The 2021-2022 Season Thread

[Chicat]

I noticed you didn't call him Tommy Boy...

It’s time for him to be Tommy Man.

[SabinoDrifter]

I'd be fine with Tommy Lad, too.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Reasonable people (cough, cough) would not draw conclusions from 1 game. I've always said I'd rather have these types of games in January as opposed to March.

- We didn't play well compared to the standards we have seen up until now
- UCLA played inspired, aggressive basketball and shot lights out
- We had really good looks most of the game but shot poorly
- AT, a key player for us in this type of game, was not 100%
- 3 games on the road in 6 days. We looked tired. The re-scheduling favored the Bruins but that's how it turned out.

It is what it is and we move on. Let's take it out on the scummies on Saturday.

If we do well in March this game will be forgotten. If we begin to struggle a bit, this game will be looked at as where the weaknesses got exposed.

Bottom line, it's all about what happens fron here on.

[azcat49]

We started off 6-7 then proceeded to go 17-68 or 25%. Not sure I have seen an AZ team shoot that poorly since the Baylor game.

Not sure if they tightened up on our action or we just fell out of sync but it was tough to watch.

The Bruins did a good job protecting the ball and we didn’t get many easy shots. In a week we should know if this was an anomaly or the playbook to beat us

[Alieberman]

I made a joke the other day that our team right before tip-off decided to just not do some key element of basketball just to toy with their opponents.

I think yesterday they decided to see what it would look like if they did everything poorly

I have no doubt they will bounce back

[Postmaster]

Seemed like the adrenaline wore off and fatigue took over, or a energy crash from being so pumped up.
Either way, I wish Tom had played the bench a lot more in Bay Area.

UCLA smothered our wings in the paint.

[dovecanyoncat]

I noticed you didn't call him Tommy Boy...

It’s time for him to be Tommy Man.

As always, good recovery.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Well, you could see this coming, with all of the various circumstances. Last of a three game road trip, circled on their calendar, bad matchups, bad shooting night, and the Tubelis thing. But, we'll be back, and we'll see how the rematch goes in McKale.

I still don't like how the Pac is handling the rescheduling of "postponements," though. I also don't like how ESPN got to call the shots for the time slot for a rescheduled game. What if if had just been cancelled? Putting up with their "let's fill in our late night schedule with west coast teams" is bullshit, as is their airline-like overbooking, where they know damned well they won't get to the tip-off on time, even without overtime. Yeah, they wanted the LA TV market, but the game they contracted for was cancelled at the time. At that point, the Ts & Cs should be to eat the money for one game, and put it on P12N at a reasonable time head-to-head with ESPN. Or there could be some negotiation to move their SEC game. But our negotiation stance seems to be that we bow our heads, hat-in-hand and take whatever table scraps they throw at us. ESPN ain't quite what it used to be. If we could get better windows, I'd be fine if we went more all-in with something like FoX weekends and FS1 weekdays.

[YoDeFoe]

Seemed like the adrenaline wore off and fatigue took over, or a energy crash from being so pumped up.
Either way, I wish Tom had played the bench a lot more in Bay Area.

UCLA smothered our wings in the paint.

Night game at the end of a three game road trip... just a horrible situation for our guys and not at all surprising that they'd be exhausted.

[KaibabKat]

Player Efficiency Ratings (Hollinger) for Arizona - Pac-12 games only (minimum 5 games):

28.5 Oumar Ballo
26.0 Christian Koloko
24.1 Azoulas Tubelis
20.6 Bennedict Mathurin
19,2 Adama Bal
15.4 Pelle Larsson
15.3 Justin Kier
15.0 •••••••••• average D1 college player••••••••••••••••
13.5 Dalen Terry
9.6 Shane Nowell
9.2 Kerr Krissa

[Bordercat]

dang KK- why you got to put it like that!??

