Miller and Tolbert

[CBCat]

Miller usually goes on Tolbert's radio show when he makes the Bay Area trip.
Hope someone will post the link here if and when he is on today???

[CBCat]

So I guess no interview this roadie? Wonder why? Maybe I should tweet ole Tommy "Byron" Tolbert and get an answer.

[Olsondogg]

Here's an interview with Tolbert which he complains about our shooting. Which makes me think he is either:
A. Not watching the games.
B. Unaware of our offensive metrics and percentages.
C. Not that intelligent
D. All of the above

UA-Stanford pregame: Tolbert wants shooters
http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/a ... 6615f.html

[atlantakat]

Here's an interview with Tolbert which he complains about our shooting. Which makes me think he is either:
A. Not watching the games.
B. Unaware of our offensive metrics and percentages.
C. Not that intelligent
D. All of the above

UA-Stanford pregame: Tolbert wants shooters
http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/a ... 6615f.html

Well, he said he watches all our games, so I guess that makes him a liar too.

And Tom Tolbert is a lot of things, but he ain't stupid.

I thought his comment that there might be a game in March when we shoot 39% and lose to a team that shot just a tad better was a really good point.

This is not a team that causes me to think they can win 6 games in a row in March. It's a team that can beat anyone, but is susceptible to losing games against inferior opponents because they can't make enough baskets. The team that lost to Oregon State and UNLV was not a good shooting team.

The team that beat Utah won't lose to anyone other than Kentucky, maybe.

Which team plays tonight? Or at Cal?

Until we know which team shows up every night, I think Tom T. had it just about right.

[dc4azcats]

Here's an interview with Tolbert which he complains about our shooting. Which makes me think he is either:
A. Not watching the games.
B. Unaware of our offensive metrics and percentages.
C. Not that intelligent
D. All of the above

UA-Stanford pregame: Tolbert wants shooters
http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/a ... 6615f.html

Well, he said he watches all our games, so I guess that makes him a liar too.

And Tom Tolbert is a lot of things, but he ain't stupid.

I thought his comment that there might be a game in March when we shoot 39% and lose to a team that shot just a tad better was a really good point.

This is not a team that causes me to think they can win 6 games in a row in March. It's a team that can beat anyone, but is susceptible to losing games against inferior opponents because they can't make enough baskets. The team that lost to Oregon State and UNLV was not a good shooting team.

The team that beat Utah won't lose to anyone other than Kentucky, maybe.

Which team plays tonight? Or at Cal?

Until we know which team shows up every night, I think Tom T. had it just about right.

Well said.

[Olsondogg]

Our AdjO is #12 in the nation currently. Our Defense is 10.

Only two other teams are in the top 15 in both, Kentucky and Virginia. Nobody is talking about their offensive "struggles" and nobody should be talking about Arizona's, at least anyone that has a clue what they are talking about.

Tolbert is carrying on the story about the offense, like alot of other talking heads, but it's just stupid...no way around it.

His comment about shooting a certain percentage in March could apply to any team that doesn't shoot well. It means nothing and was not a good point. We, or any other team for that matter, could shoot a lower percentage and still win a game. Happens all the time.

I get people wanna defend a UA grad, but there were ridiculous quotes in that article. He had nothing just about right, except the same tired mantra I've read from other media members that has no basis in fact.

[Harvey Specter]

Our AdjO is #12 in the nation currently. Our Defense is 10.

Only two other teams are in the top 15 in both, Kentucky and Virginia. Nobody is talking about their offensive "struggles" and nobody should be talking about Arizona's, at least anyone that has a clue what they are talking about.

Tolbert is carrying on the story about the offense, like alot of other talking heads, but it's just stupid...no way around it.

His comment about shooting a certain percentage in March could apply to any team that doesn't shoot well. It means nothing and was not a good point. We, or any other team for that matter, could shoot a lower percentage and still win a game. Happens all the time.

I get people wanna defend a UA grad, but there were ridiculous quotes in that article. He had nothing just about right, except the same tired mantra I've read from other media members that has no basis in fact.

What do you think this team's Achilles heel is? You don't have 2 bad losses like we did without one - or more.

