The 2022-2023 Season Thread

[dovecanyoncat]

ZAGS JUST BROKE YOUR 71 game home wining streak!

Tommy was part of it!

Against far inferior competition at home

And yet you are happy hiring OUR assistant coach!

Damn right we are! He's Aces.

[CardiacCats97]

Are we on Adama Bal Transfer Watch yet?

[84Cat]

Are we on Adama Bal Transfer Watch yet?

CTL said his ankle was gimpy tonight

[CardiacCats97]

ZAGS JUST BROKE YOUR 71 game home wining streak!

Tommy was part of it!

Can you get real teams to come play at Coeur d’Alene or wherever the fuck Gonzaga is?

[dovecanyoncat]

ZAGS JUST BROKE YOUR 71 game home wining streak!

Tommy was part of it!

Can you get real teams to come play at Coeur d’Alene or wherever the fuck Gonzaga is?

Now, be nice. Coeur d'Alene is Idaho and Spokane is Washington but both are culturally challenged and are several light years from the influence of modern sports. Tommy is a kid from Walla Walla made good on a broader regional stage. He comes from a place famous for onions and some select grape varietals and got his introduction to big boy sports amongst the Jesuits. We are lucky to have him, and we should support the Zags' record until they have the balls to put it at risk by inviting us to play them in their house. At that point we'll kick their pasty Cracker asses and Tommy will snatch the pebble from Few's hand.

[TheCatInTheHat]

This is early, but things will be shut down until our New Year's Eve Day nooner game in Tempe on FoX, so here it is:

Bobby Hurley built himself a one-year team with portal transfers from Nevada (Seniors Warren Washington and Desmond Cambridge), Auburn (Senior Devan Cambridge), and Illinois St (Junior D.J. Horne.) Other than the 7-footer Washington, their top 7 consist of guards/wings who launch a barrage of threes with quite a bit of success. They’ll also drive to the rack and pressure defensively with their quickness. 6-8 Marcus Bagley played extensively in their first few games, and he'd be tied for leading scorer honors, based on average. But, after his falling-out with Hurley and his social media claims about being lied to, he’s been firmly in the doghouse and out of the picture. Doubtful that he’d be brought back for us, but you never know. As far as their games of significance to date, they’ve got a few. They beat VCU and Michigan in a Brooklyn tournament, then beat Creighton in Las Vegas. They got road wins at SMU and at Colorado, and a home win against Stanford. Their two losses were on the road, to Texas Southern early, and their last game blowout at San Francisco. Of note, key player Desmond Cambridge sat out the USF game with a non-Covid related illness (we'll assume the regular flu.)

D.J. HORNE 6-1 JR 12.5 PPG .311 3% .762 FT% 4.5 RPG 36/14 A/TO 15 STL
DESMOND CAMBRIDGE 6-4 SR 12.4 PPG .354 3% .765 FT% 3.6 RPG 17/10 A/TO 18 STL
FRANKIE COLLINS 6-1 SO 11.4 PPG .324 3% .655 FT% 4.6 RPG 66/38 A/TO 19 STL
DEVAN CAMBRIDGE 6-6 SR 10.4 PPG .455 3% .684 FT% 5.6 RPG 11/21 A/TO 11 BLK
WARREN WASHINGTON 7-0 SR 8.0 PPG .000 3% .600 FT% 7.1 RPG 17/15 A/TO 26 BLK

JAMIYA NEAL 6-6 SO 5.5 PPG .231 3% .643 FT% 3.0 RPG 14/10 A/TO 4 STL
AUSTIN NUNEZ 6-2 FR 4.9 PPG .344 3% .714 FT% 1.3 RPG 9/18 A/TO 6 STL
LUTHER MUHAMMED 6-3 RS-SR 4.1 PPG .067 3% .857 FT% 1.4 RPG 7/5 A/TO 5 STL
ALONZO GAFFNEY 6-9 SR 3.2 PPG .304 3% .778 FT% 3.2 RPG 7/10 A/TO 8 BLK
DUKE BRENNAN 6-10 FR 3.1 PPG .000 3% .600 FT% 2.4 RPG 0/7 A/TO 7 BLK

ENOCH BOAKE 6-10 SO 0.8 PPG .000 3% .500 FT% 0.9 RPG 0/1 A/TO 0 BLK
(MARCUS BAGLEY 6-8 SO 12.5 PPG .333 3% .615 FT% 4.0 RPG 3/5 A/TO 1 BLK)

[PHXCATS]

Wearing blue 1997 jerseys Saturday vs asu

[azgreg]

Wearing blue 1997 jerseys Saturday vs asu

[AZCatGirl]

Oh gosh that reveal was amazing. Ending 2022 in style.

