2023-2024 Arizona Basketball

[SunnyAZ]

Kylan is a bad passer for a PG

He played well in the 4th to lead a big comeback win. Coach kept him in the entire 4th instead of going 5 minutes on 5 minutes off like they have the rest of the tourney.

[TucsonCat]

Kylan is a bad passer for a PG

Kylan isn’t a bad passer. He just needs to build some continuity with a roster. He has an innate feel for the game that is wasted when his teammates are consistently missing opportunities to cut, or dive to the hoop. The lack of off-ball movement by this USA team is appalling. Bos is stuck in no man’s land with his reads because his teammates simply aren’t where they need to be to receive an effective feed. Blame it on Boyle, who apparently didn’t see a need to work on installing an offense. I suppose he thought he could simply out-athletic his opponents in this tournament. (News flash: there is a reason that Colorado consistently under-achieves with him as their head coach.). Worked against Madagascar, but it’s not going to work against the disciplined Euro teams. Bos, and his heady play, was almost the sole reason that the USA came back to win that game. And his defense against Vide (who’s is at least 2-3 inches taller than him) on that last possession was chef’s kiss beautiful!

[arizonawildcats]

[KaibabKat]

Why one of the two worst coaches in the Pac-12 is coaching a USA team is beyond me.

[arizonawildcats]

[Postmaster]

Looks like Boro has better shorts

[Merkin]

filip - https://twitter.com/IntuitionHoops/stat ... 0470689794
kylan -https://twitter.com/IntuitionHoops/stat ... 0719765504

I knew Filip could shoot but I didn't realize he had playmaking chops.

No idea how Lloyd can get him proper minutes next season. Probably a good thing the transfer portal closed, although he can always go back home.

[Merkin]

Who would have ever guessed that Filip had a much better tournament than Boswell.

[EastCoastCat]

Why? He's an International player who is quite used to that style of play, which btw they are very good at. Boswell played for a pretty crappy team and coach as others have stated.

And did you know Kylan was only 17 (in perpetuity)?

[KaibabKat]

Trying to explain Boswell's performance by saying he played for a "pretty crappy team and coach" makes it even worse. That means that he was the least efficient player on a crappy team. Kylan had a Player Efficiency Rating of 9.1 for the competition. By definition 15.0 is "average" for all players participating. Kylan was the only below average player on the USA team.

[84Cat]

I'm not worried about Boswell. He will be fine and if he isn't, we have option.

Also Filip will be fighting with KJ Lewis for junk minutes. Unfortunately he is at a very loaded position

[TucsonCat]

I said this in the other thread, but I wouldn’t take a dang thing away from this tournament. Boswell was literally the only player on his team that was attempting to play team ball. That meant that he was often caught in a position that would normally lead to a high efficiency pass, or shot, but his teammates were out of position, and did a poor job of setting screens to get him any space. That was why his turnover rate was higher than his assist rate. It also didn’t help that every single time down the floor, his teammates were hunting their own shots. No ball movement, and no help from his teammates, left Boswell on an island much of the time, where he is ill suited to play. He does not have the elite ball handling skills that are required to individually break down a defense. (Hint: Jaden and Caleb do, which is why we hunted those guys down in the portal this year.). Boswell will not face the same issues, while playing in Tommy’s offense this year. He will have floor spacers around him, in addition to teammates that will move without the ball in order to set screens, roll to the hoop, or pop out for an open three. Those passes that looked so poor in this tourney will suddenly look brilliant as he is excellent at reading where his teammates are supposed to be, and delivering a soft, catchable pass that sets them up for an easy shot.

The rest of the US team, played to their individual one-on-one strengths, which is why they had higher efficiency numbers. Those guys weren’t playing a team game, and put up an awful lot of terrible looking shoots. Oddly, several went in, even though you would never coach your players to take such off-balance, awkward motion shots. When you consider the fact that they were also putrid defenders, I wouldn’t want a single member of that group in a UofA jersey this year, with the exception of Boswell, and possibly Awaka. The kid from Villanova, and the kid going to Oklahoma State were freaking awful!! They scored a lot more points than Boswell, however, because the ball would stick in their hands and they refused to pass to any of their teammates. I called that they wouldn’t make it past the semis. They were dysfunctional from the beginning, and that all starts and ends with their idiotic head coach.

[arizonawildcats]

Schools should have to disclose how much they raise for players in NIL money (private endorsements are a different matter). I'm curious and also think these figures have to be incorrect.

[TheCat]

Made up.

[Merkin]

[TheCat]

Henri out a month with a badly sprained ankle. Unlikely to make Middle East tour. Darn.

[Postmaster]

Schools should have to disclose how much they raise for players in NIL money (private endorsements are a different matter). I'm curious and also think these figures have to be incorrect.

Isn’t it all private money?

[arizonawildcats]

Schools should have to disclose how much they raise for players in NIL money (private endorsements are a different matter). I'm curious and also think these figures have to be incorrect.

Isn’t it all private money?

I.e., I don't need to know how much Boswell made from Rancho Sahuarita, but it would be interesting to know how much Zu was offered to return.

[Merkin]

Zu's NIL value is $531K according to this:

https://www.on3.com/db/azuolas-tubelis-9085/nil-deals/

Which was 6th in NCAA: https://www.on3.com/nil/rankings/player ... asketball/



Interesting about recruits:

https://arizonaassist.com/pages/frequen ... -questions

Is NIL part of the recruiting process?

Not at all. In fact, NIL laws do not allow institutions to use NIL compensation as encouragement to attend their institution. Arizona Assist is thrilled to work with student-athletes after they choose to become a Wildcat to help them monetize their name, image, and likeness, but we are not part of the recruitment process.

