Bear Down Wildcats

Tough game although I guess I got some face time on TV towards the end of regulation after another shit call. I'm front and center.

Spaceman Spiff wrote: In the real world, I've been on a D1 college basketball roster.

Defense is harder. Coaches rise and fall on their ability to instill a culture and system and Miller is the most successful young coach in the game. Rotations exist because good coaches care about maximizing the 40 minutes, not riding hot hands.

The semi-smartest thing you hint at is that players can't go fulp out for 40 without wearing down. That is exactly why you establish rotations, because all people in the rotation are expected to pull weight. You win championships when everybody knows their role and executes it all the time.

There's a reason why Sean Miller has made more Elite Eights in the last year than you will in your life. Maybe you should root for ASU. I think Hurley'd be to your liking.

yes! the old "you never were an astronaut so how do you know the earth isn't flat?" line. guess what - also on a D1 roster: Kyle Dodd, Marshall Henderson, Lucas Johnson and on and on

I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence here but this isn't rocket science. There are only so many ways after 100 years of the sport to get 5 guys to put the round orange thing through the hole more than the other 5 guys. that may seem incomprehensible to you but it's not that complicated to any medium-high functioning adult male that follows a lot of bball. and believe it or not most players and coaches have the mental capacity to understand and play 2 or more defenses.

write this down: Miller will not win a championship or get to a FF by continuing to focus solely on pack-line defense and treating offense as an afterthought .

the sooner you accept that reality the more you accept the year for what it is and the usual tourney flameout against any 3-seed or better. or if you enjoy defending CSM against any/all gripes you can continue solidifying ultimate fanboy status

meanwhile I dream the impossible dream that the " young coach with lots of room to mature" does just that. 6 years on, patiently waiting
DWWD!

If you're not watching Cal/Utah turn it on. Going to OT after a crazy final few seconds.

I don't feel like quoting that from Rise and Fire, so just this:

The point isn't just that you (I assume) never played CBB. You also have never coached CBB. You have nothing that implies you have any idea what it takes to reach Sean Miller's level of success. The point is that people who succeed constantly do it because they know how and people who don't know how go on message boards to play monday morning quarterback for the coach's decisions before they go to their day job at Payless Shoes.

Rather than address the ridiculousness of saying reliance on man will not make a FF or NC (Bobby Knight, Dean Smith and a lot of other coaches would laugh at that) let's just focus on the immediate point. You say we lost in the EE because Miller won't play zone. Yet we lost to three teams that play man to man. So why didn't playing man crush their chances? Because your argument is a complete fail.

Every team in the FF last year was running man to man. Yet that is the only thing that prevents us from getting to the FF. I'm sure you're enjoying our loss to Oregon, so have a great day.

Just a few thoughts as we get ready to fly home a day early

Oregon is really good. They are so Damn efficient offensively. They never waste a trip down the floor it seems and Benson is just nails as a PG. Never turns it over. Hate to say it, but I think they play to go a FF and I would bet on them to get there.

Kind of sad to see the tourney moving out of the MGM Garden Arena. It is a better college bball arena than these mega venues that suit corporate clients as opposed to the typical college fan. Going to be sad when they end up curtaining off a portion of the arena because the conference could not sell 18000 tickets. We will do our part but other than CU, Utah and to a smaller extent Oregon, other team fans were terrible.

Hope OSU gets in the tourney. There fans I spoke to are hopefull the drought has ended. I think it has been 26 years, wow. They have a pretty good RPI I think

azcat49 wrote:Just a few thoughts as we get ready to fly home a day early

Oregon is really good. They are so Damn efficient offensively. They never waste a trip down the floor it seems and Benson is just nails as a PG. Never turns it over. Hate to say it, but I think they play to go a FF and I would bet on them to get there.

