The 2022-2023 Season Thread

[PHXCATS]

It seems like the team knows they are good and that it will take a bad game by them to beat them. But with that they get a bit complacent in the 2nd half.

I am sure Lloyd can get the team to buy in all game by March!!!!

[TheCatInTheHat]

Three of Oregon's losses are to Top Ten teams. #1 Houston at an early-season Portland tournament, #6 UConn, also at Portland, and #7 UCLA at Pauley. They also lost to #31 Michigan St at Portland. They beat Villanova at Portland, and beat our two conquerors WSU (by 14) and at Utah (by 10.) They also lost at Colorado (by 27), and Thursday night to ASU at home (by 17.) So, up and down, and with some injuries, although their previously injured players played against ASU. We're up and down, too, and it's life on the road with Pac-12 refs, so we'll see how it goes. (Loved the phantom foul on Ballo at OSU when he never even made contact with the flopper. Nice demonstrative finger-pointing call, though.)

[dovecanyoncat]

Are you paid per punctuation mark?

Another excellent "response"...

... keep it up!

I love this bar.

[TheGreatCatsby]

Kinda feels like this team still has some of the old Sean Miller DNA, where we're a decent regular season team racking up wins due to our dominating size and frontcourt play, even though we're down to just 2 Miller recruits in Kerr and AT being main contributors. Last night Tubelis and Ballo were unstoppable.

As we know the NCAA tournament requires a different team skill set all together unfortunately, namely incredible guard play to make it to the Elite 8/Final 4 level. Outside of McConnell, our last decent guard was Jason Gardner nearly 20 years ago. This year's guards aren't terrible, but not particularly great either, aren't great shooters, so seems we're barreling towards another max Sweet 16 tourney finish or less. Still a pretty fun season with likeable players, but at this point I don't have high hopes of a Final 4. I'm kinda waiting to see what guards Tommy can bring in the next few years to really make a run at it and restore some of our former point guard U luster.

[pc in NM]

Nice article.

Crazy as it sounds, Arizona’s offense often at its best when giving it away

By Brian J. Pedersen Jan 13, 2023, 12:39pm PST

Arizona got its offense back on track in Thursday night’s win at Oregon State, posting some of its best numbers in weeks.

“It felt back to normal,” coach Tommy Lloyd said on his postgame radio show. “We were hunting shots and were’t worried about what they were doing. it was a good balance of letting it rip from outside and attacking inside.”

The Wildcats shot 52.5 percent, a major increase from the previous three games when they were below 38 percent against ASU, Washington and Washington State, and the 26 assists were tied for the second-most all season after registering a season-low nine dimes in the loss to WSU.

But while those numbers were back to what we’ve come to expect from the UA, so too was one much less welcome figure: turnovers.

Arizona gave it away 17 times to the Beavers, its most since a 19-turnover game against San Diego State in the Maui Invitational. OSU converted those 17 takeaways, which included 10 steals, into 17 points.

The UA’s turnover rate on Thursday was 23.2 percent, highest since the SDSU game and fourth-highest on the season. Overall, Arizona’s TO rate (18.7 percent) ranks 160th out of 363 Division I teams, while opponents’ steal percentage (11.3) is in the bottom 40 nationally.

Taking better care of the ball is always a priority for every team. But in Arizona’s case, it may be impossible with the style it wants to play on offense. In fact, when the Wildcats keep the turnover numbers down that often correlates to a bad offensive game overall.

And the data backs up this assertion.

The UA ranks fourth in Division I in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom.com, at 118.2. It had been No. 1 until the 3-game rut in which it averaged 66.7 points and shot 35.2 percent from the field (24.3 percent from 3).

One thing Arizona did not do during that rut was turn the ball over. It averaged 10.7 turnovers per game, and the turnover rate in each contest was at or below the season average.

The 74-61 loss to Washington State? Arizona had only eight turnovers, second-fewest on the season, and its TO rate (12.2 percent) was also second-lowest, yet it had its second-worst offensive efficiency (93.2), worst effective field goal percentage (34.9) and second-lowest 2-point field goal accuracy (42.1).

The Utah loss in December echoed those poor shooting and efficiency numbers, as well as the low TO count (12). And while Arizona has won games where its shot poorly or had low efficiency, the margin of victory in those contests has also been lower … as have the turnover numbers.

