Bear Down Wildcats

Is there anyone in that image not looking at their phone?

Merkin wrote:Is there anyone in that image not looking at their phone?

Pretty standard airport terminal sight these days.

Merkin wrote:Is there anyone in that image not looking at their phone?

the guy in the reflection off the glass?

I'm on my phone looking at Goazcats.

The other day at Basha's I get some wine and my wife grabs some sushi and we hold hands while walking up to the checkout line. A wizened frightful battleaxe on a rascal scooter swans right up to us and bellows "Holding hands instead of phones! How nice!"

ucla game thread is up

Longhorned wrote:I'm on my phone looking at Goazcats.

Are you in 2007?

The ASU loss was the loss that finally made me give up on Sean Miller. Tonight's loss was the one that made me give up on this team altogether.

ChooChooCat wrote:The ASU loss was the loss that finally made me give up on Sean Miller. Tonight's loss was the one that made me give up on this team altogether.

Can you explain to me how Nico is a lottery pick? I really have never seen it except for a flash here and there.

Is it all about hype?

Good to have a quality home loss on the tourney resume.

Alieberman wrote:

ChooChooCat wrote:The ASU loss was the loss that finally made me give up on Sean Miller. Tonight's loss was the one that made me give up on this team altogether.

Can you explain to me how Nico is a lottery pick? I really have never seen it except for a flash here and there.

Is it all about hype?

Potential, that's all that matters any more.

Just got back to my hotel from that Mick Cronin Water Torture of a game. Thoughts:

1) Thats the best man-to-man defense I have seen UCLA play since Howland was their coach

2) Cronin outcoached Miller

3) Dylan Smith has now completely reverted to his normal form.........Miller needs to abandon him
as a starter and insert Baker.

4) Nico Mannion is regressing into being Dylan Smith

5) Opposing teams have started getting physical with NNaji in the post and its bothering him

6) Colorado/Oregon/USC have the inside track to the top 3 spots heading into the P12 tourney
The UA desperately needs to knock off Stanford next Saturday to put itself into a position to
grab the 4th spot and avoid playing Wednesday in Vegas

7) At this point if we split the two remaining road trips (honestly, the LA trip is going to be tough to get a
win) and win everything at home except UO..........we have 10 losses and are looking at a 9/10 seed in
the NCAA tourney.

8) Please stop talking about our great NET ranking. Going into this game we were #8 and UCLA was 1
hundred and something. With our bad losses and poor record on the road its next to meaningless

ChooChooCat wrote:

Alieberman wrote:

ChooChooCat wrote:The ASU loss was the loss that finally made me give up on Sean Miller. Tonight's loss was the one that made me give up on this team altogether.

Can you explain to me how Nico is a lottery pick? I really have never seen it except for a flash here and there.

Is it all about hype?

Potential, that's all that matters any more.

He seems like a great, hard-working kid but where is the touch on his shots? Curry, Young, Nash, etc. had average wingspan and limited athleticism but also great touch. He has excellent vision but then there's games like tonight. Nico was so much better pushing the ball and playing fast. He is just not that good in the half court.

I mean he’s air balling wide open Js at this point. Obviously he’s better than he’s shown, but i agree he doesn’t do anything great except maybe change of pace dribbling and maybe his floater but he does some things terrible.

Tough to see anything more than a S16 ceiling on this team after tonight. Getting out of the first weekend seems naively optimistic.

Also I’m sure this game will drop our metric rankings considerably so we can stop hearing that noise.

At this point, objective analysts have to admit that Staf was better as a freshman than Nico has been (thru USC)...

FG% - S = 51.9; N = 40.2
3P% - S = 39.6 N = 33.9
FT% - S = 80.3; N = 81.3
REB - S = 3.3; N = 2.7
AST - S = 4.5; N = 5.5
PPG - S = 9.4; N = 14.0

pc in NM wrote:At this point, objective analysts have to admit that Staf was better as a freshman than Nico has been (thru USC)...