Kind of sad to see the tourney moving out of the MGM Garden Arena. It is a better college bball arena than these mega venues that suit corporate clients as opposed to the typical college fan. Going to be sad when they end up curtaining off a portion of the arena because the conference could not sell 18000 tickets. We will do our part but other than CU, Utah and to a smaller extent Oregon, other team fans were terrible.

Hope OSU gets in the tourney. There fans I spoke to are hopefully the drought has ended. I think it has been 26 years, wow. They have a pretty good RPI I think

Did you cuss out Larry Scott for us again?

He pretty much stayed in his seat at mid court opposite the benches. He came by a couple times and we yelled a few things at him mostly about the TV fiasco.

He got booed loudly when he was on the floor with Sean Elliott and Gary Payton. Guy is just a corrupt tool

One other aside, I guess Mike Yam made a comment that CSM has never beat a team in the conference tourney with a higher seed and some of the remaining fans are talking shit about that. I had to remind them that we have been a 1 seed for a long time. If that's all they can hang there hat on about us then I would say we and CSM are pretty Damn good

azcat49 wrote:...One other aside, I guess Mike Yam made a comment that CSM has never beat a team in the conference tourney with a higher seed and some of the remaining fans are talking shit about that. I had to remind them that we have been a 1 seed for a long time. If that's all they can hang there hat on about us then I would say we and CSM are pretty Damn good

Yeah - I am surprised Oregon didn't storm the court last night after they beat us.

Old habits die hard!

last night's loss hurt because i honestly believed we could beat the ducks and then take the tourney. i know most folks here did a better job keeping their expectations in check but i convinced myself that with 'zo back in the rotation, with seasoned postseason leaders, with McK North on our side, with oregon struggling against uw on thursday, that we'd pull it off. gotta tip my hat to altman's kids for the great performance. they epitomized what CSM has been trying to instill in our squad all year -- hearts on sleeves, stingy on defense, nasty on every possession, offering no apologies while bullying the opposition.

still trying to see the light, that maybe the cold reality of single-elimination ball has thumped our guys over the head; that maybe they can walk into the dance with fresh legs and feeling confident that it was just a narrow loss. otoh, this kind of loss could be a horrible "teachable moment", further instilling the mentality that we nearly eked out a W after goofing off for an entire half, that we'll string together a run because we're Arizona... who knows. i haven't seen CSM's post-game remarks, but it's astonishing that he hasn't completely lost his shit by now. easy to see how frustrated he has been all season.

Tough game for Tolly. Five minutes, 3 for 3, intercepts inbound pass at end of regulation, then misses that first FT. Unh! Wish we could have pulled it out for him.

also wondering who folks are predicting in tonight's final (other than "meteor from the sky"). oregon's the better team, but they're a little banged up and feeling the aftermath of last night's game right now. they're lucky that the 'tah-cal game went into OT. could be an ugly game.

btw, when was the last time our conf tourney followed the seedings perfectly?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

EDIT: nm, i just looked it up -- the pac tournament has never gone all chalk. turns out that "no upsets" is actually a form of march madness in our conference

Congrats Oregon regular season and tourney champs

so much for oregon being tired. despite a little bit of a slow start, the ducks go on a 13-2 run and are up at the half 38-21. utes with just 15 FGA (to oregon's 35) and 13 TOs already (to oregon's 3). yeesh.

Was about five feet away from Larry Scott as he was walking away from Phil Knight and George Raveling. Yelled at him that the TV contract sucks. He just looked over at me and walked away. Wasn't expecting anything worthwhile coming out of him anyway.

I'm really disappointed in Utah. I didn't think they'd win, but I thought they'd have more fight in them than this. 30 point lead as I write this. Wow.

Our guys may not play a full game, but at least they don't give up. I'll take close losses over being blown out any day.

Oregon will probably be the 2 seed in the West. Definitely a final four threat

ASUHATER! wrote:Oregon will probably be the 2 seed in the West. Definitely a final four threat

You are probably right but why couldn't they be a 1 seed ahead of say UVA or Nova?