[Merkin]

If LFG stands for what I think it stands for.

[arizonawildcats]

If LFG stands for what I think it stands for.

LFG, Tommy!

[FreeSpiritCat]

I can see how good Arizona really is. Our starting 5 is flawed, for sure. But, I look at our starting 5 and all are extremely valuable for what they do. I believe it is the ingredients of a chef.

Kriisa
Remey
Larsson
Tubelis
Ballo

This starting lineup has much more potential than they have shown.

If Larsson can find his longe range shot I think we have the best starting lineup in the country. Larsson is a warrior. He is so close to really putting it all together. I like him shooting the 3. I know what he can do. If his 3s start falling he is special. He has the most tenacity on the team. He can play PG. He can drive the lane. He knows how to draw fouls. I also think he should be the captain.

Tubelis, Ballo, and... Larsson (he is so close). Wow!!!

Ramey anderstands to flow of a game. 5th year senior and the most experienced player on the team. Great 3-point shooter. He can play PG (along with Kriisa, Larsson, and Boswell). Arizona has an amazing amount of players who can really handle a basketball. There obviously needs to be development there, but the potential is mind boggling.

Kriisa has the ability to bring the emotion to the team. He plays on emotion. I believe that is a great thing but needs to be channeled. Channel his emotion to his teammates. He can lift a team and help Arizona make the "Runs of Death".

Henderson is an experienced player and I don't believe the team loses anything with him on the floor.

Everyone talks about Arizona's bigs, and they should. But Arizona's perimeter players are really good too.

Veesar and Boswell are displaying their development. Both are starting to adjust to the college game. If they figure it out, Arizona will go to a legitimate 8 deep.

I want to emphasize I hope Adama Bal figures it out. He is needed.

[azgreg]

[PHXCATS]

[dovecanyoncat]

LOL The butthurt brigade can't get over it.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

Oh my the comments in that post!!!

[ChooChooCat]

Jesus Christ, Twitter is just a cesspool. If you want to go at a politician maybe do it when she’s writing something political. What about taking a photo with a sports team is political? Fricken idiots.

[dovecanyoncat]

Jesus Christ, Twitter is just a cesspool. If you want to go at a politician maybe do it when she’s writing something political. What about taking a photo with a sports team is political? Fricken idiots.

It's a Maricopa county vs. Pima county thing: newly purple vs. established blue; loser vs. winner sort of thing.

[CardiacCats97]

I’m just glad I didn’t see anyone giving the coaches or players any shit.

[arizonawildcats]

Bots have taken over social media, YouTube, etc. I don't read the comments on anything political anymore.

[PHXCATS]

It is all bots minus a few people who think it actually was stolen

[PHXCATS]

Fox doing remote broadcast tomorrow

[arizonawildcats]

Still #5

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-colleg ... tball-poll

[Beachcat97]

Still #5

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-colleg ... tball-poll

I can understand being behind Houston, but our resume is currently much better than UConn’s.

[CardiacCats97]

Still #5

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-colleg ... tball-poll

I can understand being behind Houston, but our resume is currently much better than UConn’s.

If you look there’s only 8 points separating us from UConn and some dickhole voted them #1 which doesn’t make any sense. So to me it’s like we are in a virtual tie for fourth.

[pc in NM]

Seth Davis has us #2, with a nice discussion of ranking methodology…

https://theathletic.com/4050537/2023/01 ... ier-uconn/

[CatFan1399]

Let them keep ranking us low. Heck, drop us out of the top ten. I want this team feeling overlooked and playing with boulder-sized chips on their shoulders all the way to the Final Four

[KaibabKat]

Last Final Four was five coaches ago.

[Beachcat97]

Last Final Four was five coaches ago.

Oof.

[EastCoastCat]

Last Final Four was five coaches ago.

Oof.

Let's not go too crazy with this meaningless stat. The bigger issue is how many years it has been (since 2001).

I don't really count 5 games with Ros in 2000-2001.
Nor do I give much credence to the 2 year Kevin O'Neill/Russ Pennell transition stint from 2007-2009.

[Alieberman]

There is no Arizona Basketball without Russ Pennell

[KaibabKat]

Basketball has never been the same since Tarzan left.

