Colorado game day

[BBQ wildcat]

I just hope for an epic beatdown. And yes, a CSM timeout with 21 seconds remaining.

[YoDeFoe]

I just hope for an epic beatdown. And yes, a CSM timeout with 21 seconds remaining.

I need no acknowledgement beyond the scoreboard. We're better, that's it. He didn't disrespect us so much as show his own ass.

[PHXCATS]

Sold points tonight. Expecting a blow out tonight.

[cats101]

I call him "Tad Pole". I give him two minutes into game before he starts flipping out.

Probably shorter than that since Arizona fans and Sean Miller help get Arizona to the FT line at McKale.

[PHXCATS]

Rawle might not be playing

[Beachcat97]

Rawle might not be playing

Even if he's out, think we're winning by 10+ tonight.

[TucsonClip]

Dusan Ristic

Im starting with him, because I thought that was one of the best games he has played his entire career. He was sound defensively, wasn’t a negative in ball screen coverage by any means, blocked a shot AND hand a thunderous dunk.

He rebounded well, his jumper was on, and CU couldn’t defend him man up. PLUS:

Play of the game – 12:53 2H

Ristic brings the ball up the floor because CU is cutting off Trier for the outlet (PJC on the bench). He immediately runs right into a DHO with Randolph. Next, he iso-posts on the wing with the weak side floor spaced. Randolph cuts away to give him more room to work. Ristic inside pivots to square up his man. Rip though and two dribble attack left to the elbow, drop step, chicken wing and under hand right layup. That might be one of the best moves hes ever pulled off. He was the player of the game, IMO.

Deandre Ayton

He was active on defense early. Did a great job covering for Ristic backside PNR, and then recovering back to his man, contesting the jumper and getting the board @ 16:05 1H. However, that would fade, which is pretty common.

First, he needs to get back in transition. Cant complain about no-calls and trot back. He really needs to work on seeing the floor better during the middle parts of the game and providing help. You can see him lose focus quite a bit during the middle parts. He comes out fierce and ready to go to start the games now, and we all know he dominates at the end of games. Im not going to get too much into his game, because offensively he struggled with the pressure and im making it a point not to break down anything against the retched zone defense we see.

Another item, and it might sound small but I dont think it is. Watch Ayton set screens and count how many he actually connects on. Spoiler: You wont tally very many.

Ending on a high note, his rim protection and shot blocking comes out more and more each game. Quite a sight to see, not to mention him going 12-12 at the line.

Brandon Randolph

His jumper just isn’t on, and only gets worse going off the dribble. He has a funky side release on the ball. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, he is struggling getting to the rim, finishing with contact (his slight frame right now), and instead is settling for pull up jumpers. Its ok to two dribble drive and kick.

I do think his defense is starting to come around, and he definitely isn’t as lost as he was early in the season.

Alonzo Trier

He is killing us on defense lately, and tonight was no exception. See the “Defensive Breakdown” section.

He was 1-5 from three is the first half, which is too many attempts from three. He obviously got the message, because he only took one in the second. For as bad as he was defensively, he was lethal in transition, yet again. When we are able to get stops and push the ball ahead, he reforms back into the Trier I want to see on the floor.

Nothing highlighted this better than our quick run to start the second half. A stop and defensive board led to the break push from PJC, drive kick out for an open Trier three (his only attempt of the 2H). Next possession was a CU turnover, PJC pass ahead to Trier, who bullied his way to the rim for a layup.

Dylan Smith

Cosz might say im claiming him as “my guy” now, but I enjoy what he brings to the table as a role player…….. When he freakin plays his role.

First, as I keep mentioning, he shouldn’t be creating. He telegraphs his passes way too much. He drives, gets nowhere, and then kicks to the next man in the chain. Problem is he is driving at his teammate, jump stopping, and looking at his man before he even makes the pass.

Luckily, he makes the right reads and rotations on defense, a good amount of the time. Hes usually pretty good tagging the roll man (sans the possession below in “Devensive Breakdowns” with the game on the line, plus is good helping and recovering. Again, another major Issue is he plays too tight on his man, gets his arms in the way, and it results in easy rip through fouls, shooting fouls on the arm, ect.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright

Thought he did a good job when in transition, but was basically invisible offensively in the half court. He definitely does help with the ball movement against a zone, but that was about it.