No way is Nova a 1 seed after today. Oregon should be a 1, but I wouldn't be shocked if they got a 2.

Man I still want another shot at Oregon

Know we played five extra minutes, but 28 fouls called against us last night. 31 between utah and oregon tonight..combined.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:I don't feel like quoting that from Rise and Fire, so just this:

The point isn't just that you (I assume) never played CBB. You also have never coached CBB. You have nothing that implies you have any idea what it takes to reach Sean Miller's level of success. The point is that people who succeed constantly do it because they know how and people who don't know how go on message boards to play monday morning quarterback for the coach's decisions before they go to their day job at Payless Shoes.

Rather than address the ridiculousness of saying reliance on man will not make a FF or NC (Bobby Knight, Dean Smith and a lot of other coaches would laugh at that) let's just focus on the immediate point. You say we lost in the EE because Miller won't play zone. Yet we lost to three teams that play man to man. So why didn't playing man crush their chances? Because your argument is a complete fail.

Every team in the FF last year was running man to man. Yet that is the only thing that prevents us from getting to the FF. I'm sure you're enjoying our loss to Oregon, so have a great day.

Why didn't playing *some* man crush Wisky chances against us last two years? A: They were playing a Miller offense where you regularly have 3,4,5,6 min droughts in every game! Do I need to resurrect that "Another slow f***king start!" thread?

I could give a F if coach XYZ can succeed or not since Im not a coach-leghumper just cause a guy can recruit and "speaks victory", I want Arizona to succeed. Lute succeeded, recruited, made final fours, and won a championship with the same level of talent we've enjoyed over the last 3 years (and I never fail to credit the great recruiting CSM does, btw). '88 '92 '95 '97 '01. Did lute get all OCD about one particular defensive approach - no. You know who did? K O'Neill, another man-2-man zealot that went nowhere with Bayless, CBud, JHill, and NWise. KON!! The jury is out on CSM. "Do what we do" and no adjustments is not the answer.

BTW you're really trying hard to make this personal. That's sad for you and signals you have surrendered the argument. Thanks Ill accept your concession!

East coast bias always screws the west coast unless a team is close to perfect. Although I believe Oregon deserves a 1 seed I highly doubt they will receive it.

You adding make believe final fours to strengthen your argument? 92? Lmao. That was one of lutes first round losses. Happened again the next year. That "95" final four actually happened in 1994. We lost in the first round in 95 too. So one final four and three first round exits in four years. Those were some damn good teams too. Sweet 16 in 96, title in 97, and you hate elite eight losses so much, so youre probably mad that murderous team came up short to the stormin mormons. Follow that w a first round loss, then a loss in round of 32 in 2000. 2001 runner up. 2002 was another first round loss. And from 03 on, never past the elite eight and plenty of early exits.

Your revisionism is hilarious. We reached some great highs under Lute but he had a ton of underachieving teams who couldnt even win one game, and plenty more who couldnt get past that elite 8 hump. A ton of lows. Miller hasnt had one "low" tournament here yet. Three elite 8s and a sweet 16

Main Event wrote:Man I still want another shot at Oregon

I knew we were toast when it went to OT. We had two FTs to knock them off and couldn't get it done. It's on us.

And yeah, I'd like another shot too.

Either Oregon was playing really fast, or Utah looked like they were playing with cement in their shoes. Probably a combination of the two. Oregon has a chance to go a long way if they keep playing like this.

Phil Knight cheering on the Ducks and George Raveling looking bored.

I will be completely flabbergasted if Oregon is not only playing in the FF, but playing in the Championship game itself.

If they can stay healthy and some how get most of the calls like they did against us they won't be challenged until they get to the elite 8.

I expect all of the PAC12 teams will be out of the dance and sitting at home watching the Ducks make history.

They were simply on another level when they played us and Utah.

Additionally, with the recruiting that Altman is going to be capable of doing now that he has that program clicking on all cylinders. Oregon will be a player year in and year out.