[84Cat]

Player Efficiency Ratings (Hollinger) for Arizona - Pac-12 games only (minimum 5 games):

28.5 Oumar Ballo
26.0 Christian Koloko
24.1 Azoulas Tubelis
20.6 Bennedict Mathurin
19,2 Adama Bal
15.4 Pelle Larsson
15.3 Justin Kier
15.0 •••••••••• average D1 college player••••••••••••••••
13.5 Dalen Terry
9.6 Shane Nowell
9.2 Kerr Krissa

Damn

[Spaceman Spiff]

Player Efficiency Ratings (Hollinger) for Arizona - Pac-12 games only (minimum 5 games):

28.5 Oumar Ballo
26.0 Christian Koloko
24.1 Azoulas Tubelis
20.6 Bennedict Mathurin
19,2 Adama Bal
15.4 Pelle Larsson
15.3 Justin Kier
15.0 •••••••••• average D1 college player••••••••••••••••
13.5 Dalen Terry
9.6 Shane Nowell
9.2 Kerr Krissa

I think the takeaway is 0-12 is hard to overcome with limited sample size.

Also, PER favors bigs who rebound and do nothjng but finish.

[Beachcat97]

Hey...next Thursday is our one shot to turn things around. Yes, big games remain on the schedule beyond that, as soon as Saturday vs. USC.

But I can't pretend that 2/3 isn't a much bigger game after last night. I knew losing on their floor was a real possibility, but I didn't expect to get run off the court like that. I'll chalk it up to short rest and not being fully healthy. Scheer also made a good point in his podcast last night about how even the best teams have a bad game or two. Look at Baylor, look at Duke. Auburn almost lost to Missouri last night, and Mizzou is not a good team this year. Even Gonzaga got beaten pretty bad by Bama in Seattle last month.

We were bound to have a bad game, and Scheer also asked if it's better to have this happen against UCLA or against a non-tourney team like Colorado or Washington. This loss only moved us down to #2 in NET. If we win next Thursday, we could move back up to #1.

We need to protect home court the rest of the way. Starts this weekend vs. ASU and includes UCLA, USC and Oregon. Gotta have all of those.

[SabinoDrifter]

Player Efficiency Ratings (Hollinger) for Arizona - Pac-12 games only (minimum 5 games):

28.5 Oumar Ballo
26.0 Christian Koloko
24.1 Azoulas Tubelis
20.6 Bennedict Mathurin
19,2 Adama Bal
15.4 Pelle Larsson
15.3 Justin Kier
15.0 •••••••••• average D1 college player••••••••••••••••
13.5 Dalen Terry
9.6 Shane Nowell
9.2 Kerr Krissa

FWIW, Tubelis, Koloko and Mathurin are 2-3-4 on KenPom's all-PAC 12 team.

If it makes you feel better about last night, UCLA was only +3 in the middle 20 minutes of the game. Not nearly as bad for a team who shot 30% for the game.

[SabinoDrifter]

And sorry for the double post. Walton mentioned it last night (he was amazing, by the way, I legit laughed out loud when he called Kerr Danny Ainge) that not a single player on Arizona's roster has played in the NCAA tournament and UCLA was very close to playing for a national championship last year. I think that is an extremely relevant data point that CTL will have to bridge in the next eight weeks before the tournament. You can't afford 2-20 FG stretches in the tournament or you're going home.

[Bordercat]

I just watched the game.

funny how the refs decide the Pac 12 gonna be let them play style all a sudden. So convenient.

Pelle played a good game and gave Jaime a lot of problems.

We are better than UCLA. We just got to get out of our own heads.

Would like to see us send some hard foul messages next week.

[Alieberman]

I really need to see a major ASU beat down to get this bad taste out of my mouth

(Let the jokes begin)

[Dave]

Any thoughts on how we are going to respond to their ISO? Maybe a little zone? They went after Kerr and AT every chance they got. I never dreamed Kerr would be that kind of liability on defense. The ISO also shut down our ability to push the ball up the court quickly for easy scoring opportunities. They didn’t have to worry about missed shots because they made everything. They also only had 8 turnovers for the game.

