Bear Down Wildcats

Lots of good things happened tonight:

Allonzo Trier. Should start. Play him at center, I don't care. The T-shirt was less bad tonight but Trier is a star.

Pitts. I'll disagree with my four-score-and-seventeen feline colleague. I liked what I saw from Pitts tonight. He had good chemistry with Ristic, especially. Miller doesn't play a "second unit" per se but those two worked well together and should see time on the floor together.

Anderson is Anderson. Probably the fewest rebounds we'll see from him all year.

Ristic finally started to look like the player we all expected at the start of the year. PJC too. I liked what I saw from both of them.

York was bad but he'll have his bounce-back game next game. Usually does.

Allen only played 14 minutes with the foul trouble.

The three-point shooting has to improve, and I think it will, once these guys get going a little bit.

Just a weird rhythm to the game with all the fouls. Someone made the comment about how if this is how games are going to be called we'll need two of everyone this year and I agree. Good year to have some depth. This team is going to blow a lot of teams out in the second half this year, especially once we start going in transition.

I was pleased that after the subpar defensive effort in the first half, we stepped up in the second and still held them under 40% for the game.

How did the fouls break down by half? It'd be good to hear that UA figured out the new rules and adjusted their defense to compensate.

Box score

Trier 23 mins, 22 points, 5 rebs, 1 stl, 14/14 FT

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400813819" target="_blank

Puerco wrote:How did the fouls break down by half? It'd be good to hear that UA figured out the new rules and adjusted their defense to compensate.

Going to take more than one half. Maybe a half season. But I hope they stick with it to unclog the game.

Think we were 1 for 4 on front ends. Makes me crazy and does the one-and-one rule. "You've been fouled seven times. Now we're going to reward the other team if you miss the first one. Until they get to 10. Then two free throws." Because?

Most seasons begin with some sort of new emphasis and tighter calls, then gradually loosening and returning to normal. Unless you're discussing Pac 12 refs. In that case, the game is separated into 5 minute increments. The rules for each increment are either "breathe on him and it's a foul" or "no blood, no foul." Which set of rules is used is determined by a blindfolded colobus monkey throwing darts at a dartboard.

My thoughts, we have a tremendous amount of depth. In past years, guys with potential that Miller didn't have total confidence in were 7th or 8th men (i.e., Pitts in 2013-14). This year, those guys are Simon and Comanche, and they are 10th and 11th. The wear down still has a length component, but now depth is equal.

The perimeter rotation is just ridiculously deep, and Miller can ride a hot hand basically every night. It was Trier last night.

The platoon of Zeus and Ristic is going to be very good. They combined for 21 and 12 last night.

Defensively, it's clear we're still adjusting. If/when that comes together, things will be even better.

The less said about our FT shooting, the better. We gave away a lot of points.

salim'sheadband wrote:Lots of good things happened tonight:

Allonzo Trier. Should start. Play him at center, I don't care. The T-shirt was less bad tonight but Trier is a star.

Pitts. I'll disagree with my four-score-and-seventeen feline colleague. I liked what I saw from Pitts tonight. He had good chemistry with Ristic, especially. Miller doesn't play a "second unit" per se but those two worked well together and should see time on the floor together.

Ristic finally started to look like the player we all expected at the start of the year. PJC too. I liked what I saw from both of them.

York was bad but he'll have his bounce-back game next game. Usually does.

The three-point shooting has to improve, and I think it will, once these guys get going a little bit.

Just a weird rhythm to the game with all the fouls. Someone made the comment about how if this is how games are going to be called we'll need two of everyone this year and I agree. Good year to have some depth. This team is going to blow a lot of teams out in the second half this year, especially once we start going in transition.

Yes on Trier. Took a few games but you can see the "it" factor with him. And if teams want to focus on stopping him, fine by me, we got two guys down low who will throw it down when help comes, and opens things up for our shooters. What he gave us last night is exactly what this team needs to be a top-level offensive unit.