I suspect he's got a lot more PAC12 COY honors to receive in the years ahead, thus the UofA and UCLA now have even less room for error as future classes unfold.

Gladiator Cat wrote:I will be completely flabbergasted if Oregon is not only playing in the FF, but playing in the Championship game itself.

If they can stay healthy and some how get most of the calls like they did against us they won't be challenged until they get to the elite 8.

I expect all of the PAC12 teams will be out of the dance and sitting at home watching the Ducks make history.

They were simply on another level when they played us and Utah.

I don't agree at all.

1. We're not that good and we still almost beat them.
2. Neither is Utah.

Oregon has athletes at all positions and that's their advantage, but all they need to do is run into foul trouble and they're done.

Gladiator Cat wrote:Additionally, with the recruiting that Altman is going to be capable of doing now that he has that program clicking on all cylinders. Oregon will be a player year in and year out.

I suspect he's got a lot more PAC12 COY honors to receive in the years ahead, thus the UofA and UCLA now have even less room for error as future classes unfold.

He's always dangerous on the transfer market and he's doing what he should be doing in getting HS kids who are 4 stars and developing them. He won't compete for many 5 stars though, they're just not that stature of program.

In regards to his COY honors, nothing pisses me off more than the bullshit honors he got last year. He deserved it this year, but last year was a joke.

ChooChooCat wrote:
In regards to his COY honors, nothing pisses me off more than the bullshit honors he got last year. He deserved it this year, but last year was a joke.

THIS !!! But that's what you get for being the class and top dog of the P12.......most of the other Coaches are jealous little pussies.....

1. We're not that good and we still almost beat them.


Or, perhaps, the Ducks are that good, and we almost beat them, (with Anderson playing horribly!). If that's the case it means we are good enough to get to a FF as well. Until proven otherwise, I'm going with this interpretation.

Go Cats!!

Sagarin has the 'Cats at #12, and Oregon is actually three spots lower at #15. Utah #26, Cal #27.

97cats wrote:wearin the right unis tonight -- I expect Arizona to play very well.

boy was I wrong about how Arizona was going to show up -- swing and a miss

whiiffff

97cats wrote:

97cats wrote:wearin the right unis tonight -- I expect Arizona to play very well.

boy was I wrong about how Arizona was going to show up -- swing and a miss

whiiffff

Were you really wrong though?

Take away the last 4 minutes of the 1st half and I thought we played a pretty good game.

That 4 minutes however... that was horrendous.

wow, excellent raveling sighting, @vegascat ! big bonus points if you overheard him saying "ayr-uhh-zoh-nuh" aloud

dirtbags wrote:wow, excellent raveling sighting, @vegascat ! big bonus points if you overheard him saying "ayr-uhh-zoh-nuh" aloud

The night before he was sitting right in front of us. Welcomed him to Vegas and said I hoped we weren't going to be too loud for him. That was when we played Oregon. He just said yell as loud as you want and never heard another word out of him. He looked old though and had problems getting in and out of his seat.

This is a little off-topic, but here's a couple views during a pre-opening concert last night of the inside of the T-Mobile Arena where the PAC-12 Tourney will be next year. First shot is from the club that's at the very top of the arena at one end and will overhang the stands a little bit. The second one is a shot of the video board which is supposed to be the second largest hanging board after the one at the Dallas Cowboy stadium. You can also see part of the club which is the purple lights in the middle left. It'll have a DJ and bottle service, so which one of you is going to rent it out next year for all of us?

If this place can fill up all the seats, it'll be an awesome experience. If it doesn't, hopefully it doesn't turn into another Staples. Definitely not an intimate tourney anymore.

And by the way, $12.50 for a beer and $13 for wine.

Awesome. Thanks for the pics. Looks like pre gaming before buying those beers next year.

Wow incredible, is this behind MGM?

Between NYNY and Monte Carlo