Flip over to the UA’s best offensive performances, and as the scoring, shooting and efficiency numbers go up so does the turnover tally. Arizona is 6-0 in games where it has turned it over on more than 20 percent of possessions, winning those games by an average of 20 points, while the average margin of victory in six games (all wins) with a turnover rate between 17-19.6 percent is 19 points.

In the six games with a turnover rate of 15.6 percent or below: a 4-2 record with an average margin of victory of 1.7 points.

It certainly can be frustrating seeing Kerr Kriisa or Courtney Ramey make a bad pass, and seven of their combined nine turnovers at OSU were of that ilk. But they also combined for 18 of Arizona’s 26 assists, and for the season have 150 assists against 76 turnovers.

The UA, as a team, has a 1.44 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks 28th nationally. In its “attack mode” style of offense, one that’s looking to move the ball up the court quickly and get a score early in the shot clock, miscues are bound to happen. When it slows down and loses that aggressiveness, the giveaways go down but so too does the efficiency.

The key isn’t as much eliminating those mistakes but minimizing their damage. OSU got 17 points off Arizona’s 17 turnovers, accounting for about 23 percent of its points, and for the season opponents are getting 15.3 points per game off turnovers (21 percent).

The Wildcats get 14.2 points per game off opponent turnovers, which is only 16.5 percent of their scoring. In other words, Arizona isn’t reliant on forcing turnovers to create offense, as Hoop-Math.com shows only 5.4 percent of its initial shot attempts come after a steal compared to 23.6 percent in the first 10 seconds after a defensive rebound.

[dovecanyoncat]

Well, there you have it. Thanks, pc. When I said we are good at turning the ball over it wasn't that I was a sarcastic sadsack asshole, it was because I'm a good fan.

[arizonawildcats]

Kinda feels like this team still has some of the old Sean Miller DNA, where we're a decent regular season team racking up wins due to our dominating size and frontcourt play, even though we're down to just 2 Miller recruits in Kerr and AT being main contributors. Last night Tubelis and Ballo were unstoppable.

As we know the NCAA tournament requires a different team skill set all together unfortunately, namely incredible guard play to make it to the Elite 8/Final 4 level. Outside of McConnell, our last decent guard was Jason Gardner nearly 20 years ago. This year's guards aren't terrible, but not particularly great either, aren't great shooters, so seems we're barreling towards another max Sweet 16 tourney finish or less. Still a pretty fun season with likeable players, but at this point I don't have high hopes of a Final 4. I'm kinda waiting to see what guards Tommy can bring in the next few years to really make a run at it and restore some of our former point guard U luster.

You're right, but there's always an outside chance of making a run if we catch some breaks. If we're healthy, get some favorable matchups, and are hitting on all cylinders...why not us?

[Captain Obvious]

I think reality is setting in with this year's team and understandably so with the loss of three bought and paid for Sean Miller recruits that are now in the NBA. Realistically this team will lose 8-9 games. I see them getting into the NCAA tournament but losing the first or second game. CTL doesn't have the luxury of of an NBA roster this season and will have to raise his game. But I believe in his abilities going forward and think he was a tremendous hire.

[Merkin]

Good thing the Cats are going to drop in the rankings. Would be embarrassing to lose in the first round as the #4 seed.

Any athletic team on a good shooting night will beat the Cats. Which seems every team plays their best game against Arizona.

The 3 NBA players who left last season on a team not athletic enough were not replaced.

BTW, Jason Gardner was only decent. Another very streaky shooter who shot the UA out of several wins.

[84Cat]

We dropped 8 spots to #18 in KenPom after Oregon

[ChooChooCat]

Guards and wings have just been atrocious.

[Catintheheat]

My Fubo subscription ends at the end of the month. I am not paying $90/month to see this. I can't even see games live anyway since I'm at work. Matthew loves Basketball will suffice. I wonder how long that will be around. I like the NCAA tourney, and the Cats should make it due to the preconference wins. But still... They have huge weaknesses, and even though they sould make the tourney. I would not expect them to get out of the first weekend.

