Bear Down Wildcats

Neat cover.

Now, if all Wildcats would just use that form when shooting Free Throws we might do some real damage this year..

What is BAsh exactly trying to do there?

In one week I will be even more excited than I am today...which means I might explode.

AZCatGirl wrote:

Great, I have to give Medcalf a hit...

He broke the remote to the TV in his apartment during Arizona's loss to rival Arizona State in a double-overtime thriller two weeks after he'd suffered his foot injury.

Alone with his anger, he picked up the clicker and hurled it across the room.

Brandon, a lot of us did after that game.

He'd grappled with David Kravish for a rebound and initially thought Kravish had accidentally stepped on his foot, but the video suggests that an unfortunate landing was probably the only culprit.

The video suggested something different to me, I guess. Solid piece otherwise by Medcalf.

So Miller is not happy...

I don't think he's ever been happy in the pre season press conference. But there were some great quotes today.

AZCatGirl wrote:I don't think he's ever been happy in the pre season press conference. But there were some great quotes today.

What was this quote in regards too? Please let us know!

Agreed...but he is looking at what he has on the floor and believes it is not where it should be. I think he's using the presser as a way to get a "Seattle Pacific" moment, without having to experience it.

Being on all those lists, being ranked high, cover of SI, and knowing that his 2 best defenders are gone makes him testy when players are not doing what they should be doing in practice.

@AGWildcatReport: More Sean Miller: 'I wish we were a little further ahead. I thought we would be.' #ArizonaWildcats

@AGWildcatReport: Sean Miller: "I could see us getting off to a rocky start." Continues to talk about chemistry and identity. #ArizonaWildcats

@AGWildcatReport: Sean Miller: 'We're just not very good right now. ... We have a long, long way to go.' Downplaying expectations; sending message to team.

@AGWildcatReport: Sean Miller, talking about losing Nick Johnson on defense: 'It's like we're missing three players.' #ArizonaWildcats

@AGWildcatReport: Sean Miller says he's pleased with consistency, leadership from T.J. McConnell and Kaleb Tarczewski. #ArizonaWildcats

Olsondogg wrote:Agreed...but he is looking at what he has on the floor and believes it is not where it should be. I think he's using the presser as a way to get a "Seattle Pacific" moment, without having to experience it.

Being on all those lists, being ranked high, cover of SI, and knowing that his 2 best defenders are gone makes him testy when players are not doing what they should be doing in practice.

This kind of thing is what I've always loved about Sean. He does a great job of playing down expectations so players don't get big heads, fans don't go "We'll be 40-0!" and because things really aren't at the level they need to be get to a final four yet.

Gabe had some really interesting insights at the presser just now. Talking about how when he was a freshman he knew he wasn't good at defense, but thought his offense would get him playing time and how very wrong he was. Hopefully the freshman listened closely to that story. Gabe and Korcheck also had very high praise for Stoudamire and Blair, and how Zeus has improved a lot because of Blair, and Damon has helped Gabe and the other guards. Plus the usual the team needs time to gel and things like that.

If the players and coach were sure of themselves and saw no need for improvement, that would be concerning.

Wasn't "too quiet" an issue last year too? Or at least Dennis Dodd(?) thought it was.

Here's Miller after our first exhibition last year, which happened before Halloween...and players were sick of going at each other then:

Like any exhibition game, I think there is a growing perspective because we have such a long way to go and no
matter how talented or how good a team is you’re never quite where you want to be when you’re on the bench
together for the first time. I really felt that way tonight. There were times that I felt we looked really good. There
were certain times that we probably looked really bad. That’s to be expected. The more important point is how
much better we can get through next week and then have the opportunity, two Fridays from now, when we play
Cal Poly, to be a much better team than we were tonight.

Honor the Process

Honor the Presser

Process the Presser, ad nauseam.

Definitely more negative in tone than last year.

Miller says UA Wildcats could 'get off to rocky start'


2 hours ago • By Bruce Pascoe

Saying the Arizona Wildcats are "nowhere near where some of the preseason publications have us," Sean Miller came out with guns a-blazing during his first media address since the Oct. 18 Red-Blue Game.

The guns were pointed squarely at his own guys.

Miller said the Wildcats have lacked leadership, defense and identity, while generally practicing too quietly.

"I don’t know if we’ve had any person enter our gym through the first 24 or 25 practices and tell me that we’re a good team," Miller said. " I’ve had probably as many as 30 people tell me that either that we’re not as good as everybody said we were, or that they can see that certainly we have the makings of something good down the road."

"For us realistically, we’re not that good of a team right now," Miller said. "We're nowhere near where we would have been a year ago at this time. And I can see us getting off to a rocky start in the month of November especially with Maui and a couple of games that we have and ditto for December.

"I do think our team has an upside in that we have some depth. Some of our younger players are only going to get better and more comfortable as time goes on and hopefully the team’s chemistry and identity starts to form as we enter conference play, that we feel much better than I feel today."

