. Couldn't beat a good team outside McKale after the Gonzaga game. Couldn't handle strong guard play. Need a serious upgrade in the backcourt, a recommitment to defense and a shit ton of new shirts for coach.

And Gonzaga wasn't a good team.

Wichita State would've been our best win of the season. People seem to be ignoring just how bad our schedule was this year.

[legallykenny]

RG, I harped on focus and intensity in another thread, and I see the TO's as a symptom of a lack of focus and intensity. All year we had hosts of unforced errors, bad entry passes to the post, just straight coughing up the ball.

That for me is a complete hallmark of a team lacking in focus and intensity. You can play as hard as you want, but if you're not mentally into the game, you bleed possessions all over the place and you simply don't overcome that.

Dont disagree, but there were plenty of turnovers that resulted in fast breaks where guys stood in the middle of the paint (Zo) and gave a half hearted effort to draw a charge, or guys gave half hearted contests on layups, or didnt even run back or did so half speed. And since these problems persisted all year, effort has to be part of the blame in terms of giving little effort to improve on those things or learn from the mistakes. For as many mental breakdown turnovers we have, we had plenty due to lazy passes, guys not working to get better passing angles and just lofting an entry pass in, or guys getting pressured and guys just standing there instead of running to the ball to help. I think its both mental and effort.

Weren't people talking at the beginning of this year about the chemistry being better than it was at the beginning of last year? Have to say I never really saw it....though that may be mixed with the lack of leadership since York and Zeus seem to be good guys but don't bring the team together the way NJ or TJ did.

[catgrad97]

To be fair, I don't think Zeus really understood how team chemistry works.

TJ McConnell did.

[Merkin]

I think it was the first timeout where the 3 guards were all jawing at each other during the TO, and not in a good way. More like pointing fingers on who was out of position.

Not a good example of team chemistry.

[Spaceman Spiff]

RG, I harped on focus and intensity in another thread, and I see the TO's as a symptom of a lack of focus and intensity. All year we had hosts of unforced errors, bad entry passes to the post, just straight coughing up the ball.

That for me is a complete hallmark of a team lacking in focus and intensity. You can play as hard as you want, but if you're not mentally into the game, you bleed possessions all over the place and you simply don't overcome that.

Dont disagree, but there were plenty of turnovers that resulted in fast breaks where guys stood in the middle of the paint (Zo) and gave a half hearted effort to draw a charge, or guys gave half hearted contests on layups, or didnt even run back or did so half speed. And since these problems persisted all year, effort has to be part of the blame in terms of giving little effort to improve on those things or learn from the mistakes. For as many mental breakdown turnovers we have, we had plenty due to lazy passes, guys not working to get better passing angles and just lofting an entry pass in, or guys getting pressured and guys just standing there instead of running to the ball to help. I think its both mental and effort.

Weren't people talking at the beginning of this year about the chemistry being better than it was at the beginning of last year? Have to say I never really saw it....though that may be mixed with the lack of leadership since York and Zeus seem to be good guys but don't bring the team together the way NJ or TJ did.

From a complete outsiders perspective, it seemed like people got along very well. In hindsight, you wonder if people got along too well. You need some edge, intensity and fire and we never seemed to have an excess of that. Just a bunch of nice guys.

[gumby]

Find it puzzling that Kadeem was such a high scorer in JC. Must not defend on that level.

[gumby]

Game was a microcosm. Couldn't beat a good team outside McKale after the Gonzaga game. Couldn't handle strong guard play. Need a serious upgrade in the backcourt, a recommitment to defense and a shit ton of new shirts for coach.

And Gonzaga wasn't a good team.

Wichita State would've been our best win of the season. People seem to be ignoring just how bad our schedule was this year.

Eventually became good. At the best time to be good. Nonetheless, it was a good win.

[rgdeuce]

Find it puzzling that Kadeem was such a high scorer in JC. Must not defend on that level.

At the end of the day its JC ball. I played w a couple of guys that Werent that good and they still ended up at Pima. Less size, less talent for the most part. Saw a couple of guys who ended up at JC's due to grades/eligibilty issues. You get some D1 transfers too. One was a Cincinatti recruit who I believe didnt score high enough on his SATs or ACTs. He looked like Jordan at that level at 6'5 and grabbed double digit rebounds as a wing. Cant recall where he transferred after, but he didnt get a whole lot of minutes and I never heard his name again. Rafael Araujo was another guy I saw, he went on to BYU and became an NBA lottery pick. I think the only reason he started at a JC was because he was a foreign player. Ronnie Price (Lakers/Jazz) was another guy, he left a D1 and ended up at a JC to avoid sitting out a year. Hes a guy that really took everyone by surprise and developed in college though, doubt he was even a top 200 guy out of high school

[Spaceman Spiff]

Find it puzzling that Kadeem was such a high scorer in JC. Must not defend on that level.

He was never a great shooter. I remember being worried that he only shot 30% from 3 in JC. The level jump, it just isn't easy to do the same things that succeed in JC.

[Merkin]

Look at how hard it was for Tollefsen and McConnell to make the jump from Div I mid-major to Division I power conference. Neither one recovered their stroke. TJ was a 43% 3 point shooter as a sophomore at Duquesne, and 31% as a senior at the UA.

KA is more a scorer than a shooter. I watched his JC highlights when Miller signed him, and thought I was watching an And-One tournament with so little effort on defense.