UA Basketball 2015-2016 Discussion Thread

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 10:38 am

Puerco wrote:No, but his teams always seem to do better than they should with the talent hey have. He's hardly elite.

All I meant. Thanks.

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 4:25 pm

PAC12 Media Day

Corey Williams
The hardest part about this interview was us both pretending Arizona is not about to open a can on the rest of the Pac-12. #straightface #beardown

CalStateTempe · Post by **CalStateTempe** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:14 pm

nice Pac-12 offices.

Good to see where the money is going, rather than the schools.

Bay Area Corporate Real Estate ain't cheap.

PHXCATS · Post by **PHXCATS** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 10:06 am

CalStateTempe wrote:nice Pac-12 offices.

Good to see where the money is going, rather than the schools.

Bay Area Corporate Real Estate ain't cheap.

I think you are joking and he you are. I would think every so often contracts are drawn between the conference and schools on allocation of money

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 10:53 am

He's not. So serious

FIRE SCOTT!

HiCat · Post by **HiCat** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:13 am

Miller says 'group of teams' can win Pac-12

Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
SAN FRANCISCO – Of the 13 previous times media have picked Arizona to win the conference title during the Pac-12’s annual preseason poll, the Wildcats came through nine times.

Miller said before the preseason that he would pick Cal to win it, and he remained bullish on what the Bears could do. Cal was picked second, behind UA.

“Cal is going to be a terrific team,” Miller said. “Cuonzo Martin and his staff have done a tremendous job. … What they have going for them is that blend of talent, both old and new, and that can be a powerful thing.”

Although Miller stopped short of saying Kadeen Allen has become the top option aside from Parker Jackson-Cartwright at the point, he said he hoped the position can help replace the leadership lost when T.J. McConnell took off.

“Kadeem is also somebody that practiced with us every day last year, is a very talented player. He could play more than one guard position, but is an older guy and brings a different element at that position. And Kadeem is 6'2", 6'3" and really long arms and excellent defensive player. We're

http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/a ... 939e8.html" target="_blank

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:15 am

Sean Miller wrote:Kaleb will be the first one to tell you -- you've got to strap it on.

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:42 am

With this team, it's hard to imagine them putting up 16-2 or 15-3 during Pac play, but it's much harder to imagine them finishing 2nd or 3rd, at least to me.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:44 am

I don't see an undefeated ooc with back to back games neutral and away against top 10 Michigan state and Gonzaga. Not going 16-2 in conference but not going 10-8 either. I see a 24-7 type regular season.

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:52 am

ASUHATER! wrote:I don't see an undefeated ooc with back to back games neutral and away against top 10 Michigan state and Gonzaga. Not going 16-2 in conference but not going 10-8 either. I see a 24-7 type regular season.

And Pac champs?

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:57 pm

McClellan, Perkins, Melson. That expected dropoff at guard for GU? Not so much. We will be the underdog in that game.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:57 pm

Six-loss season sounds about right. Pac-12 champs.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 2:01 pm

gumby wrote:Six-loss season sounds about right. Pac-12 champs.

I like the cut of your jib.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 2:44 pm

Beachcat97 wrote:
ASUHATER! wrote:I don't see an undefeated ooc with back to back games neutral and away against top 10 Michigan state and Gonzaga. Not going 16-2 in conference but not going 10-8 either. I see a 24-7 type regular season.
And Pac champs?

No idea. Anywhere from 1-3

Olsondogg · Post by **Olsondogg** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 6:31 am

To me, I see a hell of alot of minutes played in competitive D1 college basketball, along with an influx of some highly rated freshmen. I also see a coach coming off consequitve PAC 12 regular season titles, consequtive trips to the Elite 8, a PAC 12 tourney title and a fan base that provides the best home court advantage in the country. Furthermore, the coaching staff at Arizona has the best road record in the conference over the past several years, and has lost exactly one non-conference game in the past 3 years.

Granted, I'm the resident homer...but how can one not be extremely optimistic?

cats101 · Post by **cats101** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 7:36 am

Looking at both Arizona and Cal's schedule, I actually could see a split and both teams finishing tied for 1st.

Didn't look too much beyond that mainly because I don't see Arizona finishing worse than 2nd.

Arizona gets to skip the Oregon road trip which is pretty nice. Those pesky little beavers! Cal travels to Virginia in December, so we'll find out quickly if the Bears can handle hostile environments.