So, it is all just a little preseason sandbagging?


“We’re working hard in practice and headed in that direction. That’s part of the problem when you’re not as good as everybody says you are. A lot of what we have going for this year’s team is we’re living off last year. When you rank us where we’re ranked, you’re doing it because of who we return and you’re assuming a lot. And you look at who we were last year. This is a 100 percent different team. Not even close. And we’re looking right now to become better.”


http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/m ... a5bf1.html

Nothing really new, but fun to look through.

Where's the official media guide?

Don't remember much of this talk last season. Yuck

Maybe there was more to that chemistry comment early on than we thought

Merkin wrote:Where's the official media guide?

http://www.arizonawildcats.com/fls/3070 ... 5Guide.pdf

(which uses the same cover picture as the preview already linked in the thread)

I think this is normal transition stuff. We have Stanley Johnson going from being the man everywhere he has been to a major cog, but just another player. We have Rondae, who tasted the big time down the stretch last year and is probably pressing for this to be his team. And TJ doesn't seem to be a vocal leader that puts an end to that kind of shit. Zeus is quiet, and Brandon is quietish and really more concerned about getting his game back.

So regular stuff for a major college team with a high ranking.

I think we were all, including CSM, a little spoiled with Aaron Gordon and Nick Johnson. Nick was a true leader who was clearly the main man, but didn't press things too much, and had a great leadership touch (think the story of the house they rented, etc). Aaron Gordon was unlike any highly regarded freshman before him, and not to be easily replicated...a super star, focus of the ESPN freshman narrative, yet all he wanted to do was grind and do whatever it took to win.

I don't think we have chemistry problems this year. I think we had a 100% grade in AP Chemistry with a 5 on the test last year. We will probably never see a meshing of talent and youth like we had last year. AG gets a lot of the credit for that. Rondae wasn't "the man", and just gave effort. TJ could be TJ and mug and celebrate and be a little in your face because Nick was holding down the "team dad" role.

Now it switches. We have a freshman with all the accolades like AG in Stanley, but he is a little bit more about himself. Which isn't to say a total prima donna...but just more so than AG was. We have upper class leadership from BAsh and Zeus...well liked, hard working guys, but not the take charge leader Nick was. We need TJ to be more "team dad" and less agitator. And we need Rondae to show maturity on his step from "the other freshman who is really good but gets overshadowed by AG" to "all american candidate."

These are all annual problems for top ranked teams. And they are all solvable once the games get rolling, especially with a bench that can steal minutes if someone just isn't hearing the coaches well enough. It is just a pretty big swing from last year's chemistry to "normal"....

“Our depth isn’t there right now,” Miller said. “We don’t have a very deep team. We’ll play five or six guys at this point.”

http://tucson.com/sports/basketball/col ... 6d8fa.html

Yep, EVCat nailed it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we have to squeak by a few games early. No big deal though. A college basketball season is a long journey, and Miller always has us peaking upwards when March rolls around. This is nothing new.

Just speculation, but it seemed to me like he's unhappy with RHJ's defensive effort and leadership based on some of those quotes...

A good post by EV. I still don't know what people expected Miller to say in a presser before any real competition, after losing the FOY and POY of the PAC.

It's a coach using the media to motivate and with the articles and chatter about his comments it will end up being a genius move.

It's a call out to his players and I read mostly directed at TJ.

Olsondogg wrote:A good post by EV. I still don't know what people expected Miller to say in a presser before any real competition, after losing the FOY and POY of the PAC.

It's a coach using the media to motivate and with the articles and chatter about his comments it will end up being a genius move.

It's a call out to his players and I read mostly directed at TJ.

I see it differently, didn't he say Kaleb and TJ haven't even been challenged for the gold jersey?

I took it more of a call out at RHJ and SJ.

UAGreg wrote:

Olsondogg wrote:A good post by EV. I still don't know what people expected Miller to say in a presser before any real competition, after losing the FOY and POY of the PAC.

It's a coach using the media to motivate and with the articles and chatter about his comments it will end up being a genius move.

It's a call out to his players and I read mostly directed at TJ.

I see it differently, didn't he say Kaleb and TJ haven't even been challenged for the gold jersey?

I took it more of a call out at RHJ and SJ.

Don't get me wrong, he's calling out a number of players. But the "too quiet" and "lack of identity" quotes point to his 5th year player that played the same QB on the floor position he played.

There is a reason why no starting players were at the presser.

Olsondogg wrote:

UAGreg wrote:

Olsondogg wrote:A good post by EV. I still don't know what people expected Miller to say in a presser before any real competition, after losing the FOY and POY of the PAC.

It's a coach using the media to motivate and with the articles and chatter about his comments it will end up being a genius move.

It's a call out to his players and I read mostly directed at TJ.

I see it differently, didn't he say Kaleb and TJ haven't even been challenged for the gold jersey?

I took it more of a call out at RHJ and SJ.