I will follow in a distance. But I'm more looking forward to Cubs baseball. They are going to be better this season.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

If you filter BartTorvik and set the start date at dec 31, we are 77th.

That is lower than I was expecting.

[Dave]

The first 13 games of the year we averaged 90.23 pts per game. The last 5 games we have averaged 70.8 pts per game.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

I mean, we played good teams, and beat them earlier in the year. I am not sure what is going on, except that there is tape on this team now and pac 12 teams are better at game planning us than OOC teams.

Hoping it's just the mid conference season doldrums that we've been dealing with.
Granted, it's been since the beginning of conference play.

[azgreg]

I mean, we played good teams, and beat them earlier in the year. I am not sure what is going on, except that there is tape on this team now and pac 12 teams are better at game planning us than OOC teams.

Hoping it's just the mid conference season doldrums that we've been dealing with.
Granted, it's been since the beginning of conference play.

It's clear to me. Teams have learned to take away our bigs and make the guards beat you. Our guards aren't capable of doing that.

[AZCatGirl]

The only good news is that there's not many dominant teams this year. It'll make for an exciting March but Cardiac Cats will be in full effect.

[azgreg]

[KaibabKat]

Starting to get the feeling that this team is not spending their off time together sitting around a campfire, toasting marshmallows, and singing kumbaya.

[Postmaster]

I feel like CTL is shortening the bench in reaction to the starters not playing well.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

[U.P. Zona Fan]

[youtube]https://youtu.be/DV_PzRb1pLk[/youtube]

[U.P. Zona Fan]

Apparently I don't know how to add a funny gif.

[Merkin]

Use the URL of just the image. Right click on the image, open in new tab. Copy that URL.



Copy the embed code.

[Lute4God]

Bruce Pascoe stats on wins vs. losses including Pac-12:

"Here's some of the biggest differences:

Points scored

All wins: 88.8 Pac-12 wins: 76.5 Losses (all Pac-12): 65.0 The overall win stats, especially the overall scoring numbers, can be deceiving because six of Arizona's games have been against teams ranked over 200 by Kenpom.

The Wildcats dropped 117 points on Nicholls State in their opener, then went on to beat four other mid- or low-major teams with 93 or more points. Their 101-93 win over Cincinnati in the first round of the Maui Invitational was the only other time they have scored 90 or more points this season.

Slower-paced, more defensive- minded teams have also pulled the Wildcats' scoring numbers down in recent weeks. USC and UCLA will likely do the same this weekend.

'I think they're opportunistic, and they're running, but I think their teams are most comfortable in the half-court offensively,' Lloyd said of the Trojans and Bruins. 'So we've just got to play the way we play, and it's not about playing fast to play fast. For us, it's about trying to get into our flow and get our rhythm going, and we can also do that in a half-court game.'

Field-goal percentage

All wins: 52.4 Pac-12 wins: 43.9 Losses (all Pac-12): 34.8 3-point FG percentage

All wins: 37.9 Pac-12 wins: 29.6 Losses: 21.8 The Wildcats' shooting percentages have been down literally player by player in losses, with center Oumar Ballo the most consistent. Ballo shot an absurd 79.4% over three Maui Invitational games. He is shooting 68.1% in wins, 54.1% in Pac-12 wins and 57.6% in UA's three losses.

FG percentage defense

All wins: 40.3 Pac-12 wins: 40.3 Losses: 45.2

3-point percentage defense

All wins: 31.5 Pac-12 wins: 24.5 Losses: 37.6 In Arizona's Pac-12 losses, Utah hit 9 of 25 3-pointers, Washington State hit 12 of 28 3-pointers and Oregon hit 53.1% overall from the floor.

Assist-field goal ratio

All wins: .677 Pac-12 wins: .780 Losses: .594 Since they rely heavily on passing and movement, the Wildcats' assist-to-field goal ratio can be a key indicator of how well their offense is functioning. Arizona had only nine assists on 20 made field goals (.450) in their loss to Washington State, and 14 to 24 (.583) against Oregon.

