The 2022-2023 Season Thread

[KillerKlown]

Definitely a top 10 team. There are no teams that are head and shoulders above everyone else this year. Should be a great post season.

[EastCoastCat]

Yearly freak out when we have a bad loss.

News flash - all teams have bad losses, all teams have deficiencies they need to work on, no team is a lock for the FF.

[pc in NM]

On January 29, 2005, WSU (8-9) defeated #11 U of A (17-3) at McKale Center, snapping a 19-YEAR LONG losing streak to Arizona, and hitting one of the all-time low points of Lute Olson's coaching career....

The Cats put out about as lackluster a performance as anyone could remember. That team included Salim Stoudamire, Channing Frye, Mustafa Shakur, Hassan Adams, Ivan Radenivic and Jawann McClellen.

That team made it to the Great 8 (Try not to remember that!!).

Sometimes its darkest before the dawn!!!

[Beachcat97]

Definitely a top 10 team. There are no teams that are head and shoulders above everyone else this year. Should be a great post season.

We have one legit good win, and Tennessee was missing a key player.

Creighton has turned out to be overrated; same with Indiana. SDSU could end up being our second best win. Don't think we're beating ucla.

I agree that there's much less separation between the top 3 and, say, the next 10 ranked teams, but I still think we were never supposed to be better than last year's team. We had some surprising wins early on, and everyone got excited. Now we're drifting back to reality.

[ASUHATER!]

On January 29, 2005, WSU (8-9) defeated #11 U of A (17-3) at McKale Center, snapping a 19-YEAR LONG losing streak to Arizona, and hitting one of the all-time low points of Lute Olson's coaching career....

The Cats put out about as lackluster a performance as anyone could remember. That team included Salim Stoudamire, Channing Frye, Mustafa Shakur, Hassan Adams, Ivan Radenivic and Jawann McClellen.

That team made it to the Great 8 (Try not to remember that!!).

Sometimes its darkest before the dawn!!!

That was the like 3rd ever basketball game I got to attend as a freshman at the UA since I didn't win the ticket lottery

[Beachcat97]

On January 29, 2005, WSU (8-9) defeated #11 U of A (17-3) at McKale Center, snapping a 19-YEAR LONG losing streak to Arizona, and hitting one of the all-time low points of Lute Olson's coaching career....

The Cats put out about as lackluster a performance as anyone could remember. That team included Salim Stoudamire, Channing Frye, Mustafa Shakur, Hassan Adams, Ivan Radenivic and Jawann McClellen.

That team made it to the Great 8 (Try not to remember that!!).

Sometimes its darkest before the dawn!!!

That was a much more athletic team than we currently have.

[dovecanyoncat]

We're done for! Done for!

[PHXCATS]

Definitely a top 10 team. There are no teams that are head and shoulders above everyone else this year. Should be a great post season.

We have one legit good win, and Tennessee was missing a key player.

Creighton has turned out to be overrated; same with Indiana. SDSU could end up being our second best win. Don't think we're beating ucla.

I agree that there's much less separation between the top 3 and, say, the next 10 ranked teams, but I still think we were never supposed to be better than last year's team. We had some surprising wins early on, and everyone got excited. Now we're drifting back to reality.

Holy fuck.....

[Alieberman]

The only thing clear to me is that Ramey has been struggling of late....which is directly connected to how the team is looking/playing.

It's obvious this team needs Ramey to play well. Once Ramey gets out of this cold streak... I'm guessing our entire team will pass that eye test again....

[Postmaster]

Not just Ramey

[Beachcat97]

Last thought for the time being: last year's team had the guys drafted 6th, 18th and 33rd in the '22 draft. That's pretty nuts. We don't get recruiting classes like Duke and Kentucky. You're always going to be in a decent position when you've got that kind of talent paired with competent coaching. This year, how many on the roster will be taken in the '23 draft? Tubelis is our best player, and he's projected as a second rounder. Ballo will play professionally somewhere, as will Veesaar. But these guys aren't Mathurin and Terry.

Will we play better this week? Almost certainly. Is the rest of the country figuring out how to play against us and exploiting our vulnerabilities? Almost certainly.

Larsson was supposed to be our guy this year, but he hasn't made the strides many anticipated we'd see. Kriisa is a head case and relies on the 3 too often. Ramey and Henderson have been nice additions. Ballo has been huge and deserves a lot of credit. Same with Tubelis.