Don't get me wrong, he's calling out a number of players. But the "too quiet" and "lack of identity" quotes point to his 5th year player that played the same QB on the floor position he played.

There is a reason why no starting players were at the presser.

I really would have thought TJ would have stepped into Nick's role without much of a problem by this point.

Frankly people should be happy this presser happened now, on Nov 6th before an exhibition game.

UAGreg wrote: I took it more of a call out at RHJ and SJ.

cause that's exactly what it was

UAGreg wrote:I took it more of a call out at RHJ and SJ.


Yeah, looks that way. Doubt TJ is his focus at all.

Also looks like Miller's trying to light a fire under the bench players as well.

Wow, SM compared the start of this season to the 16-15 season? Ouch.

I also can't believe that we would play only 6 right now... Leaving Everyone on the bench sans York doesn't sound feasible at all. This is the deepest the bench has been in years for us, wtf is that about?

WildcatRx wrote:Wow, SM compared the start of this season to the 16-15 season? Ouch.

I also can't believe that we would play only 6 right now... Leaving Everyone on the bench sans York doesn't sound feasible at all. This is the deepest the bench has been in years for us, wtf is that about?

It's not feasible, and it won't happen. He just wants the bench players to earn it. He doesn't want anyone thinking that even if they don't put in the work they're still just some foul trouble or an injury away from getting 20+ minutes a game.

What is this rumor going around that Miller has suspended SJ?

azcat49 wrote:What is this rumor going around that Miller has suspended SJ?

I heard it's not true.

Where is Pitts? He got plenty of pt last year so I would have expected him to be ready to contribute this year. You know, the whole frosh to sophomore jump and all. BTFD boys!

Is it softball season yet?

Thx Chi. Makes sense it was erroneous thank goodness

Alieberman wrote:Is it softball season yet?

I'm personally waiting for synchronized swimming.

Daryl Zero wrote:

Alieberman wrote:Is it softball season yet?

I'm personally waiting for synchronized swimming.

Gumby and Hoya lettered in synchronized swimming.

I bet the players don't even watch the presser. It's not like he's sending cryptic messages to the team, he's just being honest with where we're currently at.

Right now, we're not that good, we haven't gelled, people don't know their roles, or people aren't accepting their roles, this potentially could be the Kentucky problem, but hopefully not, and it will take longer for all of this to come together.

Bosy Billups wrote:I bet the players don't even watch the presser. It's not like he's sending cryptic messages to the team, he's just being honest with where we're currently at.

They will hear about what he says. Friends, media, message boards, etc. will all clue them in on what CSM said, even if they don't watch the presser. I didn't watch it, and I know what he said.

It's not as if when CSM says something it disappears into some sort of vacuum. There were definitely some messages being sent.

http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/u ... ?id=201408

The assumption since, oh, April has been that Sean Miller should have an easy time picking a starting lineup this season with Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Stanley Johnson and T.J. McConnell.

But he’s been indicating the past month that it isn’t that simple. For one thing, Miller likes the experience and shooting ability that Gabe York brings. For another, he hasn’t been happy with anyone, really, over the Wildcats’ past two weeks of practices (which is why he expressed concern publicly on Thursday).

So maybe it’s not so simple.

“We could start as many as three different lineups at this point,” Miller said. “There’s not a group of five that clearly stands out. We could play that a number of different ways.”

When I asked Miller if he basically has six starters in mind, plugging in York or Stanley Johnson at shooting guard, he said: “I don’t know if its those two, but through that group of six we could start three different ways.”

Another possibility is that Arizona could even take Brandon Ashley off the bench at first, since Miller has been saying he’s still in the process of recovering from a foot injury last season.

“Brandon is working his way back but I look at him as being a positive; I think he’s really on track,” Miller said. “He’s healthy; it’s great to have him out there. He’s one of our team’s more vocal players and it just seems like every day he gets a little more sure of himself.”

Miller wasn’t the only one talking about the difficulties in meshing the Wildcats together so far Thursday.

Here was York, one of the team’s most candid players, talking about team chemistry:

“When you talk about team basketball and how successful we were last year, we had Nick (Johnson) and Aaron (Gordon) -- they didn’t care if they scored 25 points. They cared about the overall finished product: how far can we get? How far can we improve to get as far as we can get?

“We fell short in the Elite Eight but Nick was never one who hunted shots, who cared if he got 15 shots or if he only shot six times. Aaron, he cared about working. He wanted to be the hardest worker, to make sure he got get 10-plus rebounds or whatever.

“When you have players like that who are so unselfish it made it easier for everyone else to be unselfish. This year, we just have a lot of basketball players who have their own goals in mind. The biggest thing coach has talked to us about is the individual goals will follow if your team’s successful. That’s the biggest thing: Let’s work on team first … we have to trust each other. That’s the biggest thing right now we have to trust each other as a group to get to where we want to get to.”

Favored in every game.

http://www.rpiforecast.com/teams/Arizona.html