Kerr Kriisa 3-point percentage

All wins: 41.1 Pac-12 wins: 28.6 Losses: 16.0

Pelle Larsson FG percentage

All wins: 44.1 Pac-12 wins: 32.0 Losses: 23.1

Cedric Henderson scoring average

All wins: 7.9 Pac-12 wins: 6. 5 Losses: 2.3 While starting off guard Courtney Ramey hit a shooting slump over the first three post-Christmas Pac-12 games — combining for 4-of-20 shooting against ASU Washington and WSU — some areas of production by Kriisa, Larsson and Henderson have swung more widely between wins and losses."

[SabinoDrifter]

If Kerr is going to take 7.3 threes for every two, he needs to shot better than 27.3%.

[84Cat]

Former Gonzaga star Przemek Karnowski joins Arizona staff as graduate assistant

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketbal ... pac12-2023

[84Cat]

[TheCatInTheHat]

Between the men's and women's teams, we've absorbed enough suffering for the past week. We need to get back up on the horse and up to full gallop.

Looking at the previous statistical analysis, I think it needs to go a step further. It shouldn't be a function of comparing stats in chronological order, but of looking at the stats against better teams, whenever they were played. I'm not going to bother looking at any stats from home blowouts over overmatched Nicholls or Morgan State or the like. Here are shooting percentages and scores from the 9 better teams we've played, which obviously includes our 3 losses:

San Diego State.....58.6 FG% 45.0 3% 87 Points
Creighton............52.9 FG% 31.3 3% 81 Points
@ Utah...............35.2 FG% 14.3 3% 66 Points (Loss)
Indiana...............49.2 FG% 40.0 3% 89 Points
Tennessee............42.6 FG% 20.8 3% 75 Points
@ Arizona State.....37.7 FG% 22.7 3% 69 Points
Washington..........36.4 FG % 33.3 3% 70 Points
Washington State...31.7 FG % 16.0 3% 61 Points (Loss)
@ Oregon............37.5 FG% 36.0 3% 68 Points (Loss)

So we got up well into the 80s in some neutral court games, but low to mid 70s against better teams seems more realistic, unless we have an absolutely horrific outing from beyond the arc. Teams with length are extending well into the backcourt to disrupt passing lanes. We can't get rattled and throw the ball away on the long passes under pressure that are needed to make them pay. And, as John Wooden preached: "Be quick, but don't hurry." I don't mind shooting threes early in the shot clock, but absolutely every three we take should be relaxed, in rhythm, and unmolested. Otherwise, pass it up until you get a good open shot. (Also per Wooden: use the target on the window and bank shots from an angle to improve percentages.)

There's not much to be done about drawing bad Pac-12 officiating crews. The league has had multiple decades to spend the money needed and provide the necessary direction to improve the product, but they just won't, no matter who is in charge. The presidents and ADs lack the interest or will, or the bad teams like the crowd-pleasing aspect of homering better teams a few times a year. And it obviously does make a difference if your bigs are both knocked over and put in foul trouble straight-jackets so the opposition can dominate the boards. Same if your bigs get their wrists karate chopped on put-back shots with no calls. About all you can do is go deeper into your bench (Veesar) and fight fire with fire. Give up two foul shots and hope for a miss, but never a bucket and free throw after sacrificing a foul.

To that point, we'll get to enjoy UCLA's dirty (oh...excuse me: "fun loving") Adem Bona, complete with receiving the UCLA star treatment, on Saturday. But for now, we've got to get back to our winning ways at McKale.

[Postmaster]

Anyone watching ucla game?
11-12 with 7 min left in half.

[dovecanyoncat]

DIE TROLLOPS!! DIE! DIE! FUCKING DIE!!

[arizonawildcats]

Pelle is a great sixth man and should be our steady hand off the bench. I highly doubt he was pouting in shootaround like Bill Walton said.

[TheCatInTheHat]

If you want to improve things, Step 1 is to acknowledge and address your problems, rather than ignore/dismiss them and just fine coaches for complaining. Note that the statement below does not involve their current #4 Alabama or traditional power Kentucky.

[EastCoastCat]

Is it our good old friend Jay Bilas doing color for Saturday’s game against the Bruins with Schulman?

We should have a nice welcome for him.

[azcat49]

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/sto ... ns-rivalry

Most condescending article ever. That should get the fans ready if they read this

[EastCoastCat]

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/sto ... ns-rivalry

Most condescending article ever. That should get the fans ready if they read this

You actually need fans in the stands to have rowdiness. Guess this schlock writer has never experienced that.

