EastCoastCat wrote: Tue Mar 14, 2023 6:32 am
You know, everyone is dumping on Tennessee. I have a feeling they will surprise.
Is Tennessee completely healthy?
No not completely. They still don't have Zeigler but I believe the others will be available like Jones.
Think they're vulnerable, then. Tennessee wasn't quite as good as some expected this year, and Duke is peaking. This has nothing to do with Scheyer, imo. It's the freaking talent on that roster, which is Caliparian. When you have that many future NBA players on one team, they're always capable of winning a few games in the tourney.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:55 am
by EastCoastCat
It's just a hunch I have because the so-called pundits have been dissing them since the selection.
But I have been wrong many, many times before.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:43 am
by Macho Grande
CardiacCats97 wrote: Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:37 am
Do you all do a BearDownWildcats bracket challenge?
It's been the "Mark Schlabach Memorial" group over at cbssports.com the past few years.
Dana O’Neil at The Athletic has Zags vs Cats in Championship Game!
Timme vs Ballo
7 coaches on Cats came through Gonzaga…..dream matchup
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:20 am
by Beachcat97
ZagCatFan wrote: Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:04 am
Dana O’Neil at The Athletic has Zags vs Cats in Championship Game!
Timme vs Ballo
7 coaches on Cats came through Gonzaga…..dream matchup
So much potential for dramatic storylines this year:
Lloyd vs. Few
AZ vs. Miller
ucla vs. Gonzaga
AZ vs. Duke in the FF
AZ vs. Houston in the FF
Duke vs. Kentucky in E8 (unlikely but who knows)
How about an AZ/UConn national title game?
ZagCatFan wrote: Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:04 am
Dana O’Neil at The Athletic has Zags vs Cats in Championship Game!
Timme vs Ballo
7 coaches on Cats came through Gonzaga…..dream matchup
So much potential for dramatic storylines this year:
Lloyd vs. Few
AZ vs. Miller
ucla vs. Gonzaga
AZ vs. Duke in the FF
AZ vs. Houston in the FF
Duke vs. Kentucky in E8 (unlikely but who knows)
How about an AZ/UConn national title game?
Any scenario that has AZ FF is a good 1
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2023 1:15 pm
by Carcassdragger
The West Region is super stacked. Seems like we're ok where we're at.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2023 1:31 pm
by HiCat
First Look at Arizona Basketball opponent, the Princeton Tigers
Oh shit, he hasn't been right once in his life. We are doomed.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2023 12:38 pm
by SabinoDrifter
Greg Hanson's national champion in danger of losing in the first round...
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:33 pm
by azgreg
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:36 pm
by dovecanyoncat
Duke looking like Bama right now. Fuck my life.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2023 2:49 am
by ZagCatFan
. Arizona couldn’t overcome limitations against Princeton
Arizona was a team with real limitations entering a single-elimination NCAA Tournament. The Azuolas Tubelis-Oumar Ballo frontcourt was always ripe for a team that runs a five-out offensive scheme to be able to space out the Wildcats and take advantage of them. If you can pull the bigs away from the rim, they’re not good enough to guard in space. Kerr Kriisa entered the tournament with a shoulder injury, and without him at full strength, the team has no consistently threatening perimeter player off the bounce. That they even made it this far, finishing second in the Pac-12 and winning the league’s tournament, is a credit to Tommy Lloyd’s uptempo ball-screen continuity that feeds the bigs and creates open kickout 3s.
The records were close, but this was a drastically inferior team to last season’s Arizona group with real pressure points to be picked at and a lack of depth to adjust when opposing teams took away the top options. Mitch Henderson and the Princeton staff knew that, and devised an impressive plan to counter what Arizona does. They crowded Tubelis and Ballo on offense in the paint by collapsing down when the ball entered the post with timely double-teams. Collapsed the defensive glass to limit second-chance opportunities. They got three or four guys back in transition defense every time, and still out-rebounded Arizona on the offensive end of the court 10 to 7. Then on offense, they just continually picked at the scab, either pulling Tubelis and Ballo away from the rim with their bigs or isolating them one on one and forcing them to play tough post defense without help. This wasn’t a traditional “Princeton” attack. They assisted on just nine of their 26 made field goals. They saw matchups they felt they could take advantage of, and hammered them.
And on Arizona’s side, when teams attacked Tubelis and Ballo, they didn’t have a recourse. They have no ability to play five-out or go small on their end defensively. They can’t switch actions regularly. The closest thing they have to a stretch-four is Pelle Larsson, and he’s not that — he’s a true wing. I’ll write about this upset more in detail later this weekend, but more than anything, this Arizona exit was a roster construction issue that was waiting to happen. They need to solve the issue of lineup versatility this offseason. They were too easy to scheme this season, which is why they lost some truly dumbfounding games despite their talent level, including defeats to Washington State, Utah and Stanford. — Sam Vecenie
From The Athletic
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:08 am
by SabinoDrifter
Pretty fair summary.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2023 7:49 am
by Merkin
Yep, and please pass on the extended version when he writes it.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:22 am
by ghostwhitehorse
Them song for everyones brackets:
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:27 pm
by Postmaster
Nothing against him personally, but I’m annoyed seeing Quinerly win with Alabama.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:42 pm
by EastCoastCat
Arizona has beat a quarter of the teams that made the S16.
Let that sink in…
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:21 pm
by Beachcat97
EastCoastCat wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:42 pm
Arizona has beat a quarter of the teams that made the S16.
Let that sink in…
It gets crazier: we beat three of them in tournament games this season.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:40 pm
by PHXCATS
EastCoastCat wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 2:42 pm
Arizona has beat a quarter of the teams that made the S16.
Let that sink in…
Exactly why you have to see it for what it is. A bad game on the wrong day
But I am told to worry about not even making the dance by some……
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:00 pm
by CardiacCats97
PHXCATS wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 6:51 pm
Arizona as a 1 seed?
But I am told to worry about not even making the dance by some……
You weren’t told to worry about anything. Someone else talked about their own worry and you jumped all over it and won’t let it go probably because your innate need to feel better about yourself by acting superior on the internet won’t let you, but that’s just my amateur opinion. Your own therapist may have other thoughts.
Interesting. We will have already played 3 of the number 1 seeds. That is a clue how hard our schedule is.
Re: Official Bracketology Thread
Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 7:41 am
by EastCoastCat
As Merkin said I believe Lute would be proud.
Love scheduling tough non-conference opponents because it’s not only fun to watch, but it also raises our national exposure. Plus we always seem to play well in those games and even losses don’t ding us come tournament seeding time.
