The 2021-2022 Season Thread

[FreeSpiritCat]

So I'm thinking the guys will show up around the number 17 mark. The women should lift to number 6 or 7.

Not sure the Cats will be ranked that high because the game was played late and undoubtedly many votes were already cast.

[SCCats]

Wow.

[RichardCranium]

What the hell?

I mean geeze, of course I was looking through Arizona colored glasses when I predicted 17, but those ballots must have been cast last week BEFORE Michigan lost to Seton Hall.

A number 5 ranked team loses to 2 unranked teams inside of 5 days and they move UP in the rankings? Even if only 1 of those losses was in the voters pay attention span, they don't deserve to go up for crying out loud.

That's just stupid.

Edit: I maybe was looking at the wrong date. I guess the updated rankings aren't out yet. Never mind.

[Beachcat97]

Think the rankings are out around noon eastern.

[EastCoastCat]

I'm saying 20.

[Alieberman]

In the teens

[MountainCat]

I'm saying 20.

Regardless what we are, 20 is a better number for Michigan to be ranked.

...well, at least now.

[Merkin]

[TheCat]

I don't really care what we are ranked right now but that is a tourney selection win on a neutral court. Michigan is not the number 4 team in the country. Not sure they would be 4th in the PAC but this will get more folks talking about the cats and more recruits eyeballs.

[Olsondogg]

Just win games.

[g32knights]

Well, #15 in ESPN's Power Rankings


15. Arizona Wildcats (5-0)
Previous ranking: Unranked
This week: vs. Sacramento State (Saturday)

Tommy Lloyd's first season in Tucson started with NCAA tournament expectations, but that bar might have to be raised after the past week. Arizona went to Las Vegas and won the Roman Main Event, beating Wichita State and blowing out Michigan in the process. The Wildcats squandered a 16-point lead against the Shockers before winning in overtime, but there was no sweating down the stretch against Michigan. Arizona was fantastic against the Wolverines. Christian Koloko and Azuolas Tubelis were a load in the paint, Bennedict Mathurin made shots from the perimeter and midrange and Dalen Terry was aggressive to the rim. Kerr Kriisa had seven assists and zero turnovers. But the most impressive aspect might have been Arizona's defense. The Wildcats were swarming, looking to jump passes, hounding players on the catch and double-teaming Hunter Dickinson in the post.

[YoDeFoe]

Ranking Arizona outside of the top ten this morning is legit indefensible. There aren’t ten teams with better and more convincing wins.

Teams with better records:

Gonzaga
Kansas
UCLA
Purdue
Duke, maybe
St. Bonn?
BYU?

Struggling to add more at or above Arizona here.

[Alieberman]

You need to factor in Michigan win is not impressive because they lost to Seton Hall, east coast bias, Miller is a cheat, etc.

If you factor all that in I'd say we should probably move down in the rankings

[g32knights]

#15 in CBS Top 25 and 1

#15 ARIZONA Christian Koloko finished with 22 points and seven rebounds in Sunday's 80-62 win over Michigan. The Wildcats' next game is Saturday against Sacramento State.

[loomer]

Ranking Arizona outside of the top ten this morning is legit indefensible. There aren’t ten teams with better and more convincing wins.

Teams with better records:

Gonzaga
Kansas
UCLA
Purdue
Duke, maybe
St. Bonn?
BYU?

Struggling to add more at or above Arizona here.

#10 on Barttorvik (AdjO 19, AdjO 6)
#20 on KenPom (AdjO 34, AdjD 10)
#6 on Sagarin
#10 on Massey

We're also #1 on Barttorvik if you remove the preseason ratings from the equation. https://www.barttorvik.com/trank.php?ye ... ingames=4#

Imagine if we didn't go 9-48 from 3 in Vegas.

[FreeSpiritCat]

Other than the missed 3s the team needs to focus on unforced turnovers. Too many times there were lazy passes and bad decisions. I think a lot of that will improve with more time practicing making reads.

[YoDeFoe]

#15 in CBS Top 25 and 1

#15 ARIZONA Christian Koloko finished with 22 points and seven rebounds in Sunday's 80-62 win over Michigan. The Wildcats' next game is Saturday against Sacramento State.

15 is where I guessed we’d land, but I think 10 is the right number.

[Beachcat97]

Other than the missed 3s the team needs to focus on unforced turnovers. Too many times there were lazy passes and bad decisions. I think a lot of that will improve with more time practicing making reads.

We had half as many turnovers vs. UM as vs. Wichita. Trending in the right direction, and I expect we’ll make steady improvement in this area over the season. Terry and Kriisa are good ball handlers.

