Bear Down Wildcats

It is 100% 4:35 ARIZONA time

Well, at least not a 11:30pm start for old man ECC.

I do like starting on Friday- it means we have at least 1 full day Thursday to just watch and enjoy the tournament without anxiety or feeling depressed that our team is out!

I like that a lot of people are picking Akron. I think the Cats will win by 15-20 points.

Nice to have a Gumby siting. Haven't heard about him since I left Twitter.

I like that we play late on Friday. Let all of the upsets occur before us.

g32knights wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 10:26 am I like that a lot of people are picking Akron. I think the Cats will win by 15-20 points.

Honestly I don't think people will be picking the Cats no matter how far we go. That bodes well for the team's psyche.

Akron played 4 NCAA Tournament teams, going 2-2, which was the home/road split of those games, winning only at home. They also lost to 4 more teams, all on the road. My takeaway to the "they play fast" bit is that against better competition, they only put up big numbers in those 2 games that were at home. In the 2 home wins against the better teams, they averaged 95 ppg. In the 6 losses, it was only 71 ppg. They seem to have a good home court advantage. (Maybe a Zipper Of Distraction?)

Trivia: Akron's mascot is a kangaroo. But the nickname came from the local B.F. Goodrich factory, which incorporated the "slide fastener" (invented earlier elsewhere) in their rubber overshoes, which they named "The Zipper Boot." So that's where the name for the fastener originated, and it was then taken as the nickname for the local college's teams.

I did see one of the pundits pick us to get past Duke. I think it was on the show with Pastner, last night.

The early bets have gone towards the Zips. Line has shrank from 15.5 to as low as 13.5

More awards:

Do we have a time for Sunday's game yet?

Alieberman wrote: Fri Mar 21, 2025 8:20 pm Do we have a time for Sunday's game yet?

It'll be released near the end of the Oregon game.

It's the return of Pac 12 After Dark.

Sundays line up is the tits

I was very happy for Baylor. Lots of injuries this year but kept on playing.

KJ needs to lock up Shellfish or whatever his name is.

EastCoastCat wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 6:35 am KJ needs to lock up Shellfish or whatever his name is.

I agree with this, that was a glaring flaw in Liberty's game plan. They had no one that could even make him uncomfortable.

Oregon brought a lot of their dudes back. Assume that is NIL-related. Team has experience playing with each other and for Altman. Who is good at designing and calling offensive sets to get his guys the shots he wants. Which means: ADO and Townsend are in more trouble. I don’t think ADO could have played worse yesterday and his presence in Arizona’s lineup continues to baffle me and this would be a good game to not concede 5-8 points at the beginning of each half and start someone else.

Game may come down to Arizona’s D vs the Ducks’ O.

Was bummed to see Miller/X go down. I am on record that folks shouldn’t have expected Miller to “kill it” at X because it isn’t nearly the same situation but I have been surprised at how not good his first teams have been. Last season the excuse his apologists made for the losses was “injuries”. Not sure what they were saying this season. Next season is a big one for him. If X isn’t Top 25 and ranked all season the writing will be on the wall imo.

Lot of blowouts 1st round. More than I remember. If that is the case I am not certain what that says. Maybe nothing. In this era (NIL + free transfer) I expected to see more parity and different teams having success and the blowouts seem to not fit that narrative.

Hard to pick upsets but I think folks calling for the Zips over Arizona understood neither team this season.

Curious if Texas offers their job to Miller. Rumor is he might be considered and behind him is CTL. Guess we will see how loyal Lloyd is this off season with a couple of marquee jobs opening up

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:30 am Curious if Texas offers their job to Miller. Rumor is he might be considered and behind him is CTL. Guess we will see how loyal Lloyd is this off season with a couple of marquee jobs opening up

I'm definitely concerned about CTL fleeing to greener pastures.

What if Texas (or another B1G/SEC school) offers to double his salary with a huge NIL fund and revenue sharing that he'll never have at the UA???

Might be too much for CTL to pass up.

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:30 am Curious if Texas offers their job to Miller. Rumor is he might be considered and behind him is CTL. Guess we will see how loyal Lloyd is this off season with a couple of marquee jobs opening up

Stop the Lloyd leaving paranoia! His parents and in laws just moved to Tucson and BOUGHT places. The Lloyds are hunkering down

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:30 am Curious if Texas offers their job to Miller. Rumor is he might be considered and behind him is CTL. Guess we will see how loyal Lloyd is this off season with a couple of marquee jobs opening up

If I’m CTL, I’m taking any interest in me to Desiree and telling her we need to up our game on all fronts, but especially NIL, to keep me. But I wouldn’t take a job at a football-first school. He’s never had to be second banana, and I wouldn’t want to start now.

But all that being said, I haven’t seen any Lloyd rumors outside of a few hopeful fans.

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:30 am Curious if Texas offers their job to Miller. Rumor is he might be considered and behind him is CTL. Guess we will see how loyal Lloyd is this off season with a couple of marquee jobs opening up

Not happening, but Del Conte would be in a world of shit from all his friends lol

The rumors are so fun though. How worried should Kansas be?

Going back to Wingers analysis, if ADO couldn’t play against Akron, he can’t play against anyone left in this tournament

It would be too bad if Sean Miller left for Texas. Xavier gave him another chance when his chips were down.

And I agree that I can’t see Tommy leaving for Texas.

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:03 am Going back to Wingers analysis, if ADO couldn’t play against Akron, he can’t play against anyone left in this tournament

Agree with Winger. ADO was a disaster in the first half and barely passable in the second half.

He’s the only player I’ve seen this season where commenters are literally saying he’s bad. It wasn’t just yesterday but during some of the B12 games too.