Defensively, Wright (or any guard he defends) knew/knows that even if PJC is level with him on a drive, he can easily finish over him. That was the case all night. He hit a clutch, bail out, end of shot clock three late, but he did not play well.

Emmanuel Akot

He was extremely active and quick laterally during his first few minutes, and that was also the case nearly the rest of the way. H still has an issue of just making silly passes. Has good vision, but hasn’t quite put it all together yet, passing wise. He has an easy lob to Ayton picked off because he threw it three feet short.

However, he had a few shining moments:

14:40 2H: Great probing drive under control from the wing. Beat his man recovering out to him going left, got to the elbow under control, waited for the middle of the zone to step to him and caught Lee on a dive for an easy drop off pass and layup. That is exactly what ive been talking about when busting zones. Attack under control, make a read and pass. That is also why the dead spot at the FT line needs to be occupied against a 2-3. Easy cut for a layup from Lee.

Miller put him in the game late for his defense, with CU going small, instead of Pinder or Lee. It paid off quite well.

:48 left 2H ATO (after time out): CU runs an elevator screen (sprint through a closing double screen to free up a three pointer) for King. Akot attaches to his hip immediately to trail him and busts through the elevator before CU could close the screen (plus Smith helping over top the elevator in case he got caught). This deters King, who was hot, from getting up the three. Play ends late in the shot clock with Ayton blocking a kick out three. Amazing defensive play, literally right after the three straight breakdowns listed below.

Really happy to see Akot make the most of his minutes. We need him defensively.

Defensive Breakdowns

18:32 1H: Terrible transition pick up. PJC calls for Smith to pick up the ball, but Wright passes to the wing. PJC does his job getting back, sinking, and picking up the ball. Problem was, it’s a wing and Ayton doesn’t communicate with PJC to kick him out off his man, back to Wright. Nobody is covering PJCs man in transition because Smith followed his man to the weak side wing. Only Ayton can see that hes there to cover for PJC. He HAS to yell at PJC to get out so the defense can recover.

13:11 1H: Trier with another error switching on defense (seems to be a common problem lately). High ball screen with Pinder playing coverage, level of the screen. Problem was, there was no actual ball screen and Trier didn’t even get hit. He went over, peeled off, Pinder picked up his “screener” on the dive, Trier tried switch, and Collier nails a wide up pull up three. TERRIBLE.

11:50 1H: Another blown transition assignment. Randolph takes a contested jumper and misses badly and stumbles into the CU bench. Akot was running through baseline and stayed on the block to go for the offensive rebound. Ristic is obviously pinned under the hoop, and Pinder went to the offensive glass as well. That leaves Trier alone bailing against a three man break, NOT GOOD. Trier doesn’t even try to stop ball, slides to Bey running down, right side of the lane, and Collier gets fouled at the rim by a chasing Pinder.

17:55 2H: Trier beat off a pinch post back cut ball side with four seconds left on the shot clock. An absolute killer to a good defensive possession.

Finally, here are the three straight blown defensive possessions down the stretch in last 4 minutes before the Akot play listed above:

1. Smith missed helping across the lane vs. Bey on the PNR dive. Jacobson broke it down just like I have all year. No idea what Smith was doing, because he needed to cover across the lane. This is the rotation ive been talking about with PJC helping backside from the corner across the lane on the PNR dive.

2. Next possession, PJC and Ayton switched the PNR. Bey recognized and immediately posted PJC up. Pinder didn’t want to leave King from the weak side corner three (for good reason), but PJC needed the help MUCH more. Pinder called for the goal tend on an easy layup. PJC had no chance without the help.

3. Ayton and Ristic are both standing top of the key waiting to pick up the same man in transition. They let King run right past them, Trier misses him as well and helps off the wing, but its too late. Easy dunk.

Colorado

CU ran a lot of the same two horns sets, with a few others here and there. One a dive and pop. The other a wing curl off the weak side elbow screen. UA defended it quite well in the second half. It also helps that CU doesn’t have the talent to make us pay like they used to with Scott and Johnson on those horns sets.