[loomer]

#17 in the AP https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-colleg ... oll?week=3

[FreeSpiritCat]

Other than the missed 3s the team needs to focus on unforced turnovers. Too many times there were lazy passes and bad decisions. I think a lot of that will improve with more time practicing making reads.

We had half as many turnovers vs. UM as vs. Wichita. Trending in the right direction, and I expect we’ll make steady improvement in this area over the season. Terry and Kriisa are good ball handlers.

I believe Wichita State is a better defensive team than Michigan. They are scrappier and gave much better effort. I would love to play more teams like Wichita State to hone our skills.

[azcat49]

If we can beat Oregon St, Illinois and Tennessee on the road we should easily vault into the top 10 before we head to the LA schools

[UofAlum05]

The only thing that can slow down the momentum of this team is the schedule. They have 6 straight Power 5 opponents on the road.

[RawleArenas]

Ranking Arizona outside of the top ten this morning is legit indefensible. There aren’t ten teams with better and more convincing wins.

Teams with better records:

Gonzaga
Kansas
UCLA
Purdue
Duke, maybe
St. Bonn?
BYU?

Struggling to add more at or above Arizona here.

Couldn't agree more. We're better than BYU. Better quality depth and interior presence. There are not a lot of teams I am afraid of. We had two legit NBA first round quality guys before Las Vegas (Benn and Zu). But with the emergence of Koloko (who could be in the running for Pac DPOY) it makes us a much harder team to deal with. Ballo needs improvement, but is performing better than I expected.

Maybe Purdue, Gonzaga and UCLA I would worry about a little bit, but I don't think that they would run us off the court either. I knew this was going to happen from a personnel standpoint. We have legit depth and potential NBA guys on the bench provided they develop properly (Larsson and Bal). I may be in the minority on this, but if there was ever a year where CTL could sneak on everyone and make a deep run, this is the year. People are not paying attention to our roster which gives us an advantage.

We'll see where we're really at when we face Illinois, Tennessee and UCLA (in Pauley).

[YoDeFoe]

#17 in the AP https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-colleg ... oll?week=3

Tennessee and Texas got BLOWN OUT in their losses. Kentucky has a loss and no top-100 wins, same with Illinois. Memphis, Alabama, and Baylor haven't played anyone.

The stickiness of preseason rankings is incredibly stupid. "We ranked you low because you have to show us you're legit. But also we can't rank you high (despite what you've shown us) because we previously ranked you low. This is rational."

[YoDeFoe]

If we can beat Oregon St, Illinois and Tennessee on the road we should easily vault into the top 10 before we head to the LA schools

If we're heading into Pauley at 13-0 with away wins over Oregon St, Illinois, and Tennessee, and neutrals over Wichita St. and Michigan - we'll be ranked in the top five in the country.

[Beachcat97]

If we can beat Oregon St, Illinois and Tennessee on the road we should easily vault into the top 10 before we head to the LA schools

Let's manage our expectations. Beating Illinois and Tennessee on the road is a LOT to ask of this team, even given how good they looked yesterday. It's perfectly normal to drop one or two tough OOCs game early in the season, and it can have very little bearing on things the rest of the way. We now have a signature win. If we beat Illinois or Tennessee, we'll have two. If we win both, we'll enter the discussion for being a "protected seed" in the tourney.

One game at a time, guys. Take care of business this weekend.

Off topic, but really looking forward to Gonzaga/UCLA tomorrow.

[SabinoDrifter]

Some statistics from early this season that are very relevant:

- #4 effective field goal % defensively
- #2 2 point field goal % defensively
- #2 in assists / FGM

Arizona's size is a massive advantage for this team and it's no surprise it comes in parallel with Koloko's development.

[Longhorned]

I wonder if anyone is starting to rethink ranking us as low as 8th in the PAC-12.

[SCCats]

Exciting times

[pokinmik]

The size and athleticism is off the charts. Someone else mentioned it awhile ago but this team definitely seems like they have the potential of the “wear down” team that was undefeated until Ashley went down. If we can have some luck health-wise the sky is the limit. Also, this team has more depth than that team which is a nice luxury.

[ASUHATER!]

If we're 13-0 with wins over Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee and Wichita...we'll be ranked in the top 5, if not be #1. That would probably be the best resume in the country heading into January.

[97cats]

no question if the above happens AZ would be top three in the country - and just to pump the brakes here for a min or two folks, regardless what happens in these next several games, the regional neutral court wins over the weekend give Arizona a good start on establishing an inside track on a regionally protected seed.