I think it's
a) Our toughness on the glass (when we play badly)
b) our ability to defend athletic players in isolation; you act as if York is the onl guy with issues in that department, but there are at least 3 others in the rotation who have looked silly frequently
c) shooting, esp. when we have to pull a team out of a zone

If we can address 1 and 2, 3 becomes less of a concern except against a very few teams. And there are times when we look very good shooting team. I think it's inconsistent... You don't. You have stats to support your opinion...

I've said all season I think this team has a higher ceiling, but lower floor, than we had last year. Which makes for an an exciting season.

As for Tolbert... I love the guy. If anything, he is a homer - and embraces and advertises his affiliation with the Cats a great deal more than several past higher profile players.

[Puerco]

Arizona is not a great shooting team. Arizona is a decent shooting team. Arizona is an efficient offensive team. Arizona does not struggle offensively. We've had this discussion before.

[Olsondogg]

Our AdjO is #12 in the nation currently. Our Defense is 10.

Only two other teams are in the top 15 in both, Kentucky and Virginia. Nobody is talking about their offensive "struggles" and nobody should be talking about Arizona's, at least anyone that has a clue what they are talking about.

Tolbert is carrying on the story about the offense, like alot of other talking heads, but it's just stupid...no way around it.

His comment about shooting a certain percentage in March could apply to any team that doesn't shoot well. It means nothing and was not a good point. We, or any other team for that matter, could shoot a lower percentage and still win a game. Happens all the time.

I get people wanna defend a UA grad, but there were ridiculous quotes in that article. He had nothing just about right, except the same tired mantra I've read from other media members that has no basis in fact.

What do you think this team's Achilles heel is? You don't have 2 bad losses like we did without one - or more.

I think it's
a) Our toughness on the glass (when we play badly)
b) our ability to defend athletic players in isolation; you act as if York is the onl guy with issues in that department, but there are at least 3 others in the rotation who have looked silly frequently
c) shooting, esp. when we have to pull a team out of a zone

If we can address 1 and 2, 3 becomes less of a concern except against a very few teams. And there are times when we look very good shooting team. I think it's inconsistent... You don't. You have stats to support your opinion...

I've said all season I think this team has a higher ceiling, but lower floor, than we had last year. Which makes for an an exciting season.

As for Tolbert... I love the guy. If anything, he is a homer - and embraces and advertises his affiliation with the Cats a great deal more than several past higher profile players.

Achilles heel...ok, I'll go with a mantra of commentators because everything is flawed, I get it.

It is the intangibles...effort, focus, desire, chemistry, communication....whatever you want to call it. Arizona will take the floor over 30 times this season where it is easily the more talented team from end to end. When you have that kind of talent, you also need to have the terms I mentioned above. If you want to know why we lost 2 games, pick out one of those words and use it, because that is what it was.

I am old enough to remember the Arizona teams that couldn't shoot. Take a look at some video of the 2005-2007 teams and you'll see a display that would literally implode this message board.

Media guys like Tolbert have to fill the hours of a day talking about something, so why not go with the mantra established by others. People, like my boy Puerco here like to get caught up on the adjectives used to convey the point...that Arizona can't shoot well. Others like to point out that Arizona hasn't shot it well every game. Others still like to point out individual players that can't shoot it well. This can be done for any team in the nation. The sample size is large enough now that we shoot just about 50% from the field which ranks us 12th in FG % in the nation. I could care less if that is considered "great", "good" or "decent" in some peoples eyes, but if I offered a top 20 FG% and a top 20 efficient offense to people at the beginning of the season, people would have jumped all over that.

Additionally, care to guess where we rank for PPP (points per possession)? Number 6. Oh, and 2 teams that rank ahead of Arizona in that regard have already been beaten by Arizona.

I get that people don't want to buy into something that is actually a pretty solid strength on this team, and is actually getting better game by game....so don't buy in. It doesn't matter. At some point I'll get sick of even defending the point, so I guess some people can consider that a victory.