[azcat49]

Taking shots at Tucson and blaming our fans for Etiens behavior was low class.

Taking shots at Krissa seems fair as that will be the match up that probably decides who wins.

TC is probably the best PG in college basketball. He never panicked and you saw that in the last three minutes in Tempe. Got his team good shots and never panicked.

Lloyd wants KK to be a better field general but he is always so loose with the ball. It will be close late in the game and KK needs to be better than he has been

[TheCatInTheHat]

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/sto ... ns-rivalry

Most condescending article ever. That should get the fans ready if they read this

You actually need fans in the stands to have rowdiness. Guess this schlock writer has never experienced that.

Ben Bolch is an in-the-tank ass-kissing honk for UCLA. He and Plaschke can spin their fairy tales about how "Sideshow Bob" Campbell got "tangled", when he actually leg-whipped our guy right in front of the Zoo. Classless move, and he got the earful he deserved the rest of the game. Plaschke invented a nice fiction that Campbell is just some wonderful free spirit with his dumb hair, and that he's fighting for the right to individual expression against narrow-minded Tucson rednecks. Only we loved Zeke Nnaji with the long locks and his pre-game keyboard concert. The reality is Campbell is the product of being pampered and entitled after attending an exclusive private school and who craves all the marketable attention he can get. Mac Etienne (1.1 PPG) thought he could get cute without getting caught, but he did...Oops! And recently, Bolch tried to paint Adem Bona as just another one of those swell, fun-loving Bruins. Those elbows in the ribs, arm-hooks, grabs, pushes in the back, and clubbings on shooting arms taught by their hair-and-height-challenged coach are all just fine...because Bona smiles a lot. When you spend your life spinning tall tales about poorly behaving spoiled hotshots being noble heroes and somebody doesn't buy into it and pushes back, I guess you tend to get defensive, hence the lashing out. Based on our respective seasons to date, we'll probably lose tomorrow, but we've beaten their heroes recently, and we'll beat them again before too long. And if their Gollum look-alike doesn't win it all in this Cinderella Top Five Year Four, while averaging 5,500 empty seats per game at Pauley, he may just trot off to a more enthusiastic environment.

[KillerKlown]

"Yeah I gave her a black eye, judge. But she kept provoking me. She kept serving scrambled eggs when I asked for sunny-side up!"

SMH. Imagine spitting into a crowd because they got to you. Soft. We'll need that crowd again tomorrow.

[dmjcat]

[84Cat]

Why?

[Merkin]

Why?

Does Greg Byrne do those at Bama? Why do they keep doing them here?

[U.P. Zona Fan]

Oh no, a white out?

[AZCatGirl]

Because we always do well when a big game is a white out... sigh.

[azgreg]

Why?

Does Greg Byrne do those at Bama?

Yes

[Captain Obvious]

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/sto ... ns-rivalry

Most condescending article ever. That should get the fans ready if they read this

Not sure how it's condescending. Accurate is probably a more honest appraisal IMHO. He sprinkled in some good humor so it's actually a pretty enjoyable read. People really need to lighten up.

[CardiacCats97]

Winning this game ugly will mean a lot more at the end of the season than all of our blowout wins combined.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Down go the supposedly mighty #5 Bruins, despite some stupidly favorable help from the refs down the stretch. When you don't get any fouls called on you and you play hack and grab, you can make pretty good comebacks. As to the fawning LA media, not sure how this was EVER supposed to be "the final word" about anything. I mean, we're still going to play them at least one more game this year, and at least two more next year. Last year's failures (on the court and in the p.r. arena with Etienne) must have really bugged them, and they thought this year was a sure bet. I guess it WAS the last hurrah for Sideshow Bob at McKale, and in that sense, "the final word" was that he finished 0-2 there. Nice job, Cats!

[RawleArenas]

If we simply matched UCLA's rebounding, we would've ran them off the court. Our KenPom improved 20 points to 45 defensively. Well done.

KK still has maturity issues. If we had a mature guard, even with our athleticism deficits, we could do a lot of damage.

[Alieberman]

We have shown up for every big game so far this season.

This bodes well for the tournament.

Can't wait to see how good BeachCat now thinks we are....