[Dave]

Cronin had a lot time to think about getting destroyed by Gonzaga. The way he shut down our transition game and put us into a half court game was impressive. He was talking about using the ISO game to get the kind of shots that would allow them to get back and get their defense set.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Any thoughts on how we are going to respond to their ISO? Maybe a little zone? They went after Kerr and AT every chance they got. I never dreamed Kerr would be that kind of liability on defense. The ISO also shut down our ability to push the ball up the court quickly for easy scoring opportunities. They didn’t have to worry about missed shots because they made everything. They also only had 8 turnovers for the game.

I think they correctly diagnosed the issue with drop coverage and being up the line off the ball. That scheme puts much more pressure on individual ball defenders to not give up open lanes and/or fight through screens very quickly because you have less off ball help.

I've said for a while the biggest test of Lloyd's scheme will be teams with dynamic perimeter players who can make individual plays happen. Against less perimeter talent, you're good because opponents are easier to control one on one and you need less help. Really good opposing perimeter players...this scheme requires more from our individual defenders.

That said, like I said yesterday, every scheme gives something up and the more pressing thing out of UCLA was Benn, Terry and Kerr combining for 5-39. If they come close to a normal %, we're right there or win.

[azcat49]

I was surprised that we didn’t play more zone given out inability to guard them man to man.

I thought maybe we could try some half court traps or anything to try and turn them over or get a rushed shot. Kind of just seemed we laid back and took what they were doing to us

[Spaceman Spiff]

I was surprised that we didn’t play more zone given out inability to guard them man to man.

I thought maybe we could try some half court traps or anything to try and turn them over or get a rushed shot. Kind of just seemed we laid back and took what they were doing to us

To a certain extent, that's by design. Drop coverage is more passive than hedge and recover. It's designed to camouflage bigs by keeping them out of perimeter coverage, but it winds up being more passive.

You can maintain some aggressiveness by icing the screen if the dribbler is close to the sideline, but that's situation specific.

Further as TucsonClip (I believe I'm crediting the right person) noted, Lloyd's off ball D focuses on being up the line into passing lanes. Again, by design this tends to strive for a more static game by limiting ball rotation and giving up some ability to help.

I shouldn't comment more than general principles because a 9 pm start was too much when I had to be up at 5 for work.

[SabinoDrifter]

I was surprised that we didn’t play more zone given out inability to guard them man to man.

I thought maybe we could try some half court traps or anything to try and turn them over or get a rushed shot. Kind of just seemed we laid back and took what they were doing to us

To a certain extent, that's by design. Drop coverage is more passive than hedge and recover. It's designed to camouflage bigs by keeping them out of perimeter coverage, but it winds up being more passive.

You can maintain some aggressiveness by icing the screen if the dribbler is close to the sideline, but that's situation specific.

Further as TucsonClip (I believe I'm crediting the right person) noted, Lloyd's off ball D focuses on being up the line into passing lanes. Again, by design this tends to strive for a more static game by limiting ball rotation and giving up some ability to help.

I shouldn't comment more than general principles because a 9 pm start was too much when I had to be up at 5 for work.

I'd give yourself more credit than that, it' was very well said!

Upon further reflection, I think one of my biggest positive takeaways is how well Koloko played and the advancement of Ballo. Koloko was a disaster against Tennessee due to foul trouble, so it was good to see him show some serious fight against UCLA, stay engaged and not commit silly fouls. I also thought he was very strong offensively and that part of his game has just gone to a whole new level. We need those two guys in March.

[Dave]

Spiff, Any thoughts for Kerr? Do you leave Kerr on island by himself trying to guard either Tiger or Bernard for round two? I noticed in the second half we tried putting Benn on Tiger. I also noticed a couple of times Kerr was left trying to guard Jaquez.

[Beachcat97]

Kerr cannot guard Tyger or Bernard, unfortunately. UCLA will exploit that mismatch all day.