We have some good pieces, just no elite athletes. Even so, I'm still trying to figure out how we lost at McKale to WSU. And lost badly.

[PHXCATS]

It isn't complicated

UA missed lots of open shots. WSU made tons of shots, even guarded shot. You are making it far more than it is

[Beachcat97]

It isn't complicated

UA missed lots of open shots. WSU made tons of shots, even guarded shot. You are making it far more than it is

Think we go 2-0 this week?

[PHXCATS]

It isn't complicated

UA missed lots of open shots. WSU made tons of shots, even guarded shot. You are making it far more than it is

Think we go 2-0 this week?

I think the Cats have a great chance to if they don't miss tons of wide open shots and their opponents don't make tons of well guarded shots

[KaibabKat]

School Point Guard PER - thru games of 8 Jan 23
Colorado KJ Simpson 23.3
USC Boogie Ellis 19.0
Oregon Will Richardson 18.2
UCLA Tyger Campbell 17.8
WSU TJ Bamba 17.7
OSU Jordan Pope 15.9
ASU DJ Horne 15.5
D1 Average 15.0
Utah Rollie Worster 13.4
Arizona Kerr Krissa 13.3
Washington PJ Fuller 10.3
California Joel Brown 9.2
Stanford Michael O'Connell 8.9

Not going to win conference championships and make deep tournament runs with a below average starting point guard. Or, the next time will be the first time in the history of the universe (as Bill Walton might say).

[PHXCATS]

I don't give a fuck what PER is. Give me Kerr over most the guys ahead of him in that stat

[pc in NM]

School Point Guard PER - thru games of 8 Jan 23
Colorado KJ Simpson 23.3
USC Boogie Ellis 19.0
Oregon Will Richardson 18.2
UCLA Tyger Campbell 17.8
WSU TJ Bamba 17.7
OSU Jordan Pope 15.9
ASU DJ Horne 15.5
D1 Average 15.0
Utah Rollie Worster 13.4
Arizona Kerr Krissa 13.3
Washington PJ Fuller 10.3
California Joel Brown 9.2
Stanford Michael O'Connell 8.9

Not going to win conference championships and make deep tournament runs with a below average starting point guard. Or, the next time will be the first time in the history of the universe (as Bill Walton might say).

Please cite a source for this bombastic claim!!!

[Beachcat97]

I don't give a fuck what PER is. Give me Kerr over most the guys ahead of him in that stat

What are your favorite parts about Kerr's game? Just curious.

He's a sub .400 shooter (FG% and 3FG%) and averages 3 TOs per game.

I think he's flashy and charismatic, so he has a certain charm. Just not sure he's the kind of player who can come up big when it matters.

[Merkin]

He has always been a streaky shooter, but his unwillingness to shoot a 2 point shot, along with a brutal A/TO ratio since Vegas has really hurt.

With the emergence of Boswell with extremely low turnovers, and Larsson not meeting expectations I expect to see Kriisa sliding over to the 2 a lot more.

[Beachcat97]

He has always been a streaky shooter, but his unwillingness to shoot a 2 point shot, along with a brutal A/TO ratio since Vegas has really hurt.

With the emergence of Boswell with extremely low turnovers, and Larsson not meeting expectations I expect to see Kriisa sliding over to the 2 a lot more.

I'm fine with him at the 2, but how much does that really add? A streaky sub 40% shooter? And like you said, he's just so limited offensively beyond those 3s.

I suppose we just gotta dance with the one we brought. He's also not done well against Campbell on ucla.

Here's hoping Boswell and Larsson can find their rhythm offensively and we're not as reliant on Kriisa to score.

[PHXCATS]

What the fuck is wrong with the state of Arizona when it comes to basketball? Holy shit for fans who are supposed to be smart and passionate what I see going on with the Cats after a bad week and the Suns having all their players hurt it is incredible how many shit takes there are

[KillerKlown]

Cats are a top ten team and the Suns suck and will always be soft and sorry and Ayton should have jumped ship to Indiana when he had the chance to be on a way better team with way better and smarter fans. That's my shit take.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Must-win game against the 7-9 Beavers. They've shown they can be competitive at times, with a 3-point loss to Duke early at Portland, a 1-point loss at USC, and a 1-point win at home against the Washington team that gave us so much trouble. But, they've also lost by a comfortable margin at Oregon, and been blown out at Utah and at Colorado. They're led by a freshman in point guard Jordan Pope, and they've got some height that can shoot threes and do some rim protecting. But, illness, refs, travel hassles, or whatever, we need to be able to handle a game like this if we expect to be considered a legitimate top ten or fifteen team.