So excited for basketball season. This years team doesn't have the hype or sure talent as the past two but there is a ton of talent on the roster, it just need to gel together.

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 2:47 pm

Tollefsen 13 pts on 5-5 shooting, 1-1 from 3, 8 boards. Anderson 15 and 8. Buddy told me Ristic had some nice low post moves, think he finished w 15 on 6-12 shooting. Tarc obviously out. Front court is going to be great this year.

3goggles · Post by **3goggles** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 2:57 pm

I was pleased with chance I still think he should redshirt. I walked away from this game pleased with Simon and smith! Tolly and Anderson were as advertised. I think zo will go through the Stanley learning curve on defense but his offense looks great

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 3:35 pm

http://allsportstucson.com/2015/10/17/s ... scrimmage/" target="_blank

Javier with some glimpses.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 3:57 pm

Check out @AZATHLETICS's Tweet: https://twitter.com/AZATHLETICS/status/ ... 52960?s=09" target="_blank

Link leads to YouTube highlights.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 4:23 pm

http://www.arizonawildcats.com/mediaPor ... m_id=30700" target="_blank

Pressers. Miller, and T&A.

AZCatGirl · Post by **AZCatGirl** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:33 pm

Was at the game. Tollefsen's winning dunk was amazing, but what I loved the most was how the rest of the team went crazy after he did it. There may be a lot of new players, but the chemistry is already great.

Our front court is going to be scary good. Have fun guarding that!

Bangkok Wildcat · Post by **Bangkok Wildcat** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 6:49 pm

I suspect that we might be under-estimating this team a bit....although I like the 'keeping expectations modest' for now. I think CSM is 'sandbagging' a bit with his pre-season choice of CAL to win the P12......kind of throwing down the gauntlet to the team and see them snatch it up!

Then again, I'm a slight Homer but proud of it. BTFD.

cats101 · Post by **cats101** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 8:08 pm

Front court looked great.

If they can put it all together this is going be a tough team to beat.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:38 pm

Looks like ristic, Anderson and tollefsen were awesome. Them plus Zeus, Comanche and occasionally Smith should be a beastly front court

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:03 am

gumby wrote:
Puerco wrote:No, but his teams always seem to do better than they should with the talent hey have. He's hardly elite.
All I meant. Thanks.

Yah. Was replying to Kaibab.

az91 · Post by **az91** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:02 am

The PAC-12 Network is showing the Red Blue game again now

.

dmjcat · Post by **dmjcat** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:25 am

Although this team lacks the marquee player (e.g. Stanley Johnson) there is still enough firepower for another PAC12 title and a deep run in the NCAA tourney. The front court will be solid and we have excellent depth. My one concern at this time is point guard. PJC showed a tendency to turn the ball over last year when he went up against a defender that would get physical with him.

Millers biggest issue beyond the PG spot will be finding enough playing time for the 9-10 players that will be expecting minutes.

The most likely "Craig Victor" of the year candidate looks to be Simon..... an athletically gifted 6-5" guard with extreme length. Simon appears to be a tweener that may have difficulty finding an appropriate position on the floor. He lacks the ball handling skills to handle the point and he doesn't shoot well enough to play the 2G spot...and he's not big enough to play inside.

My one wish for the year is for Miller to utilize his depth to press the opposition...........much like Pitino does at Louisville. A soft, delaying press (e.g. What Altman does at Oregon) would work for me as well. Why more coaches don't utilize this tactic is puzzling. If you delay your opponent setting up his offense for 10 seconds his offensive efficiency numbers are going to drop.....a cheap way, IMO, to slow down an opponent.

Longhorned · Post by **Longhorned** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:01 pm

As far as marquee players go, I'm guessing Arizona will have one: Ray Smith. I like the track record of west coast scouts who evaluated him. And apparently he's recovered from his injury. We'll know soon enough just how back on track he is, but I'm guessing he's there. This is a guess built not on my own genius (I have no genius), but on the genius of the pros with credibility, though the pros have no way of knowing if Smith is fully back. But both the player and his coach say he is. I'm going with one-and-done "alpha dog" best player on the court whom nobody can defend in March, and hopefully without a poke in the eye.

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:11 pm

Especially with the new 30-second shot clock this season, dmjcat.

Agreed on Simon. Now that I've had the chance to see him live, he doesn't have the necessary handles for PG. Need Allen and York to step up at the position.