FG% - S = 51.9; N = 40.2
3P% - S = 39.6 N = 33.9
FT% - S = 80.3; N = 81.3
REB - S = 3.3; N = 2.7
AST - S = 4.5; N = 5.5
PPG - S = 9.4; N = 14.0

Na. The 3 point line has been moved back twice(?) since Staf's freshman season, so we are looking at skewed shooting numbers. Nico also doesn't have the benefit of coming to a team that returned Hassan, Channing, Salim, and Iggy. I'm sure Nico would also look a lot better in Lute's system.

how many of you thought we'd have a record setting performance last night?
#DWWD

PieceOfMeat wrote:how many of you thought we'd have a record setting performance last night?
#DWWD

Certainly a lot to brag about this year

It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

With 3 future 1st round NBAers starting, they set a record for worst shooting performance ever at McKale against a mediocre team? How is that not worse than they actually are?

Before I ask I’m well aware the team does dinner at Mr Ans and stays at La Paloma night before Saturday games to avoid distractions. But there’s a few guys on other board claiming the team was out drinking all night long at a party Friday night. One guy said he had picture proof but Scheer locked the thread. Anyone hear any truth to that?

NickyBCats wrote:Before I ask I’m well aware the team does dinner at Mr Ans and stays at La Paloma night before Saturday games to avoid distractions. But there’s a few guys on other board claiming the team was out drinking all night long at a party Friday night. One guy said he had picture proof but Scheer locked the thread. Anyone hear any truth to that?

one would imagine that if this were true, it would be all over twitter(with pics)

Merkin wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

With 3 future 1st round NBAers starting, they set a record for worst shooting performance ever at McKale against a mediocre team? How is that not worse than they actually are?

One awful game offensively. Still top 20 offensively. Averaged 80 per before yesterday. Far too much. Being made of one game

PHXCATS wrote:

Merkin wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

With 3 future 1st round NBAers starting, they set a record for worst shooting performance ever at McKale against a mediocre team? How is that not worse than they actually are?

One awful game offensively. Still top 20 offensively. Averaged 80 per before yesterday. Far too much. Being made of one game

The final 12 minutes of the USC game & the second halves of the OSU and ASU games say hi.

I've looked though the main living threads on this board this morning, and I just want to express my admiration and pride for this board's members. I wouldn't trade you for anything.

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

How does this (or any AZ team) get worse than last night???

When we get knocked out of the tourney, or miss it altogether, PHX will still be pointing to our killer advanced statistical rankings. Can we hang a banner for NET top 4?

Has any UA team in the history of the world ever blown a 20 point lead to ASU of all teams?

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

I actually thought we'd lose by 40 last night to a shitty UCLA team.

I'm with you Machina... that was impressive!

I love what I'm seeing.

Merkin wrote:Has any UA team in the history of the world ever blown a 20 point lead to ASU of all teams?

The 22 point blown lead was the largest in Pac 12 history (tied with 2 other teams not named Arizona).

pc in NM wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

How does this (or any AZ team) get worse than last night???

One freaking game

I will call it. Cats beat both Cal and Stanford

Beachcat97 wrote:When we get knocked out of the tourney, or miss it altogether, PHX will still be pointing to our killer advanced statistical rankings. Can we hang a banner for NET top 4?

You are so incredibly stupid if you think the Cats are at risk for not making the tournament

PHXCATS wrote:

pc in NM wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:It is funny how so many people want this team to be worse than it actually is

How does this (or any AZ team) get worse than last night???

One freaking game

I will call it. Cats beat both Cal and Stanford

Then we'll follow that up with a blowout home loss to the Beavs and another heartbreaking loss to Oregon.

that was not good

97cats wrote:that was not good

Don't tell Machina.

Alieberman wrote: Don't tell Machina.

ugly is ugly and that shit last night was ugly

PHXCATS wrote:One freaking game

How many bad losses have you said this after now? It's a pattern, not one game.

Even if we do sweep this week (not very likely), we're still not winning the conference, or the Pac 12 tournament, and we're out in the first week of the big dance. And you'll talk about next year, but what exactly is there to look forward to? The slow march to Miller losing his job?

AZCatGirl wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:One freaking game

How many bad losses have you said this after now? It's a pattern, not one game.