[EastCoastCat]

I'm just glad CTL is our coach and makes the personnel decisions. That's all I have to say about some of these player takes...

[Beachcat97]

I'm just glad CTL is our coach and makes the personnel decisions

Agree completely.

[Carcassdragger]

I don't give a fuck what PER is. Give me Kerr over most the guys ahead of him in that stat

What are your favorite parts about Kerr's cocky and confidegame? Just curious.

He's a sub .400 shooter (FG% and 3FG%) and averages 3 TOs per game.

I think he's flashy and charismatic, so he has a certain charm. Just not sure he's the kind of player who can come up big when it matters.

Isn't having a cocky and confident point guard kind of a good trait for teams with potential to make it to the final four?

[PHXCATS]

I don't give a fuck what PER is. Give me Kerr over most the guys ahead of him in that stat

What are your favorite parts about Kerr's cocky and confidegame? Just curious.

He's a sub .400 shooter (FG% and 3FG%) and averages 3 TOs per game.

I think he's flashy and charismatic, so he has a certain charm. Just not sure he's the kind of player who can come up big when it matters.

Isn't having a cocky and confident point guard kind of a good trait for teams with potential to make it to the final four?

Yes. Along with being a good ball handler, good passer, good facilitator, good teammate. All of which Kerr is

[Alieberman]

The thing I love about Beachcat... his consistency.

Written a few weeks apart

And incredibly, as others have noted, we may actually be *better* this season. Tommy freaking Lloyd.

We have one legit good win, and Tennessee was missing a key player.

Creighton has turned out to be overrated; same with Indiana. SDSU could end up being our second best win. Don't think we're beating ucla.

I agree that there's much less separation between the top 3 and, say, the next 10 ranked teams, but I still think we were never supposed to be better than last year's team. We had some surprising wins early on, and everyone got excited. Now we're drifting back to reality.

[arizonawildcats]

I love Kerr Kriisa. He has obvious limitations, and that's okay. We had a more balanced team last season. I'm not panicking, but I agree that CTL needs to find/develop consistent shooters and physical players who attack and draw contact.

[Merkin]

Kriisa's FT shooting percentage is about twice that of Ramey's. I realize that someone needs to stay on top and prevent any fast break points by the opposing team, but Kerr is not afraid of contact on the defensive end, so wouldn't hurt to try and draw fouls when driving. He has 7 games with no FT attempts. Standard basketball is when the PG drives to the basket, the 2 goes on top to play defense.

[Frybry02]

College basketball, more times than not, comes down to guard play. Lately, our guards have not seen played well.

This team’s ceiling is dependent upon Kriisa’s and Ramey’s play.

[Beachcat97]

College basketball, more times than not, comes down to guard play. Lately, our guards have not seen played well.

This team’s ceiling is dependent upon Kriisa’s and Ramey’s play.

If Kriisa and Ramey have a better '23 tourney than Mathurin and Terry last year, I'll be pleasantly shocked.

[Postmaster]

KK would probably have a better A/TO ratio if the rest of the team could put the ball in the hole.

[arizonawildcats]

I'd like to see better defense more than anything.

[dovecanyoncat]

I'd like to see set plays that dial up 3 pt. shots such that bigs are ready to board and our guards are in rhythm. Pelle needs space and an unhurried release to regain his Utah stroke. Kriisa needs to shoot the 3 from out of a 2 guard motion. Ramey needs just to get his mojo back. Ced is left open enough not to need special set-up. Ky needs just to shoot more freely. Bal ..... hell I don't know anymore. Zu needs to board the 3 shot so ..... hell I don't know anymore.