[Bordercat]

I thought Kerr was fine on Bernard... who got lucky and hit some crazy shots. Seems like there was a bank and one that hit the back of the rim and rolled in. Also, Kerr drew three charges. The first one a flop, but Juzang extended the arm which is almost always called a charge. The second one the guy literally ran him over. Charge all day. Kerr just had a bad day. The more he shot, the worse he got like a bad dream. Read today where Gardner went 0-12 at UCLA and then they went on a great run.Ya'll really need to chill on Kerr he has been really good this year. Take the good with the bad.

I don't know basketball as well as some of you others but apparently the ISO stuff was a big deal. Juzang and Bernard 15 a piece, Riley 12, Jaquez 10 and Campbell 9. Not much off the bench. Riley getting 12 to me should be the easiest to eliminate. He got by Koloko a few times when he shouldn't have. Like I said Bernard got lucky on a few. I can live with the output of the others. If Bernard and Riley get held to single digits, all others being the same, we are talking about a UCLA score in the 60's.

Let's not forget UCLA was shooting out of their minds and scored a whopping 75 points.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Spiff, Any thoughts for Kerr? Do you leave Kerr on island by himself trying to guard either Tiger or Bernard for round two? I noticed in the second half we tried putting Benn on Tiger. I also noticed a couple of times Kerr was left trying to guard Jaquez.

Piggybacking my thoughts from above, if you don't create an island, you have to make larger schematic adjustments. At this point (and keep in mind I didn't watch and am operating on stats) no one on UCLA did anything so dramatic I'd think about a full scale change to our basic scheme.

I mean, our defensive metrics weren't great, but our offensive metrics were terrible. We had a .363 EFG, which is Marianas Trench low compared to our norm. My priority list would be:

1. Hope it's just an off night, which is reasonable in the third of 3 closely packed games.
2. Monitor Benn, Kerr and Terry for ongoing slumps and hope Tubelis is healthy soon.
3. Keep with base O and D and emphasize execution. 14 to's is less but not great on O and D was far from stifling. I think you hope when shots are falling, defensive energy is easier to find.
4. I'd be open to seeking the most advantageous perimeter matchups for us. UCLA doesn't have a player we absolutely need Player X to guard. So flexibility in matchups would be a bigger priority for me than scheming.

One problem they give us is they play small and spread which is tough when we have Koloko and Tubelis together. It becomes even tougher with Ballo. Tubelis getting healthy matters very much because it lets him do the offensive things he does so well without being a liability on D vs a smaller, perimeter oriented UCLA lineup.

[Bordercat]

Tubellis defensive guarding Juaquez concerns me the most and I feel Pelle did a great job defensively, as I suspected he would.

I see that as an issue.. how to have AT out there with Koloko or Ballo and not have defensive liabilities. Kerr guarding Bernard doesn't concern me.

I keep saying though. It's mental. We lost our swag against UCLA. Gotta figure out how to play with that swag against them. If we hit shots and run our offense against them they cannot keep up with us.

[Lute4God]

UPDATED 10:00 AM | JAN. 27, 2022
Would Gonzaga’s Playbook Work In A Major Conference? Just Ask Arizona.
By Jake Lourim


https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wo ... k-arizona/

[UAEebs86]

" Star point guard Bennedict Mathurin"

Good job, good effort.

[SabinoDrifter]

" Star point guard Bennedict Mathurin"

Good job, good effort.

I scanned the article and didn't see any references to Iraq or Afghanistan, some good progress for fivethirtyeight.

[84Cat]

[Spaceman Spiff]

UPDATED 10:00 AM | JAN. 27, 2022
Would Gonzaga’s Playbook Work In A Major Conference? Just Ask Arizona.
By Jake Lourim

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wo ... k-arizona/

I mean, I question the logic of this.

According to Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency metric, Lloyd has improved Arizona by 8.6 points per 100 possessions, a jump that ranks ninth out of 57 coaches to debut at new schools this season. But even that doesn’t tell the full story. Because the Wildcats were decent before Lloyd arrived, they didn’t have as much room for improvement in his first season.