[Lute4God]

"BRUCE PASCOE

Arizona Daily Star

Only twice this season has the most efficient offense in Division I been held under 42% shooting from the field.

The first time didn't work out so well for Arizona. On Nov. 30 in Salt Lake City, the Wildcats — who lead the nation with 119.7 points scored per 100 possessions — shot just 35.2% and scored just 66 points in a 15-point loss to Utah.

But on Saturday in Tempe, Arizona shot just 37.7% from the field, made just 5 of 22 3-point shots (22.7%), scored only 69 points and … still beat the Sun Devils by nine.

The Wildcats did it by keeping ASU to even worse field-goal percentages, 36.6% overall and just 3 for 37 (11.1%) from 3.

'We're gonna be a great defensive team,' UA coach Tommy Lloyd said at ASU, when asked about pulling out a game like Saturday's. 'We're gonna be a great defense and rebounding team. I don't care what our offense is ranked. I just care about getting the result.'

While still adjusting to life without shot-swatting center Christian Koloko, the Wildcats have a defense that is still notably behind its offense in efficiency rankings. While Koloko led the Pac-12 in blocked shots and changed countless others, the Wildcats' perimeter defenders were freer to extend defensively and take chances.

Not as much now. 'Traditionally, I've been a guy that would be way more comfortable taking away 3s, and then relying on length and athleticism for rim protection and size in the paint,' Lloyd said last month. 'Those are the little things we got to figure out and that's my job to put this team on the right path.'

Against ASU, the Wildcats straddled that line successfully. They limited ASU center Warren Washington to just four shots, kept power forward Devan Cambridge to 2-of-8 shooting while also benefitting by letting big forwards Alonzo Gaffney (1 of 5) and Cambridge (0 for 4) shoot 3s.

Here's how the Wildcats rank in the major defensive metrics, according to KenPom.com: 59 : Rank in defensive efficiency. The Wildcats score 119.7 points per 100 possessions, more than anyone else in Division I, but are allowing opponents to score 95.3 points per 100 possessions.

Especially because the Wildcats run an extraordinarily fast tempo, that pace-independent measure is much more telling of their defense than the raw

'scoring defense' number of 72.3 points – which is actually last in the Pac-12.

63 : Rank in 2-point percentage defense (45.9). This stat is probably the single biggest measure of the difference between last season's Koloko- engineered defense and this one. While center Oumar Ballo and forward Azuolas Tubelis have formed one of the country's best post duos, the Wildcats' interior defense is still down notably from the No. 2 ranking it held in this stat (41.8) last season. The fact that UA is without the length and athleticism of their two other NBA draft picks off last season's team, Dalen Terry and Bennedict Mathurin, is also likely a factor.

108: Rank in 3-point percentage defense (31.8). UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois says this stat is mostly 'for fans,' a sometimes deceiving metric because it can depend upon a team's defensive philosophy — and its opponents' flat-out ability to shoot the long ball.

On Saturday in Tempe, even ASU guard Frankie Collins admitted the Sun Devils may have ultimately contributed to UA's 3-point defense.

'They made us take some tough 3s but I feel like we got a lot of good shots,' Collins said. 'We just didn't make them.'

For what it's worth, Arizona's 3-point defense (32.8) was comparably mediocre last season when the Wildcats overall ranked 21 in defensive efficiency (92.6).

64 : Rank in effective field-goal percentage defense (46.6). This stat measures field-goal percentage defense but gives 50% more credit for 3-point shots. It is up notably from UA's defensive 3-point percentage in part because opponents are taking only 38.3% of their shots from 3-point range, a below-average ratio in Division I.

143 : Rank in block percentage (9.6). With Koloko last season, the Wildcats ranked 25th by blocking opponents' shots 13.4% of the time.

278: Rank in steal percentage (7.9). This number is also subject to a team's defensive philosophy, and the Wildcats aren't known for excessively gambling for steals. But they still managed to steal the ball on 9.2% of opponents' possessions last season.

That could have been partly because of Koloko's influence on perimeter defense and the ranginess of Terry (who stole the ball on 2.5% of opponents' possession last season). But Tubelis had a steal percentage of 2.4 last season and is up to 3.0% this season.

318: Rank in turnover percentage (16.1). Overall, Arizona's opponents are turning the ball over fewer times than last season, when they averaged a turnover on 17.4% of possessions (the No. 231 ranking).