I thought CU did a great job with their ball movement. They were trying to shift us side to side, get someone out of position and then drive and kick. Pretty difficult to defend considering how quickly the ball moves, and King made us pay from three.

Ive mentioned before that smart coaches should/would run sets that lift our bigs into ball screens (such as horns sets), and isolate PJC as the weak-side wing defender in those sets. Reason being, we know in that coverage PJC has to help off his corner shooter all the way across the lane to cover the dive on the PNR. Well, CU is did something similar, but with their weave action instead.

The point of the weave is to lull your help defense, spring a guard or wing attacking off a screen, and hopefully freeing up a 1v1 drive to the rim. A great example of this:

9:55 2H: A basic weave set, but the attacker is going to be targeting PJC and running him off Ristic’s man top of the key. The key to this set is whomever Ayton is defending will slip to the corner from where the attacker is going to catch and drive off the weave.

In this case, it was the CU bench side. Two weaves have completed, Ayton’s man has slipped to the corner near the CU bench, and PJC’s man has the ball (CU bench wing). He attacks and rubs PJC off Ristic’s man top of the key and turns the corner. Even if PJC gets over the screen, he isn’t going to deter the bigger player driving to the rim. Ayton isn’t there to help, doesn’t even recognize it, and doesn’t try to help. Easy layup.

[qwertyus]

Wonderful breakdown TucsonClip, thanks very much for writing it!

Man, I wish we had rep here...

[YoDeFoe]

Clip you and I had the same notes on Ayton.

Hate that ppl questioned his motor or love for he game... but then you watch him ghost his screens and totally lose focus on weakside help defense through the meat of the game. Frustrating but hopeful when it really matters he engages fully. He’s such a better defensive player and rim protector too.

Again you note all of this, appreciate the notes.

[YoDeFoe]

And yes despite my adoration of Trier his defense was dogshit and it forces Ristic to cover for him and then recover... which against CU can work but against great talent is going to hurt us. Nothing new but so frustrating to see last night when Trier was so good on the other end.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Clip, great breakdown as always.

We were lost on the help side for most of the second half. There had to be at least 10 late, half hearted rotations with a token late swipe at the ball as it was shot, laid in or dunked. It was particularly disturbing how straightforward pick and rolls gashed us over and over.

Randolph is now 3 for 22 since Utah. He's learning in other areas, but his main asset has left him.

I was most interested that Miller seems to be experimenting with Akot as a 3-4 sub. In terms of solving the help side and rotation issues, you have to think Akot offers a potential upside as a sub, especially at the 4. As Clip noted, the amount of missed/late rotations Pinder has really pisses me off given that he's a senior. I can forgive a freshman like Lee, but not Pinder.

[zonagrad]

Clip, great breakdown as always.

We were lost on the help side for most of the second half. There had to be at least 10 late, half hearted rotations with a token late swipe at the ball as it was shot, laid in or dunked. It was particularly disturbing how straightforward pick and rolls gashed us over and over.

Randolph is now 3 for 22 since Utah. He's learning in other areas, but his main asset has left him.

I was most interested that Miller seems to be experimenting with Akot as a 3-4 sub. In terms of solving the help side and rotation issues, you have to think Akot offers a potential upside as a sub, especially at the 4. As Clip noted, the amount of missed/late rotations Pinder has really pisses me off given that he's a senior. I can forgive a freshman like Lee, but not Pinder.

Pinder was absolutely dreadful against CU. He was a second or two late to the spot on every rotation. For a senior coming off the bench, he has to know his #1 job is defense followed by rebounding. If he can't do either then what's the point of him playing?

[Gilbertcat]

I really hate the CU ASU basketball games. I legit don't know who to root for. Football no question but Rado since Xavier has me confused

[BBQ wildcat]

I really dislike Colorado (Boil), but my hate for ASsU surpasses that by light years. GO Buffs!

[scumdevils86]

yeah I hate Colorado basketball but nothing will bring me greater pleasure than seeing can't guard u dropped out of the tourney projections and the rankings this week with a loss tonight.