2024-25 Arizona Basketball

[Fishclamps]

I am most disappointed that Phillips wont be here. You can call him the 50th player in the country but I saw him shoot and he was as close to Salim as I have seen that committed to Arizona.

Yeah I wanted to see him in an Arizona uniform to. I think he'll end up being pretty good. I'm not sure what happened but if some podcaster/blogger ran him away, that's pretty fucked up

Seems like it really just came down to he was gonna end up having to redshirt his freshman season here.

We will never know but I think you are way off base. This guy is the scorer we always have needed and plays defense. He would be pushing to start by year-end. There is no way he would redshirt anywhere.

I mean if you listen to Scheer's podcast from last night he basically just says there weren't gonna be any minutes for him next year after they brought in Dell'Orso, and the staff is way higher on Dell'Orso than Phillips.

[Winger]

Yeah I wanted to see him in an Arizona uniform to. I think he'll end up being pretty good. I'm not sure what happened but if some podcaster/blogger ran him away, that's pretty fucked up

Seems like it really just came down to he was gonna end up having to redshirt his freshman season here.

We will never know but I think you are way off base. This guy is the scorer we always have needed and plays defense. He would be pushing to start by year-end. There is no way he would redshirt anywhere.

In taking Love over Phillips Lloyd has indirectly expressed concern over where the points are going to come from next season imo.

He prioritized a player with max 1 season left over a “top 50” recruit and that player, while better at Arizona than UNC, was not terribly efficient and was frankly horrible the last 6 or so games of the season. Historical data shows that players’ improvement in outside shooting decreases from year to year, every year, and Love has never been a very good shooter. Lloyd’s offense has never been one to rein in players and Love is high volume in addition to not being highly efficient. I can’t predict the future but the most likely outcome is you’re going to see basically the same Caleb Love you saw last season. Maybe he gets a little more action at the point and maybe Lloyd is able to continue the push to have him drive more and settle less but it is highly unlikely he is going to morph into a Steve Kerr.

Lloyd is a supremely confident college basketball coach but he appears to me to be concerned about where the points were going to come from without Love.

In a way I am not surprised he took him back (needed the points, not a hard ass, loves and believes he can develop everyone) but in another way I am.

TBD

IMNSHO, the strongest appearance is that Phillips does not believe he could effectively compete for PT with Love back on the team.

If so, he's probably correct, and, made the right choice to look elsewhere. And, if so, that's the best choice for Arizona, also.

Chances iyo that Lloyd took back Love without knowing that would mean no Phillips?

Meaning: Lloyd chose one over the other (that is what my post was getting at).

[Beachcat97]

I’ll take senior Love over freshman Phillips.

[PHXCATS]

If Luke got in a twitter fight with a parent he and PHNX need to get all their credentials removed immediately

[Merkin]

I'm glad he's back too, someone needs to put the ball in the basket. But tend to think like Winger, he is just going to lead us to heartbreak again.

Overall, Love was a 50% 2PT and 33% 3PT shooter last season. Look how much better he does with catch and shoot, and taking the ball to the hole. I like the old Lute rule, 2 passes before any 3 point shot.

How many of Love's 0-9 3PT attempts v. Clemson were on ball, and how many were catch and shoot?

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... n-chicago/

Love is fresh off the most efficient offensive season of his career. Love shot a shade under 60% at the rim at Arizona, by far the best of his four-year collegiate career. Love never topped 50% at the rim during his first three seasons at UNC. He expanded his effectiveness in pick-and-rolls, lowered his turnover rate, shot 40% on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and was a piece of Arizona's top-10 defense. Love's 5-for-18 shooting performance in Arizona's 77-72 loss to Clemson in the Sweet 16 sticks out like a sore thumb, but it shouldn't dissuade some of the progress Love showed.

[Chicat]

If Luke got in a twitter fight with a parent he and PHNX need to get all their credentials removed immediately

That would be a problematic response on a whole host of levels but sure. Get your panties all bunched up your butthole.

[Fishclamps]

It seems Phillips was gone once we took Dell'Orso, he lost that first off the bench spot.

[Beachcat97]

As our roster is getting clearer, I’m starting to think 3rd in the Big 12 is likely this team’s ceiling in 2024-25. Anything better than that and Tommy needs another raise.

[SCCats]

There’s gonna be an adjustment period.

At least, I assume there will be.