40: Rank in defensive rebounding percentage (75.4). Thanks largely to the Pac-12's top two rebounders, the Wildcats have improved notably in this one defensive stat. Ballo averages 9.3 rebounds a game and ranks 64th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage, grabbing 24.8% of opponents' missed shots when he's on the floor. Tubelis averages 8.7 rebounds overall and ranks 188 in defensive rebounding percentage at 21.0.

Rim shots

„ Despite getting some potential help from former coach Sean Miller, Arizona remained at No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday. The Wildcats (13-1) beat ASU 69-60 on Saturday, while Miller's Xavier team handed UConn its first loss of the season that day. However, UConn (14-1) dropped only from No. 2 to No. 4, still staying ahead of the Wildcats. Xavier (12-3) moved from No. 22 to No. 18, having found quick success under Miller, who was fired by Arizona in April 2021 and rehired at Xavier a year later. Miller also coached five seasons at Xavier before becoming UA's coach in 2009-10. Among other Arizona opponents this season, UCLA moved up a spot from No. 11 to 10 while Tennessee dropped from No. 7 to No. 8 and Indiana rose from 16 to 15.

„ Colorado guard KJ Simpson was named the Pac-12's Player of the Week after averaging 28 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the Buffaloes' games at Stanford and California. A former UA signee, Simpson had a career high 31 points in CU's 7370 win at Stanford, including 11 in the final five minutes. UA had nominated Azuolas Tubelis, who had 21 points and nine rebounds at ASU.

„ UCLA center Adem Bona was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week after averaging 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in the Bruins' sweep at Washington State and Washington."

[84Cat]

[TheCat]

We are too high. UCONN is too high.

Anyone think that ASU hired the wrong Buffalo coach? The assistant was Nate Oats of Alabama and after he joined the staff significant improvement.

I think what is abundantly clear (see UCONN) is that the conference road games are incredibly difficult to win. It is amazing how hard they have shown to be in other conferences.

[Merkin]

UConn lost 2 in a row to X and Providence, so I would say yes they are way too high.

[84Cat]

KenPom still has UCONN 2 spots ahead of us at #4. To be clear we're #6

[TheCat]

I think we are a top 15 team. We have shown the ability this year to win lower scoring games which is what tourney games always are. We have no real drop dead go to scorer and our guard play is not at the level of a dominate tourney team. Houston would kill us.

[CardiacCats97]

I think we are a top 15 team. We have shown the ability this year to win lower scoring games which is what tourney games always are. We have no real drop dead go to scorer and our guard play is not at the level of a dominate tourney team. Houston would kill us.

We have two of the top 3 scorers in the conference, so there’s really no worries there. When you have only one, you have to hope defenses don’t key in on him or that he doesn’t uncharacteristically go cold.

And our guards just clamped down and won that game on defense. Ramey had a bad night but Boswell and Kerr stepped up. I think we are definitely a top-5 team. Top-5 teams do struggle from time to time but they find a way to win.

[arizonawildcats]

[SabinoDrifter]

To reverse engineer this exercise, what 10 teams are better than Arizona right now?

[CardiacCats97]

To reverse engineer this exercise, what 10 teams are better than Arizona right now?

Great question. Of course there are many teams who could beat Arizona if the Cats play badly and they play well, but which 10-14 teams have shown they are consistently better than UA most times they’ve hit the floor?

[dmjcat]

Among our guards, Boswell was our best shooter, best ballhandler, best rebounder, and best defender last night

[pc in NM]

Among our guards, Boswell was our best shooter, best ballhandler, best rebounder, and best defender last night

Best quote of the nite: Boswell - "...I’ve definitely kind of adjusted.”

[Merkin]

No surprise after a bad loss to WSU and nearly losing to UDub.

[Beachcat97]

We are not the 9th best team. Think our preseason ranking may’ve been right on the money.

[PHXCATS]

It is amazing how much people freak out over a bad week

R E L A X

[Alieberman]

Never judge a team by their best or worst game.

[Basketcats]

Hey....they only lost to a team that (at the time) was sub .400 and they lost at McKale. Hope they have plenty of kum ba yah moments before this weekends games. You know...have some hot cocoa with marshmallows and share some inspirational stories about how they were fortunate enough not to be embarrassed on their home court on a real sports broadcasting network.

Krissa has his head somewhere else. Ramey is flat out not as good as advertised. Ballo is sick. Larsson's offense has never been fantastic, but, this past weekend was non-existent.

Yep...No need to pull the rip cord yet.

[MountainCat]

For what it’s worth…

…we haven’t peeked yet. Regardless what others think.