[WildcatStunner]

Odogg, that 05 - 07 stretch was rough. I remember that 2006 team where Lute Olson said that only one player (Marcus Williams) was allowed to shoot threes. The 2007 team was a thing of beauty on offense, and a bad bad bad dream on defense. Definition of soft.

[Puerco]

That's a good post, ODogg.

I'll keep on the point: we are shooting 36% from three. Not good enough to be in the top 100 as of today. I think that's a weakness on our team, but only relative to the team's many other strengths. Is it an 'Achilles' heel'? Nah, I don't think so. I worry a lot more about the intangible stuff you mention above, to be honest, particularly since we take so few threes. But could it bite us against one of the other top teams late in the tournament? Of course it could, so it's worth a little worrying anyway.

What do you think the worst weakness or least good strength of the team is, if you take out the intangibles?

EDIT: I wanted to say inconsistent rebounding like Harvey above, but we're 13th in rebounding %, so that's no problem. Guarding the quick 4? I haven't seen enough to really know about that, but we can't be too bad given the defensive stats we have... At a bit of a loss here.

[Longhorned]

Kentucky is also shooting 36% on 3-pointers. Nobody's talking about that because the idea is that Kentucky has enough other obvious strengths that nobody's worried about their ability to win six games in a row even with a down game behind the arc.

More importantly, what's Kentucky going to do about it? The thing about 3-point shooting is that you can't defend it when the opposing team goes off, and your own team can't go off because of some kind of coaching or different approach to the game. You can move the ball and drive and dish and find that open man, but beyond that it's not something you can control.

For Arizona, the real issue is that things weren't working with its rotation and it had to start over and reinvent its starting lineup and how the substitutions get staggered, featuring different lineups and minute allocations so that players had to figure out how to play together. You don't change your starting lineup mid-season and not expect some transitional pains. As a fan, I'm not going to judge anything about this team prior to the Colorado game. I'm in a wait-and-see mode. And while I wait and see, I'm enjoying watching how everyone is better on offense with Stanley's recent adjustment to his role and identity as Arizona's best 3-point shooter and chief offensive threat. And I'm optimistic that, like Kentucky, Arizona might be finding enough other weapons to win four and (who knows) maybe six games in a row despite its 3-point shooting.

[gumby]

Our AdjO is #12 in the nation currently. Our Defense is 10.

Only two other teams are in the top 15 in both, Kentucky and Virginia. Nobody is talking about their offensive "struggles" and nobody should be talking about Arizona's, at least anyone that has a clue what they are talking about.

Tolbert is carrying on the story about the offense, like alot of other talking heads, but it's just stupid...no way around it.

His comment about shooting a certain percentage in March could apply to any team that doesn't shoot well. It means nothing and was not a good point. We, or any other team for that matter, could shoot a lower percentage and still win a game. Happens all the time.

I get people wanna defend a UA grad, but there were ridiculous quotes in that article. He had nothing just about right, except the same tired mantra I've read from other media members that has no basis in fact.

What do you think this team's Achilles heel is? You don't have 2 bad losses like we did without one - or more.

I think it's
a) Our toughness on the glass (when we play badly)
b) our ability to defend athletic players in isolation; you act as if York is the onl guy with issues in that department, but there are at least 3 others in the rotation who have looked silly frequently
c) shooting, esp. when we have to pull a team out of a zone

If we can address 1 and 2, 3 becomes less of a concern except against a very few teams. And there are times when we look very good shooting team. I think it's inconsistent... You don't. You have stats to support your opinion...

I've said all season I think this team has a higher ceiling, but lower floor, than we had last year. Which makes for an an exciting season.

As for Tolbert... I love the guy. If anything, he is a homer - and embraces and advertises his affiliation with the Cats a great deal more than several past higher profile players.

Good post, Harvey. This is where I am. The "good shooting" thing, I think, reflects free throws and three-pointers, not overall efficiency.

b) Was a problem last night, where we made Marcus Allen, among others, look like Russell Westbrook on those drives. It's why we lost those two games. It's why I was happy Elgin Cook fouled out of that Oregon game.

[salim'sheadband]

TJ was the one guarding Allen on at least two of those drives so I don't really think we can draw too many conclusions from that.