[TheCatInTheHat]

With typically having players for short duration, the trend seems to be to not run much set stuff that the players tend to screw up, and where the opposition can't scout it and jump the passes. But you still see other teams run weaves with picks up top that go a lot deeper into the clock. When a lane eventually opens, the guard either takes it or guns it into the corner if pinched for an open three. Regardless, we'll see zone in the next game, and that always seems to be a triangle overload and a rushed shot. I've always been a proponent of driving against an extended zone for a mid-range shot, which Miles Simon was great at, but we don't seem to have that right now. Meanwhile, Ramey is shooting .421 from the line on the season, and 0-4 in conference play, which is just unacceptable, especially from a guard. If he can't do better than that, they should make him shoot underhanded like Rick Barry (a 90 percent FT shooter in his day.) He might feel like an idiot, but with 10 minutes practice, I guarantee he'd make at least 60 percent. Or, he can feel like an idiot sitting on the bench.

[Bordercat]

Problem 1. Ramey- somebody else said it his free throw shooting is like worse than atrocious. He looked good in Maui. IDK what happened to him.

Problem 2. Larson- he has shown glimpses of being great and then just disappears. He's a guy that should fill up the stat sheet every week.

That's it to me... everything else is fine.

[TheCat]

I have waited 5 days to come here because I know what it is like after a loss. Probably should have waited till tomorrow. Larson has been perplexing to me on offense. His defense is still outstanding. Kerr will always be Kerr. Takes a few too many risks at times and is a streaky shooter. Boswell is really coming on as his confidence grows. Ramey looks as though he has lost a lot of confidence which is surprising for a 5 year senior. We need him to hit some outside shots. The other thing we must do is disguise the high low pass that teams are waiting for. Need a different entry point for our bigs. A few outside shots will help open things up. Ced needs some run time as I think he is aggressive looking for his shot and plays decent defense.

I think there are no dominate teams anywhere this year. I think we are about a 3rd place team in the PAC. What we need to understand is that our bigs are not particularly athletic. What they are is good basketball players. Oregon's athleticism will certainly be a challenge. I expected ASU to be the same but we overcame that by good perimeter defense or just cold shooting on their part. Lots of challenges and more than a few surprises to come. Relax and enjoy.

[Postmaster]

Was Ramey a good FT shooter at TX? I’m sure he wasn’t this bad but curious what his career numbers are.

If you can’t make out side shots it’s hard to get good looks for the bigs.

I thought Bal would be our shooter this year but he seems to have regressed. Maybe a confidence issue, Ramey coming in probably felt like they were recruiting over him, maybe? Pella’s shooting seems to regressed also.

Not sure what’s going on but the team seems to be in a bit of a funk.


Edit: went and looked and his Freshman year was 58% but years 2-4 he was between 70-80% approximately.

[84Cat]

Ramey's ft% last year was 76.5

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... tney-ramey

[dovecanyoncat]

We know how to turn the ball over.

[84Cat]

We know how to turn the ball over.

17 to's tonight. Fred Snowden would say we are not letting it fly

[pc in NM]

Arizona is averaging 96.1 points in games when it turns it over 15 or more times.

Arizona wasn't turning it over as much during the 3-game scoring rut.

Discuss.

[CardiacCats97]

Arizona is averaging 96.1 points in games when it turns it over 15 or more times.

Arizona wasn't turning it over as much during the 3-game scoring rut.

Discuss.

Less possessions means less opportunities for turnovers.

[CardiacCats97]

[pc in NM]

Arizona is averaging 96.1 points in games when it turns it over 15 or more times.

Arizona wasn't turning it over as much during the 3-game scoring rut.

Discuss.

Less possessions means less opportunities for turnovers.

That's a "discussion???

BTW - vs UDub, 66 shots; vs. Wazzu, 63 shots, last nite, 61 shots.... WTF are you referring to???

The core philosophy of CTL is: "Be aggressive, be in attack mode, and play with confidence"

Ya gotta live with some TO's. Reduce them?? Of course!!!

But if one's gonna focus on TO's, one MUST also note Assists!!!!

I wonder when was the last time that an Arizona starting backcourt had 18 assists??

[CardiacCats97]

Are you paid per punctuation mark?

[pc in NM]

Are you paid per punctuation mark?

Another excellent "response"...

... keep it up!

[CardiacCats97]

Just one exclamation mark? I feel cheated.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Well, we beat (now) 7-10/1-5 Oregon St. Depending on anybody's goals and expectations for the team, it's not much of a data point or barometer, but we'll always take a win, and particularly on the road. Hopefully, we can get past one of Dana Altman's somewhat lesser Oregon teams in Eugene on Saturday. A sweep of the Oregon Trail, even against a pair of struggling teams, would be a fairly solid accomplishment in advance of the LA schools coming to McKale.