I wholeheartedly agree with Pitts. The guy seated next to me was ragging on Pitts, shouting out every time he missed, "thats one for five now." I was getting irritated because the dude was completely ignorant to everything else he was doing, so I said something. Defensive effort alone was probably the best I saw all game from anyone. He was effectively penetrating with purpose, probing and manipulating the defense to open things up for his teammates like TJ does. And that was from the 2 and 3. He was one of the primary reasons we went on that huge run in the second. His passing was crazy off that penetration and he was feeding the post. When the shots start to fall, this guy is going to be a killer player off the bench.

I didn't find York to be bad. Bad first half, but picked it up in the second and those two straight threes is what turned the game to ugly. 4-9 and 2-5 for 10 points on a bad game, I'll take it. Three point shooting has been lackluster in the exhibition and first game and a half thus far, but they turned it up in the second half as a whole. Strong half helped the team finish 35%. I expect things to improve here but we will see.

I think the rhythm is what screwed with the team. All of the fouls (both teams) tremendously slowed things down, messed with lineups, etc. There was no flow and I think that hurt York and some of the other shooters early. But it's good, we are going to run into that again.

I'm all aboard the start Trier wagon

Me too. A hard working, gutsy guy who insists on getting it done.

It'll be important to see Zo play against better teams than Bradley.

Puerco wrote:How did the fouls break down by half? It'd be good to hear that UA figured out the new rules and adjusted their defense to compensate.

57 total fouls :
// 1st half: 28 PFs (UA 12 + bradley 16)
... UA 16-24 (67%) FTs
... bradley 11-14 (79%)

// 2nd half: 29 (UA 10 + bradley 19)
... UA 19-28 (68%)
... bradley 5-10 (50%)


nice adjustment, and nice to see the wear down pervade the charity stripe

I'm liking this team. Trier could be the volume scorer that Miller's system desperately needs. Plus lots of solid glue parts around him and lots of guys that can shoot from outside of 15ft. We are going to be friggin Wisconsin from last year. Team defense also seems well ahead of where it has been in the past at this stage. And the team chemistry seems back up where it was during NJ's last year, if not better.

I don't see a ceiling for this year's squad. None at all. It's a different play of course - swapping athleticism and lock-down defense for experience, shooting and better cohesion. So the eye test is an adjustment. But that works too. Lots of teams have proved it in the past.

More than anything, I think we'll learn a bit about Miller in how he will (or won't) adjust to this year's strengths.

Like what I saw from Trier but not sure I would start him over Gabe or Mark yet. Totally agree with what Elliott did last night as well. Played very well, shooting isn't the only important aspect of his game,

dirtbags wrote:

Puerco wrote:How did the fouls break down by half? It'd be good to hear that UA figured out the new rules and adjusted their defense to compensate.

57 total fouls :
// 1st half: 28 PFs (UA 12 + bradley 16)
... UA 16-24 (67%) FTs
... bradley 11-14 (79%)

// 2nd half: 29 (UA 10 + bradley 19)
... UA 19-28 (68%)
... bradley 5-10 (50%)


nice adjustment, and nice to see the wear down pervade the charity stripe

My thoughts on the fouls. If I recall correctly, first half, we were in double bonus and they were in the bonus by the 10:00 mark and the double bonus around 7:00. Second half, again we were in double bonus by the 10:00 mark and they were in the bonus at 7 or 8 minutes left. Think they were in the double bonus with 3 minutes left or so. I remember we got whistled twice right away in the second half.