[TheCat]

I am most disappointed that Phillips wont be here. You can call him the 50th player in the country but I saw him shoot and he was as close to Salim as I have seen that committed to Arizona.

Yeah I wanted to see him in an Arizona uniform to. I think he'll end up being pretty good. I'm not sure what happened but if some podcaster/blogger ran him away, that's pretty fucked up

Seems like it really just came down to he was gonna end up having to redshirt his freshman season here.

We will never know but I think you are way off base. This guy is the scorer we always have needed and plays defense. He would be pushing to start by year-end. There is no way he would redshirt anywhere.

I mean if you listen to Scheer's podcast from last night he basically just says there weren't gonna be any minutes for him next year after they brought in Dell'Orso, and the staff is way higher on Dell'Orso than Phillips.

Not sure Scheer knows what he is taking about since neither have been in Arizona's offense. I guarantee you he would have gotten minutes. Think KJ build but with a good/great shot.

[Fishclamps]

That's not the argument, the argument was his camp felt he shouldn't have to compete for that first bench spot. The problem is Tommy is super high on Dell'Orso, so he wasn't just gonna guarantee a freshman those minutes.

He's also had a bad season so far this year so his stock has kinda dropped.

[Merkin]

But can Dell'Orso defend the quicker and stronger B12 guards?

Read elsewhere he is a little slow of foot, but have not seen him play.

Good take on his offense:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNnpBW1g08o

[Fishclamps]

Oh I know absolutely nothing about him other than he's a shooter and Tommy really really wanted him.

Edit: I should add losing Phillips definitely bummed me out, and I hope he does well at USC. I think he has the potential but he was always gonna be a little bit of a project player.

[Winger]

That's not the argument, the argument was his camp felt he shouldn't have to compete for that first bench spot. The problem is Tommy is super high on Dell'Orso, so he wasn't just gonna guarantee a freshman those minutes.

If it's all about D'O why did Phillips wait until shortly after Love announced his return to decommit?

As a side bar, I am surprised that a player like D'O would chase Phillips off.

[Fishclamps]

I would guess that one of Dell'Orso/Love coming back not that big a deal, but with both being here it cuts the available minutes drastically.

[Abrahamarvel]

Boy ASU put up quite a class

[AZCatGirl]

Boy ASU put up quite a class

Just going to make the Netflix documentary that much more hilarious to watch when they fail to live up to expectations.

[TucsonClip]

I'm not nearly as high on Dell'Orso as the apparent word coming out of the program. Hes more skilled than Bal, and a n actual fit at G compared to Boro.

I would not be relying on him to cover all our minutes though. Huge step up in competition, he isn't a good defender, and he's not exactly quick or athletic. I need to see him play in Tucson before I have a firm take, but I'm not sold what I saw at Campbell translates fully.

[Postmaster]

Didn’t we have someone else from Campbell?

I thought Phillips was supposed to be the best shooter since Blavender. AZ really needs people that can shoot.

[Fishclamps]

Didn’t we have someone else from Campbell?

I thought Phillips was supposed to be the best shooter since Blavender. AZ really needs people that can shoot.

Thats why they got Dell'Orso.

[UAEebs86]

Didn’t we have someone else from Campbell?

I thought Phillips was supposed to be the best shooter since Blavender. AZ really needs people that can shoot.

Cedric Henderson back in 23-24.

[ChooChooCat]

Didn’t we have someone else from Campbell?

I thought Phillips was supposed to be the best shooter since Blavender. AZ really needs people that can shoot.

Can Phillips shoot? Yes. He also shot way the hell too much. He was a bit of a chucker and he also hasn't played organized basketball in a year to off the court issues and hasn't looked up to snuff since he's finally gotten back on the court. Phillips wasn't going to play next year and his camp didn't want to deal with a redshirt year. It is what it is.

[TheCat]

That's not the argument, the argument was his camp felt he shouldn't have to compete for that first bench spot. The problem is Tommy is super high on Dell'Orso, so he wasn't just gonna guarantee a freshman those minutes.

He's also had a bad season so far this year so his stock has kinda dropped.

My contention is no one had to guarantee him anything. He was going to play because of ability. I don't know anything about Dell'Orso so maybe what you say is true but that means we got a great team coming.

[pc in NM]

That's not the argument, the argument was his camp felt he shouldn't have to compete for that first bench spot. The problem is Tommy is super high on Dell'Orso, so he wasn't just gonna guarantee a freshman those minutes.

He's also had a bad season so far this year so his stock has kinda dropped.