[dmjcat]

#17 in the AP https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-colleg ... oll?week=3

Here's a breakdown of how all of the pollsters ranked the UA, including one who ranked us at #5 and 8 folks who did not rank the UA at all (7 of the 8 are from east of the Mississippi)

https://collegepolltracker.com/basketba ... dcats/2021

[Chicat]

The only reasons to not to rank Arizona are that you completed your ballot before last night’s game and you refuse to take your responsibility seriously or you’re an ASSU alum.

[Jefe]

That should remain a Quadarant 1 blow out win all season long. Great start to the resume.

I counted at least 5 block for Koloko, if not 6. Only gave him 4.

I thought Kerr was going to block Terry on the late fastbreak. He jumped with him

[KaibabKat]

21 November 2021 - Arizona Wildcats polls/rankkings:

#1 Ken Massey (the only service that picked Arizona as a winner over Michigan)
#6 Jeff Sagarin
#8 RPI Forecast
#8 NET Forecast
#8 Massey Composite (of 18)
#15 CBS Top 25 + 1
#17 AP Writers
#19 USA Today Coaches
#20 Ken Pomeroy
#26 ESPN BPI
#207 SOS - Sagarin

[YoDeFoe]

That should remain a Quadarant 1 blow out win all season long. Great start to the resume.

I counted at least 5 block for Koloko, if not 6. Only gave him 4.

I thought Kerr was going to block Terry on the late fastbreak. He jumped with him

How funny was Kerr there - I was a mix of overjoyed and totally worried he was going to undercut Terry at the rim

[YoDeFoe]

21 November 2021 - Arizona Wildcats polls/rankkings:

#1 Ken Massey (the only service that picked Arizona as a winner over Michigan)
#6 Jeff Sagarin
#8 RPI Forecast
#8 NET Forecast
#8 Massey Composite (of 18)
#15 CBS Top 25 + 1
#17 AP Writers
#19 USA Today Coaches
#20 Ken Pomeroy
#26 ESPN BPI
#207 SOS - Sagarin

The italicized items include a heavy weighting towards the last couple of seasons + a discount for having a new coach built in. The bolded items include folks who clearly have not watched more than 20min of Arizona basketball this year. Love that we were on ESPN doing our thing, hated that it was damn near Monday on the East Coast when the game ended.

[ChooChooCat]

Basketball is fun again.

[dmjcat]

The highest rated Prediction Tracker is TeamRankings, which has AZ ranked at #3

https://www.thepredictiontracker.com/bbresults.php

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncb/

[Spaceman Spiff]

Other than the missed 3s the team needs to focus on unforced turnovers. Too many times there were lazy passes and bad decisions. I think a lot of that will improve with more time practicing making reads.

We had half as many turnovers vs. UM as vs. Wichita. Trending in the right direction, and I expect we’ll make steady improvement in this area over the season. Terry and Kriisa are good ball handlers.

Not that previous games were bad, but this was the difference between good and really good like last night.

One of the more amazing stats was shooting poorly from 3 and winning easily. Larsson had 4, but 6 to's from everyone else is great.

The D has been solid every night. We have enough weapons that someone always steps up to score. Doing it with a minimal number of to's is how we can be efficient enough to win the big ones.

It shows you this team can still improve too. If Kerr and Mathurin ever fire on the same cylinder...

[Jefe]

I thought Kerr was going to block Terry on the late fastbreak. He jumped with him

How funny was Kerr there - I was a mix of overjoyed and totally worried he was going to undercut Terry at the rim

Aftermath of the "fight" in Vegas. Rumor is the AZ fan pointed at the scoreboard when they were all being escorted out

[Jefe]

[Alieberman]

How is that possible when we only schedule cupcakes?

[Beachcat97]

It shows you this team can still improve too. If Kerr and Mathurin ever fire on the same cylinder...

This is what I'm saying. Even with these early (big) wins, it's clear this team can get so much better. Imagine if Kriisa and Larsson become 50% 3-point shooters, or just close to it. Terry and Mathurin can hit from out there too. I love that we've been so dominant in the paint, but it's when you have that inside/outside game that you can really be hard to stop.

[UAEebs86]

How is that possible when we only schedule cupcakes?

We only schedule cupcakes at home.

(because no one will come here to play us)

[Merkin]

How is that possible when we only schedule cupcakes?

We only schedule cupcakes at home.

(because no one will come here to play us)

Sadly the state of college basketball, and has been for quite some time.

[ProfessorFate]

We are gonna fucking destroy the Crying Illini. They look terrible.

[ASUHATER!]

We are gonna fucking destroy the Crying Illini. They look terrible.

hmm. Illinois did lose already to a Marquette team picked 9th in the Big East and they're currently losing by 20 to a Cinci team picked 6th in the American

[dovecanyoncat]

How is that possible when we only schedule cupcakes?

Those are some high protein, nutrient dense cupcakes BITCHES!