[84Cat]

Caleb Love is 4th at $702K

[SunnyAZ]

krivas is really good. expected henri to be the backup center but i think krivas will be now. henri maybe backup pf?

a bench of jaden, filip, paulius, henri, krivas would be huge

[TheCat]

I think Krivas has a shot at starting but that is from watching international and there is a big difference.

[Beachcat97]

Is this the best roster Tommy's had?

[TheCat]

We won't know till we see how they mess together and how the European guys respond.

[84Cat]

krivas is really good. expected henri to be the backup center but i think krivas will be now. henri maybe backup pf?

a bench of jaden, filip, paulius, henri, krivas would be huge

More praise for Krivas

[gronk4heisman]

I think Krivas has a shot at starting but that is from watching international and there is a big difference.

There is no chance barring injury that Ballo is not starting at C

[Merkin]

No doubt, Ballo will start. But he has been injury prone. With Lloyd only running 7 players last season the team was really gassed end of last season, especially Ballo, Zu and Kriisa. Kriisa's body also didn't handle all those minutes well.

[IndianaZonaFan]

Is this the best roster Tommy's had?

Not sure about best as far as wins…due to awesome scheduling…but I think this is our deepest team with Tommy at the helm. I’d take this bench over the last 2 years in a heartbeat.

Possible bench:
Pelle
KJ Lewis
Krivas
Murauskas
Henri
Fili B
Dylan

Dylan, Henri, and Fili B could get good minutes on other Pac rosters..but won’t see much action this year (pending injuries)

[Beachcat97]

Is this the best roster Tommy's had?

Not sure about best as far as wins…due to awesome scheduling…but I think this is our deepest team with Tommy at the helm. I’d take this bench over the last 2 years in a heartbeat.

Possible bench:
Pelle
KJ Lewis
Krivas
Murauskas
Henri
Fili B
Dylan

Dylan, Henri, and Fili B could get good minutes on other Pac rosters..but won’t see much action this year (pending injuries)

I think we'll definitely feel Tubelis' absence, much more so than Kriisa's (which is addition by subtraction, imo).

But when you consider that we're bringing back Boswell, Ballo and Larsson, that's a very, very good returning core. Add in the transfers and the young Euros, and I see a deep, versatile team with a high ceiling. I can't wait to see Bradley, Love and Johnson as Wildcats. Tommy's gonna be able to play big, small, fast...as usual, I'm a little concerned about outside shooting, which is so, so important March. But as long as we've got 2 consistent 3-point shooters on the floor, we should be fine.

[SunnyAZ]

[arizonawildcats]

Colgate has been in the last four tournaments.

[KaibabKat]

Patriot League team has beaten Wildcats in McKale before - 2012 NIT. #8 seed Bucknell ran #1 seed Arizona off the floor.

[gouacats]

Patriot League team has beaten Wildcats in McKale before - 2012 NIT. #8 seed Bucknell ran #1 seed Arizona off the floor.

A fact my boss constantly reminds me of. He played for Bucknell back in the early 90s.

[arizonawildcats]

Podcast version: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2 ... 0621608730

[Beachcat97]

I think 23-8 is a reasonable (but slightly conservative) prediction at our final reg season record.

Our non-con schedule is so loaded that one or two wins there almost negates 2 to 3 losses.

[Postmaster]

Colgate has been in the last four tournaments.

CTL better brush up on their system.

[IndianaZonaFan]

Podcast version: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2 ... 0621608730

Anyone else hear these rumors they talked about with a neutral site game in Vegas against FAU this season? First and only time I heard anything…

If so, we are going full juggernaut schedule.

[arizonawildcats]

I haven't seen anyone else mention it. Hope it happens.

[ChooChooCat]

I haven't seen anyone else mention it. Hope it happens.

It's not happening unfortunately.

[IndianaZonaFan]

Booooo!!!!

[CardiacCats97]

That might have put us up there with some of the all-time toughest schedules. Like one where’d we still get in the tourney if we only had 16 or 17 wins.

[arizonawildcats]

I haven't seen anyone else mention it. Hope it happens.

It's not happening unfortunately.

Are we just going to play two Pac teams for the remaining non-con schedule?

[TheCatInTheHat]

I probably missed it, and they haven't updated the on-line roster, so somebody help me out. I've got the following:

Boswell, Love, Larsson, Johnson, Ballo, Bradley, Lewis, Phillips, Murauskas, Veesaar, Krivas, Borovicanin, Martinez, and Anderson. Haven't seen anything official, but all apparently agree/assume that Tautvilas Tubelis is gone. But, even without him, it's still 14 players in a 13 scholarship situation. And I assume Conrad Martinez isn't coming all the way from Spain as a non-scholarship addition.

So if something's gotta give...what (or who) is it? Anderson from Gilbert taking one for the team and going non-scholarship for a season?

[Ned Zissou]

I bet Phillips will not be on scholarship.

[arizonawildcats]

Jamari Phillips is in next year's class, not this one.

[TheCatInTheHat]

There it is. Thanks!

[arizonawildcats]

[SunnyAZ]

watching the team usa scrimmage today and tommy is there. is he helping or just was there by coincidence?

[arizonawildcats]

watching the team usa scrimmage today and tommy is there. is he helping or just was there by coincidence?

Steve Kerr is the head coach so maybe he invited him? I'd love to know.

[ZagCatFan]

watching the team usa scrimmage today and tommy is there. is he helping or just was there by coincidence?

Few is also one of the coaches.