My contention is no one had to guarantee him anything. He was going to play because of ability. I don't know anything about Dell'Orso so maybe what you say is true but that means we got a great team coming.

If one believes that they are "Arizona Good", they will not be deterred from a commitment because of concerns over playing time.

Arizona fans should only desire athletes who believe that they are "Arizona Good".

"Arizona Good" earns PT, and does not require a "free pass" to PT.

That's all there is to say.

[Postmaster]

This is why I have a love hate relationship with “recruiting “. You get excited about incoming talent and then they leave or can’t make the jump.

I remember one year there was so much hype that Lute was bringing in a stud at each position. This was first year I started hearing about recruiting. We were getting a sharpshooter named Joe McLean.

Dell’Orso is too long of a name to have an apostrophe in the middle.

[Fishclamps]

Didn’t we have someone else from Campbell?

I thought Phillips was supposed to be the best shooter since Blavender. AZ really needs people that can shoot.

Can Phillips shoot? Yes. He also shot way the hell too much. He was a bit of a chucker and he also hasn't played organized basketball in a year to off the court issues and hasn't looked up to snuff since he's finally gotten back on the court. Phillips wasn't going to play next year and his camp didn't want to deal with a redshirt year. It is what it is.

There you go everyone, Choo said exactly what I said except he's more plugged in so maybe you'll all finally believe it and this can be settled.

I hope the kid does well and proves us all wrong, and I wish he would have stayed, but it just wasn't meant to be.

[84Cat]

[CalStateTempe]

Gross

What the hell is the footprint center?

[UAEebs86]

Gross

What the hell is the footprint center?

The new name for the Suns arena.

[PHXCATS]

Gross

What the hell is the footprint center?

Hahahaha

[TheCatInTheHat]

A group of boosters should buy the tickets behind the basket next to UCLA's bench, give them to the Zona Zoo, charter a bus, and send them to the game, just so we can watch Baldy's head explode.

[84Cat]

Do we know if everyone is on campus yet?

[84Cat]

Because it's the off season

[84Cat]

[azgreg]

[wyo-cat]

[Fishclamps]

We only play away at Kansas this year? Fuck that garbage.

[Chicat]

We only play away at Kansas this year? Fuck that garbage.

1-0 will feel great but 2-0 would of course have felt better.

[PHXCATS]

Trash conference

[Chicat]

Trash conference

Bad fan

[dovecanyoncat]

Trash conference

Bad fan

Small dick energy.

[wyo-cat]

Trash conference

Trash fan.

[Merkin]

[TheCatInTheHat]

What follows is a consolidation of the too-early rankings from newspapers in Oklahoma City, Lubbock, Salt Lake, our buddy in San Jose, and Sports Illustrated. In some cases, it was post-Ballo, but pre-Love, along with some other events. Regardless, the relatively easier days of Pac-12 hoops are over, and this won't be the Big XII version of Arizona vs UCLA, only with Kansas replacing the Bruins. It'll be season-long war with a lot of big battles (some of which we'll win) and probably some shell-shocked fans as we step up in men's basketball competition.

Houston
Kansas
Baylor
Iowa St
Arizona
Cincinnati
BYU
TCU
Kansas St
Texas Tech
Colorado
West Virginia
UCF
ASU
Utah
Oklahoma St

[Alieberman]

Trash conference

Totally… who would want to be in a conference who gets 9 teams into the tournament when you can play in a league that gets 2-3

[UAdevil]

Trash conference

If this is gonna be your schtick going forward you may as well hit the road right now.

[CalStateTempe]

Houston at home?

Home and home with Baylor

At Allen FH the first season….at Cincinnati?

Fuck yeah I’m loving this line up.

Gotta build up the marriage political currency and hopefully I’ll be at Allen Fieldhouse for that game. Got earn it to spend it…

[UAdevil]

Hope to make the @KU game. The wife is a Jayhawk alum and has been itching to show me her favorite haunts in Lawrence.

[wyo-cat]

Trash conference

If this is gonna be your schtick going forward you may as well hit the road right now.

Right. This is the best basketball conference and it’s not even close. Like 6 of the preseason top 10 are in the B12.

Def not trash.

[dovecanyoncat]

Trash conference

Totally… who would want to be in a conference who gets 9 teams into the tournament when you can play in a league that gets 2-3

Obviousy Machina thinks the B12 is gonna get an upgrade in Bobby Hurley.