Olsondogg · Post by **Olsondogg** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:27 am

Bangkok Wildcat wrote:I suspect that we might be under-estimating this team a bit....although I like the 'keeping expectations modest' for now. I think CSM is 'sandbagging' a bit with his pre-season choice of CAL to win the P12......kind of throwing down the gauntlet to the team and see them snatch it up!

Then again, I'm a slight Homer but proud of it. BTFD.

Agreed on the sandbagging. I think that Miller et al has had all the love in the last 2 years from the media's perspective and has been donned the "kings of the west" moniker. From his comments on Cal being really good and focusing on all the other things, as well as really downplaying any sort of credible information from inside (practices are closed)....he's sandbagging. Even the motto this year "Just Us" is playing up the underdog aspect, or as much of it as Arizona can muster.

Although I wanna say he tried the same thing last year....I seem to recall after the red/blue last year he said that there might be a learning curve with the team...

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:38 am

Here's a quick attempt (wins in bold):

Pacific
Bradley
Boise State
Northwestern State
Santa Clara
@Gonzaga
Fresno State
Missouri
Northern Arizona
UNLV
Long Beach State
@Arizona State
@UCLA
@USC
Washington
Washington State
@Stanford
@California
Oregon
Oregon State
@Washington State
@Washington
UCLA
USC
Arizona State
@Colorado
@Utah
California
Stanford

I'm probably inflating our conference record a bit. We probably drop one or two of these that I'm not expecting.

rgdeuce · Post by **rgdeuce** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:43 am

We aren't beating Bradley.

Longhorned · Post by **Longhorned** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:57 am

rgdeuce wrote:We aren't beating Bradley.

Exactly. Hopefully we'll be 3-2 before heading up to Gonzaga.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:19 pm

Virginia, their next opponent, won't beat them either. Media picks them last in the MVC. I'm making major money of those two games.

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:36 pm

So we can't beat a mvc team that was 9-24 last year with 9 new freshman in McKale. Am I missing the sarcasm tag here or what?

Olsondogg · Post by **Olsondogg** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:38 pm

Chico State is for real.

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:51 pm

84Cat wrote:So we can't beat a mvc team that was 9-24 last year with 9 new freshman in McKale. Am I missing the sarcasm tag here or what?

Yep.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:55 pm

Olsondogg wrote:Chico State is for real.

Chico is the Man!

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 12:57 pm

84Cat wrote:So we can't beat a mvc team that was 9-24 last year with 9 new freshman in McKale. Am I missing the sarcasm tag here or what?

A call here or there, and they would've been 11-22.

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:02 pm

Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.

Olsondogg · Post by **Olsondogg** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:08 pm

Beachcat97 wrote:Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.

Maybe people just respect your opinion as the end all.

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:10 pm

Olsondogg wrote:
Beachcat97 wrote:Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.
Maybe people just respect your opinion as the end all.

We all know that's not true, so you gonna keep rolling with the personal BS, or can we expect a post about AZ basketball today?

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:12 pm

Beachcat97 wrote:Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.

40-0

Olsondogg · Post by **Olsondogg** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:12 pm

Beachcat97 wrote:
Olsondogg wrote:
Beachcat97 wrote:Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.
Maybe people just respect your opinion as the end all.
We all know that's not true, so you gonna keep rolling with the personal BS, or can we expect a post about AZ basketball today?

I've already posted about AZ basketball today, so I'll keep rolling with the personal BS, unless you wanna restrict yourself to uCla threads which is the only place you're useful.

Beachcat97 · Post by **Beachcat97** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:17 pm

Olsondogg wrote:
Beachcat97 wrote:
Olsondogg wrote:
Beachcat97 wrote:Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.
Maybe people just respect your opinion as the end all.
We all know that's not true, so you gonna keep rolling with the personal BS, or can we expect a post about AZ basketball today?
I've already posted about AZ basketball today, so I'll keep rolling with the personal BS, unless you wanna restrict yourself to uCla threads which is the only place you're useful.

F*** UCLA. There ya go.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:05 pm

Beachcat97 wrote:Guess no one else is interested in giving something resembling an actual prediction on our record.

Guess you missed where we did. (Hint: In this very thread.) BTW, you left off the Wooden Classic.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 9:51 am

Posted in the Arizona Wildcats Facebook page:

Olsondogg · Post by **Olsondogg** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 10:26 am

I am shocked that Vitale knows who the current coach is.

gumby · Post by **gumby** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 10:40 am

ESPN is doing layoffs. I nominate Vitale, Bayless and STEPHEN A. SMITH!

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