Bear Down Wildcats

azcat49 wrote:So anyone know the status of next years tourney. This is the last year with the MGM and you would think they would have made an announcement by now on an extension

Last year I heard it directly from the horses mouth that the contract was extended one more year. MGM Resorts is trying to get the tourney locked in for a long time like a 10 year contract. When I asked if it was going to stay at the MGM or move to the new arena which opens next April, he said it hasn't been decided yet.

Well, MGM is in the process of building a 20k seater.

UAdevil wrote: http://arenalasvegas.com/home.aspx

What you can't see because it's blocked, but the concrete has been laid for the upper deck seats already for the sections closest to the picture. As far as I know, it's on schedule. Haven't heard about any issues so far.

A little surprised that there's no discussion of the game tonight. Are we expecting an easy win? Close game? Looney's status?

Like many UCLA players over the years feigning injury, Looney is going to have a career game.

Beachcat97 wrote:A little surprised that there's no discussion of the game tonight. Are we expecting an easy win? Close game? Looney's status?

I expect UCLA's superior program to continue its dominance over us in the conference tourney. How about you, BC?

Merkin wrote:Like many UCLA players over the years feigning injury, Looney is going to have a career game.

Arizona always brings out the best in UCLA. For some reason, the opposite hasn't been true. I was shocked at how poorly we played against them at McKale this season, especially considering how great we've played over the last month.

I'm just hoping that our starters can bring the same intensity and focus that they showed against Cal and Stanford last week. I don't want to see TJ lose his final Pac game. He deserves to go out a champion.

i know this is old news by now, but what a great photo from yesterday's game, c/o the AZ daily star, just nanoseconds before the MGM erupted post-dunk. someone should make a poster out of this.

check out richrod jumping out of his seat.

Looney game time decision due to face injury

Jefe wrote:Looney game time decision due to face injury

source?

That means he's totally fine and will drop 30 on us.

If you just go position by position, we pretty much have an advantage everywhere vs. UCLA. Looney vs. Ashley is probably a push. RHJ vs. Powell is close too.

TJ > Alford
SJ > Hamilton
RHJ vs. Powell ?
BA vs. Looney ?
Tarc > Parker (at least lately)

And UCLA has almost no bench. Ours is one of the better ones in the country.

Beachcat97 wrote:If you just go position by position, we pretty much have an advantage everywhere vs. UCLA. Looney vs. Ashley is probably a push. RHJ vs. Powell is close too.

TJ > Alford
SJ > Hamilton
RHJ vs. Powell ?
BA vs. Looney ?
Tarc > Parker (at least lately)

And UCLA has almost no bench. Ours is one of the better ones in the country.

RHJ v Powell isn't close.

If we don't win by double digits, it's nothing UCLA did.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

Beachcat97 wrote:If you just go position by position, we pretty much have an advantage everywhere vs. UCLA. Looney vs. Ashley is probably a push. RHJ vs. Powell is close too.

TJ > Alford
SJ > Hamilton
RHJ vs. Powell ?
BA vs. Looney ?
Tarc > Parker (at least lately)

And UCLA has almost no bench. Ours is one of the better ones in the country.

RHJ v Powell isn't close.

If we don't win by double digits, it's nothing UCLA did.

I agree. But shouldn't we have won by double digits last year, too? I know they were better, but we had NJ and AG, and were ranked in the top 5.

Last year? UCLA had 4 NBA Draft picks and Anderson played out of his mind. We had no answer for him.

azcat49 wrote:Last year? UCLA had 4 NBA Draft picks and Anderson played out of his mind. We had no answer for him.

And we had at least three (AG, NJ, RHJ), possibly five (BA, KT).

Kyle Anderson was just a difficult player to guard, and we couldn't slow him down. I don't think UCLA has a guy this year who can single-handedly change a game. I know Hamilton had the game of his life yesterday, but it was against the worst team in the conference. I doubt he does something like that tonight. Bryce is streaky as hell, and he can occasionally put up 25 points. But we've got great players to put on Hamilton, Bryce, and Powell. The reason our game vs. UCLA was close last month is because we were ice cold on offense. It may've had to do with that zone they threw at us, but it also might've been the bright lights of a nationally televised game. Not sure. At any rate, we've got the better team and should win tonight. We'd have to have another poor shooting game, while they're shooting lights out, for this to be close.

azthrillhouse wrote:

Jefe wrote:

azcat49 wrote:So anyone know the status of next years tourney. This is the last year with the MGM and you would think they would have made an announcement by now on an extension

Woh did not know this. They have to keep it there.

I read something (maybe in LS's Seattle times chat last week) that MGM is planning on building a bigger venue & that might be part of what they are discussing.

I don't know why we would think we needed a bigger venue except for the championship game.

