Bear Down Wildcats

Lute used to love to play a "made for TV" non-conference game the week of ASU. Clearly, Miller isn't a fan. I wonder why not. I always thought it brought great exposure to the program and was nice tune-up to what we might expect in the NCAA Tournament (especially in years when the conference sucked). Has Miller ever given his rationale?

Pretty sure the last one we had was that debacle against unc at home in 2007.

I am glad you asked this question, because it is something I have wondered about - and I wish we would bring back those games.

Given how bad our conference is this year (Utah is good but has been overhyped, the rest is BAD), we could use a nice stern test and the national spotlight that a marquee matchup would bring. It would also be a fun game to have on the schedule...

Last few years, the team wore down. Nick in particular. The rest doesn't hurt.

BigSkyCatinMT wrote:Last few years, the team wore down. Nick in particular. The rest doesn't hurt.

Good point, but if Miller's transition to a legit 9-player rotation is here to stay, that should not be an issue.

I like giving the kids two weeks during conference season where there's only one game. Allows them a little chance to recharge during what is a grueling conference season.

With teams playing up to 35 games prior to the Big Dance, any chance you have to give them a day off should be taken. And I'm not necessarily talking about the need for a physical rest. More a mental one.

Chicat wrote:I like giving the kids two weeks during conference season where there's only one game. Allows them a little chance to recharge during what is a grueling conference season.

The problem is that weeks when we play ASU with no other game scheduled, it's pretty much like taking the entire week off.

I always did like the big non-conference game, but agree with Chicat on the mental issue as well, as it also distracts from the goal of smashing the hell out of the rest of the conference on the way to a title.

It would be an effective way to add another bona fide quality non-conference game into the schedule, particularly when the Pac-12 is weak. Granted, the voters and committees don't really seem to care about weak conference schedules, otherwise mid-majors wouldn't continue to get high rankings, but it would be nice to see AZ get another shot at a big game to test itself mid-way through the season.

When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

gumby wrote:When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

What would you cut from U of A's and the PAC-12's budgets if this was done?

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

What would you cut from U of A's and the PAC-12's budgets if this was done?

How about whatever was added to the budgets when the tournament was brought back?

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

What would you cut from U of A's and the PAC-12's budgets if this was done?

Alumni activities.

Thanks for acknowledging that the tournament is merely there to make another buck off amateur athletes.

The only purpose this would serve is to help us in ranking. I think it's an easy thing to want right now given how we are getting screwed in the polls thanks to the terrible PAC 12 and 2 losses. The idea of being seeded behind Gonzaga is irritating, but I am not sure this does any good in the long run. We can't predict the viability of the schedule in the PAC 12 when we would need to schedule these (2-3+ years in advance). Imagine if we scheduled one of these, and the PAC schedule turned out to be brutal the same year.

We used to do it during the first ASU game week but not the second game.

Probably started as an RPi thing, especially as rough as the PAC was when Lute started. And RPI got us into the tournament and higher seeded a few times despite losing a few of those games (2009 is the best example). But I don't know if we need it anymore, or did the last few years we did it. We played it when the PAC tournament existed the first time.

It'd be fun. But if someone got injured just once, it'd be second guessed.

gumby wrote:

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

What would you cut from U of A's and the PAC-12's budgets if this was done?

Alumni activities.

Thanks for acknowledging that the tournament is merely there to make another buck off amateur athletes.

Excellent joke big guy.

Most of the money goes back to the students at U of A and in the PAC-12 in some way. Additionally the tournament levels the field with the other major conferences and gives the Cats a chance to shine the resume for a #1 seed.

All of that on top of being incredibly fun for fans and helping U of A in recruiting in all sports.

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

What would you cut from U of A's and the PAC-12's budgets if this was done?

Alumni activities.

Thanks for acknowledging that the tournament is merely there to make another buck off amateur athletes.

Excellent joke big guy.

Most of the money goes back to the students at U of A and in the PAC-12 in some way. Additionally the tournament levels the field with the other major conferences and gives the Cats a chance to shine the resume for a #1 seed.