Every member of our starting 5 started last year. 4 of them were true freshmen in a Covid altered season and the 5th was a soph relatively new to basketball.

The author posits you have more room to improve if you suck, as opposed to improvement being driven by talented returners realizing potential and improving...plus Lloyd having a system that largely has gone well. Especially fresh on the heels of a very inefficient game vs UCLA that was driven by a poor shooting game from our talent...

Lloyd's biggest strength isn't that he has a secret system, it's that he's avoided trying to impose a secret system, IMO.

[Postmaster]

Well, at least they didn’t say Jalen Terry or talk about the Tinder Portal.

[TheCat]

Already won by Kentucky's center. After all he has been the subject of about 4 ESPN talks. Nothing against him, he is a great player but ESPN is running opinions and if you read the article about the new PAC softball tourney it is in direct response to the SEC tourney that they have. It is also why Washington received a 16 seed in softball last year and sent to OK.

[Chicat]

Already won by Kentucky's center. After all he has been the subject of about 4 ESPN talks. Nothing against him, he is a great player but ESPN is running opinions and if you read the article about the new PAC softball tourney it is in direct response to the SEC tourney that they have. It is also why Washington received a 16 seed in softball last year and sent to OK.

There hasn’t been shit said (that I’ve seen) about how the PAC-12 is going to deal with its terrible fucking media rights issues. Are we going to continue to get bent over by ESPN in the major sports until 2024 or can Kliavkoff negotiate some kind of side deal with Disney with an option to extend when our current bullshit expires? I thought he was Mr. Entertainment! Time to start kissing the Mouse’s nasty tail…

[TheCat]

Already won by Kentucky's center. After all he has been the subject of about 4 ESPN talks. Nothing against him, he is a great player but ESPN is running opinions and if you read the article about the new PAC softball tourney it is in direct response to the SEC tourney that they have. It is also why Washington received a 16 seed in softball last year and sent to OK.

There hasn’t been shit said (that I’ve seen) about how the PAC-12 is going to deal with its terrible fucking media rights issues. Are we going to continue to get bent over by ESPN in the major sports until 2024 or can Kliavkoff negotiate some kind of side deal with Disney with an option to extend when our current bullshit expires? I thought he was Mr. Entertainment! Time to start kissing the Mouse’s nasty tail…

From Candrea:
“I don’t know, the way things are nowadays, you could be absolutely right,” Candrea said. “With the influence that ESPN has on our game, (it’s) getting pretty interesting. I mean, I was okay for a while there, but then I just... Because I do a ranking every week for USA Softball, and so I kind of compare what my rankings were, and today I just did one, and the first five I was pretty accurate. Then after that, man, it was like, ‘How can Washington be at 16?’ You know, that hurts. And then to send Oregon to Texas. Come on. But, I don’t mean anything. All I do is coach here.”

[azgreg]

[azgreg]

[Beachcat97]

We’re gonna win by more than that.

[TheCat]

Rivalry game. It will be closer than that.

[EastCoastCat]

If we don’t crush them I will be disappointed.

[84Cat]

[Alieberman]

A soul breaking loss of epic proportions for ASU would really make for a nice Saturday afternoon

[Beachcat97]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketb ... tdown_the/

If interested, pretty good breakdown of our last game. Think this guy rightly calls attention to a lot of out-of-character performance metrics in this game, including Kriisa, Benn and CK’s defense.

[RondaeShimmy]

I'm officially concerned about our half court offense

It's putrid

[EastCoastCat]

I'm officially concerned about our half court offense

It's putrid

Well it gives us something to work on before March. This is really not a bad thing if you look at the big picture.

This team is not perfect. Better to learn and correct now than later.

[Alieberman]

Teams already don't worry about Terry shooting... now they are going to dare Kerr to shoot as well while clogging up the paint

[Beachcat97]

Anyone think we have a chance on Thursday?