Maybe trying to attract some first round and sweet sixteen/elite eight games?

really great to see the team find the strength, the grittiness, the composure to come back from down 7 in a game like this, where a lot of things weren't going their way, and bring it across the finish line. winning ugly in eliminationball season is just fine. "it's march, just win."

Hope we can keep it up against Utah or Oregon. They are better than cal obviously do it will be hard for that third win. We beat the two of them by a combined 78 in four games.

I'd much rather see Oregon than Utah. Delon Wright will be the third best pro in the conference this year (behind SJ and RHJ) and they are much, much more talented and deep than Oregon. Plus, I want to hear the entire damn arena chant "MVP" every time TJ touches the ball.

dirtbags wrote:really great to see the team find the strength, the grittiness, the composure to come back from down 7 in a game like this, where a lot of things weren't going their way, and bring it across the finish line. winning ugly in eliminationball season is just fine. "it's march, just win."

Absolutely agree. Hell of a warm up for the tourney.

Where did everyone go? The stands are less than half full.

84Cat wrote:Where did everyone go? The stands are less than half full.

The main event is over; this is the undercard.

VegasCatFan wrote:

azcat49 wrote:So anyone know the status of next years tourney. This is the last year with the MGM and you would think they would have made an announcement by now on an extension

Last year I heard it directly from the horses mouth that the contract was extended one more year. MGM Resorts is trying to get the tourney locked in for a long time like a 10 year contract. When I asked if it was going to stay at the MGM or move to the new arena which opens next April, he said it hasn't been decided yet.

This was just confirmed on the Oregon/Utah broadcast.

Really good game between Utah and Oregon. This is a pretty satisfying undercard. I hope it goes triple overtime.

Why do pac-12 refs continue to reward flops?

Oregon getting hosed here.

That foul they called on Bell was pretty iffy too.

Lmao @ that call

Like I was saying, I hope this game goes triple overtime.

really pac12 level officiating at the end of this utah oregon game....

Terrible calls

Holy shit.

Lol F utah

Ok Joe Young, hard to argue with POY after that clutch shot. Great job!

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahah
oregon just shoved that right up the refs' asses

AZCatGirl wrote:Ok Joe Young, hard to argue with POY after that clutch shot. Great job!

It's real easy to argue poy

He is not going to be that wide open with Rondae on him.

AZCatGirl wrote:Ok Joe Young, hard to argue with POY after that clutch shot. Great job!

Eh, it's a season award.

Can't wait to watch Rondae shut his ass down.

ASUHATER! wrote:Terrible calls

Joseph Young laughs at the awful reffing at the end.

AZCatGirl wrote:Ok Joe Young, hard to argue with POY after that clutch shot. Great job!

one shot does not a POY make

Chicat wrote:

AZCatGirl wrote:Ok Joe Young, hard to argue with POY after that clutch shot. Great job!

Eh, it's a season award.

Can't wait to watch Rondae shut his ass down.

Same. Tomorrow should be a lot of fun.

Cats v Ducks for the PAC 12 title...where have I heard that before? (Hopefully we treat them as kindly as they treated us in football)

If we played Utah it would have been a close, grind it out game

We are going to Destroy Oregon. DREAM match up given we are playing the MVP Joe Young. Tomorrow, those MVP dreams will die a painful death at the hands of us. Might as well ship the trophy to Tucson, zero chance Ducks beat us

Cant wait to see RHJ match up with Joe Young. Lockdown baby. Met vegascatfan and his brother in law after the game tonight. Two really great guys who travel from Vegas to the football games. That is dedication. Going to tailgate with us next year

Before the tourney I was 100% on the bloodbath bandwagon, but after the last two games I don't see how anyone could still think we are going to blow Oregon out. This is the championship game of the conference tournament, throw out all previous games. Motivation from snubs obviously hasn't been a factor, and teams are playing their hearts out for better seeding or to make it to the big dance. Prepare for a close, hard fought game.

FightWildcatsFight wrote:Before the tourney I was 100% on the bloodbath bandwagon, but after the last two games I don't see how anyone could still think we are going to blow Oregon out. This is the championship game of the conference tournament, throw out all previous games. Motivation from snubs obviously hasn't been a factor, and teams are playing their hearts out for better seeding or to make it to the big dance. Prepare for a close, hard fought game.

You're probably right BUT if RHJ and Pitts can get their shots to finally fall, we could win comfortably....Also need to get Zeus the ball and stop jacking lazy 3s!

Newportcat wrote:If we played Utah it would have been a close, grind it out game

We are going to Destroy Oregon. DREAM match up given we are playing the MVP Joe Young. Tomorrow, those MVP dreams will die a painful death at the hands of us. Might as well ship the trophy to Tucson, zero chance Ducks beat us

Told you guys we would destroy Oregon! We just match up so well against Oregon and destroyed the #2 team in the conference 3 times. Think about that, how in the hell did we lose to OSU and ASU.

Tourney Champs!