All of that on top of being incredibly fun for fans and helping U of A in recruiting in all sports.

Please post the link to the article that shows how the Pac-12 Tournament money goes back to the students at the U of A. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So where is the money going then? The vast majority of the money that U of A brings in from everything associated with football and men's basketball is used in the athletic department budget.

Are Greg Byrne and Ann Hart getting rich at the expense of making Miller coach a few extra games and making TJ dribble a few hundred more times?

Maybe the Cats should turn down the NCAA tournament invite then huh?

Machina wrote:So where is the money going then? The vast majority of the money that U of A brings in from everything associated with football and men's basketball is used in the athletic department budget.

Are Greg Byrne and Ann Hart getting rich at the expense of making Miller coach a few extra games and making TJ dribble a few hundred more times?

Maybe the Cats should turn down the NCAA tournament invite then huh?

Machina wrote:So where is the money going then? The vast majority of the money that U of A brings in from everything associated with football and men's basketball is used in the athletic department budget.

Are Greg Byrne and Ann Hart getting rich at the expense of making Miller coach a few extra games and making TJ dribble a few hundred more times?

Maybe the Cats should turn down the NCAA tournament invite then huh?

1) The money is being used to make the power players rich. How do you think Larry Scott makes over 3M a year to run "amateur" athletics?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241 ... 3151863338

2) Byrne isn't doing too bad either:

Byrne's salary of $500,000 will increase to $625,000 in 2014, $650,000 in 2015, $675,000 in 2016, $700,000 in 2017 and $725,000 in 2018.

http://arizonasports.com/82/1736240/Ari ... Greg-Byrne

3) Your denseness is showing once again. Just because I said the money isn't going to U of A doesn't mean I don't like the Pac-12 Tournament/NCAA Tournament games, I just don't live in fantasyland like you and think that all the money is going to the Pac-12 students or schools.

I liked Machina better when he refused to have an opinion about anything.

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:

Machina wrote:

gumby wrote:When Lute did that, there wasn't a conference tourney to add to the cumulative wear and tear on the team.

Dump the tourney!

Return round-robin to conference (start in December) and a game like this!

What would you cut from U of A's and the PAC-12's budgets if this was done?

Alumni activities.

Thanks for acknowledging that the tournament is merely there to make another buck off amateur athletes.

Excellent joke big guy.

Most of the money goes back to the students at U of A and in the PAC-12 in some way. Additionally the tournament levels the field with the other major conferences and gives the Cats a chance to shine the resume for a #1 seed.

All of that on top of being incredibly fun for fans and helping U of A in recruiting in all sports.

It's only there to make money. That's why it went away the first time. The rest is propaganda. The rest didn't stop it from being discontinued. Can hurt a team as much as help. Creates unbalanced skeds. Allows teams with losing records into the tournament. Devastates teams that showed year-long excellence. Why do such a thing? $$$$$$$$$$$$$

It's a gimmick, which I realize is a selling point for you.

splitsecond wrote:The only purpose this would serve is to help us in ranking. I think it's an easy thing to want right now given how we are getting screwed in the polls thanks to the terrible PAC 12 and 2 losses. The idea of being seeded behind Gonzaga is irritating, but I am not sure this does any good in the long run. We can't predict the viability of the schedule in the PAC 12 when we would need to schedule these (2-3+ years in advance). Imagine if we scheduled one of these, and the PAC schedule turned out to be brutal the same year.

And the fact that AZ may be being penalized for a weak conference schedule makes the annual overrating of Gonzaga that much more irritating. Gonzaga plays a couple of good non-conference games in Nov/Dec, and spends three months playing terrible conference competition, gets a very high national ranking, gets a high NCAA tournament seed, and then loses to a team that has not spent three months playing cupcakes. The Pac-12, even on a down year, is stronger than Gonzaga's conference.

Alieberman wrote:

Chicat wrote:I like giving the kids two weeks during conference season where there's only one game. Allows them a little chance to recharge during what is a grueling conference season.

The problem is that weeks when we play ASU with no other game scheduled, it's pretty much like taking the entire week off.

Good thing for that week off, heading to Washington next week.