Even if we do sweep this week (not very likely), we're still not winning the conference, or the Pac 12 tournament, and we're out in the first week of the big dance. And you'll talk about next year, but what exactly is there to look forward to? The slow march to Miller losing his job?

Quoted for the future

pc in NM wrote:At this point, objective analysts have to admit that Staf was better as a freshman than Nico has been (thru USC)...

FG% - S = 51.9; N = 40.2
3P% - S = 39.6 N = 33.9
FT% - S = 80.3; N = 81.3
REB - S = 3.3; N = 2.7
AST - S = 4.5; N = 5.5
PPG - S = 9.4; N = 14.0

I don't need the numbers, but both are misevaluations, and I agree -- for whatever it's worth, freshman Staf was a better point guard than Nico.

Staf used to get cluster fucked in the paint having driven into three defenders, then jump straight up and turn his back to the basket and flip the ball over his head to avoid a shot clock violation. It never got anywhere close to iron. I bet Nico can do that too.

Staf was given a pretty bad rap, but he was the #2 PG in his class after Chris Paul, and never lived up to the hype.

He also led the team in unforced errors, such as stepping on the baseline when not covered. He used to look at Lute with puppy dog eyes after that to see if he was getting pulled or not.

However, Staf sure deserved his reputation during the Illini meltdown, along with the next season's NCAA game, forgot the team when he again passed to Hassan Adams end of game who in both games was not the designated shooter in the play Lute called.

But he did average 6.9 APG as a senior, which I don't think any UA PG has topped since.

Not sure it can get any worse than last night. Never thought I'd see an Arizona team play so badly at home. It reminds me that all that glitters isn't gold. It's quite possible our 'elite' recruits' just simply aren't as good as anticipated. Or it's how Miller is using them. It could be both and I tend to think it is. I honestly think we could end up a bubble team or end up in the play in game against ASU

Miller's stubbornness is of course legendary, but I can't just can't see going 4 on 5 on the offensive end by leaving Smith out there. He certainly is a better defender than Baker and Hazzard, but when the entire team is struggling on offense, why leave the coldest shooter out there, along with his very poor shot choices?

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketbal ... KyStgilZEg" target="_blank

On Dylan Smith’s play: I think Dylan (Smith) is obviously struggling with his shot, he’s missed about 20 in a row. But, Dylan is 6-5 and he’s that one wing player that can really help us defensively. Our subs are much smaller, so it’s tough just to go without him because we trust him on defense and he’s also had some really good moments on offense this season. Hopefully he can get his confidence back. You want your team to have confidence. We certainly didn’t look like we had confidence tonight. That’s all me. That’s my job as the coach.”

I would be happy if we never had more than one one-and-done every two years...

... if ever again!!

Longhorned wrote:I've looked though the main living threads on this board this morning, and I just want to express my admiration and pride for this board's members. I wouldn't trade you for anything.

Last night was an important game, not because AZ was playing an underwhelming UCLA squad, but because AZ could have been in contention for the league title with a win. The team didn’t show up — clearly was not prepared for the moment, not prepared to take control of its destiny. And this wasn’t a one-time performance; this has occurred multiple times this season. It will be shocking if this team gets past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.

midnightx wrote:Last night was an important game, not because AZ was playing an underwhelming UCLA squad, but because AZ could have been in contention for the league title with a win. The team didn’t show up — clearly was not prepared for the moment, not prepared to take control of its destiny. And this wasn’t a one-time performance; this has occurred multiple times this season. It will be shocking if this team gets past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.

Agree on all of this.

And to say nothing of it being a game against a conference rival in our building. UCLA is not a good team this year. There’s no way we can lose that game. And yet, we did. Badly. Game wasn’t really close in the second half.

Merkin wrote:Miller's stubbornness is of course legendary, but I can't just can't see going 4 on 5 on the offensive end by leaving Smith out there. He certainly is a better defender than Baker and Hazzard, but when the entire team is struggling on offense, why leave the coldest shooter out there, along with his very poor shot choices?

Why?

Because: Do What We Do

that's why

Dylan Smith is not good at basketball.

Beachcat97 wrote:Dylan Smith is not good at basketball.

*Most of the time.