It was obviously a topic of discussion at halftime, but I think it was just one of those instances where CSM said, guys, they are calling anything, just watch yourselves. I mean what can you tell your team when you are moving your feet defensively to stay with your man and if your hip grazes any part of his body no matter your positioning, it's called a blocking foul? You can only play defense so well without any form of contact. I guess maybe watching the reaching and the other things you can control knowing the cheapies are going to come. The foul discrepancy itself I think is more of a product of us being the superior and more aggressive team, Trier's coming out party produced by his aggressiveness with the drive, and their best players all being in foul trouble and/or fouling out, allowing for an even worse product on the floor. I think against a better team, we would have come closer to matching their foul and FT numbers. They had their moments of trying to be physical with us, but a lot of the time they seemed content with creating just enough space to chuck something up and hope for the best. The six point discrepancy from their 1st to 2nd half can largely be explained by them shooting a lower percentage in the 2nd half and maybe us just being a little more careful. They had more inexperience out there in the 2nd which led to more turnovers for them, I didn't see us as "wow we are defending better AND cutting down the fouls" rather than, we are defending decently and guys are being more cognizant of the officials.

Maybe the new rules compounded the problem, but like I said in the other thread, may have been the most over-officiated I have ever seen. I've seen high foul totals before, this was a complete nerfing of the defense and any physicality or contact. I was rolling my eyes when fouls went against us and for us for most of the game. I yelled out let them play multiple times and wanted to say it even more. It helps us prepare for the future, so not completely wasted, but otherwise it was almost a waste of an early season nonconference game for both teams.

Is it just me or does Alonzo need a better haircut?

TheGreatCatsby wrote:Is it just me or does Alonzo need a better haircut?

I think he, York, Pitts, and Anu are planning to start a boy band in the offseason.

Lol whats wrong w Trier's haircut

it's kind of a beavis & butthead 'cut





although to zo's credit, he was like negative 2 years old when the show was on tv

I posted this in the game thread after the game was over, but before I finished watching it:

Chicat wrote:Just watching it now: The threes we took and missed were good shots, just off the mark. I actually haven't seen a three that I thought was out of the flow of the offense so far (I'm at halftime).

Other observations...

I don't know if I've seen an Arizona guy present himself open on the block as well as Mr. Anderson does. DWill was great too, as was Michael Wright (RIP).

Bradley is really well coached.

PJC looks a lot more comfortable. I think the spacing is better all around, and he's taking advantage of it.

Ristic has the strong hands and agile feet to play in the NBA right now. No doubt.

Trier's aggressiveness to the hoop is fucking awesome.

I really like this team, even when they are flat and/or shots aren't falling.

After finishing the game, a couple of other thoughts I had:

Trier can be an absolute beast of a defender but he seems to suffer from the same issue Stanley had. Namely forgetting from time to time that you have to cover your man. If he can concentrate and not have mental lapses, his foot speed and physique will make him an excellent defender.

Trier's ball-handling is practically Sean Miller-esque. That fake cross-over at the top of the key where he juked left and went right without switching his dribble and destroyed the life of his defender was a thing of beauty. I rewound it and watched it four times.

Tolly would be so much better coming off the bench fresh and ready to knock down threes. I feel like playing less will have an inverse affect on his scoring.

Nice to see Pitts back and playing well. He had a couple of really nice passes to the interior that I don't think he makes last year. Might have something to do with our floor spacing being better as I mentioned above, or maybe he's just seeing the court better with more experience under his belt.

I like the trajectory CSM seems to have this team on when it comes to lineups and minutes. Seems like he'll trim his rotation to 9-10 instead of 7-8 in past years and can do some interesting things as far as putting a lot of interchangeable parts on the court at the same time. And he seems to be encouraging them to get out and run more. That was largely our issue in the first half when we had zero fast break points. Came out after halftime and ran them out of the gym . . . literally.

Thanks for the foul info, guys.

I love the Alonzo crossover, it's lethal, though I do worry about him tearing an ACL doing that. Reading the science behind ACL tears, that's how they occur most frequently, when your knee if going one direction then you abruptly shift to the other direction, ala Spencer Dinwiddie. But hopefully he just has really tough sinewy knee ligaments and can take it, because we haven't had a coast to coast guy like that in a long time, fun to watch.

That hesitation into an inside-out dribble is an NBA move. Kids has skills. Not to mention he drew the and 1 after it.

Boise State box score


Gabe York 23 pts 2 asst 1 blk 1 stl 34 min
Very nice numbers


PJC his best game

http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400841589" target="_blank