We can’t afford to go down 5-8 points at the start of the game against Oregon. Those guys thrive on momentum and it could escalate quickly.

Djcat wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:03 am It would be too bad if Sean Miller left for Texas. Xavier gave him another chance when his chips were down.

And I agree that I can’t see Tommy leaving for Texas.

Yeah, I would be shocked if Tommy or Sean jumped right now

Djcat wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:07 am

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:03 am Going back to Wingers analysis, if ADO couldn’t play against Akron, he can’t play against anyone left in this tournament

Agree with Winger. ADO was a disaster in the first half and barely passable in the second half.

He’s the only player I’ve seen this season where commenters are literally saying he’s bad. It wasn’t just yesterday but during some of the B12 games too.

We can’t afford to go down 5-8 points at the start of the game against Oregon. Those guys thrive on momentum and it could escalate quickly.

I think Tommy was trying to save our guards for the 2nd half because ADO didn't play much in the 2nd half if I remember correctly

I could be wrong but CTL doesn’t seem the type to jump around. Hell, he was an assistant at Gonzaga for 20 years.

And hasn’t most of his family moved to Tucson too? He has said multiple times he and his family love Tucson and we know he respects the history of Arizona basketball and is honored to coach such a storied program.

Also, I think CTL prefers coaching at a basketball school and that wouldn’t be the case at UT.

He’s a small town kind of guy and I think Tucson and the U of A program is the perfect fit for him both personally and professionally.

IMO, if he were to leave it would be more about the University doing something he couldn’t live with.

Bold prediction- ADO will still be starting and as long as we continue in the tournament

For the record we were up 5 when ADO got subbed out

Alieberman wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:12 am Bold prediction- ADO will still be starting and as long as we continue in the tournament

For the record we were up 5 when ADO got subbed out

True but the level of competition is going to be drastically different tomorrow

Not that Lloyd would leave, he won't, but you can make darn sure his agent is out there stirring things up.

How many coaches make noises about leaving just to get a raise?

Look at Barnes with the WBB program when it was leaked Auburn had interest. On the hot seat, and now the UA has her back.

I certainly think his minutes will diminish each game but he’s going to start

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:03 am Going back to Wingers analysis, if ADO couldn’t play against Akron, he can’t play against anyone left in this tournament

There have been very few teams he could play against this year. He needs a total reset on his game next year if we want to do anything of significance with him getting significant minutes.

Alieberman wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:12 am Bold prediction- ADO will still be starting and as long as we continue in the tournament

For the record we were up 5 when ADO got subbed out

Yep, Tommy won’t be changing his stripes. But I predict ADO’s minutes will reduce to the 12-15 minute range versus 20+ like last night.

TT has been playing a lot better as of late and had a tremendous game last night. Hope he keeps his momentum going

Last night he played quite a bit in the 2nd half but I think it was because Tommy pulled KJ for playing out of control and wanted to sit him.

Not sure why he wasn’t using a combo of CB and TT as replacement for KJ.

Speaking of bold prediction, I don’t think ADO will be on the team next year.

Let Tommy coach

So we played 15 guys yesterday and I think the only player who didn’t get in was DRF’s son.

It's the eight-man rotation that IS Arizona basketball this year.

There will be different PT allocations in each game we play - I trust CTL's decisions completely.

Oregon is not nearly as good as TTU, UH or ISU in isolating defenders. ADO nor TT will be exposed like they were vs UH in the Big-12 tourney.

ADO led the team in assists last night, he made contributions. He was in no way a liability worth mentioning in that game.

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:45 am So we played 15 guys yesterday and I think the only player who didn’t get in was DRF’s son.

Apparently there is a rule you can only suit up 15.

Chicat wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:57 am

azcat49 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:30 am Curious if Texas offers their job to Miller. Rumor is he might be considered and behind him is CTL. Guess we will see how loyal Lloyd is this off season with a couple of marquee jobs opening up

If I’m CTL, I’m taking any interest in me to Desiree and telling her we need to up our game on all fronts, but especially NIL, to keep me. But I wouldn’t take a job at a football-first school. He’s never had to be second banana, and I wouldn’t want to start now.

But all that being said, I haven’t seen any Lloyd rumors outside of a few hopeful fans.

i wonder if this is generally true now. in the prior era of college sports, i remember chatter about football-first schools being kind of a cushy landing spot for basketball coaches due to the combination of money and relatively low fan expectations. guys like shaka smart and maybe rick barnes, to a degree, could sort of do their thing and fly under the radar without their seat getting too hot. it's kind of wild that the calculus may have swung the other way - as someone posted in another thread, high-level basketball coaches might now find basketball-first schools advantageous since they don't have football sucking away athletic funds & resources like a gigantic black hole.

as for self, i think there's a very very slim chance he leaves ku for another coaching job. dude has tenure and a fat salary in lawrence, and can recruit off of the school's rep and facilities alone. why mess with a good thing? if i'm texas though, i'd remind him of the texas one collective and that mbb has a GM to deal with all the NIL and pay-to-play stuff. show self that you'll get the bitter taste of "the business of college basketball" out of his mouth and jack up the risk-reward proposition.

dirtbags wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 12:16 pm i wonder if this is generally true now. in the prior era of college sports, i remember chatter about football-first schools being kind of a cushy landing spot for basketball coaches due to the combination of money and relatively low fan expectations. guys like shaka smart and maybe rick barnes, to a degree, could sort of do their thing and fly under the radar without their seat getting too hot. it's kind of wild that the calculus may have swung the other way - as someone posted in another thread, high-level basketball coaches might now find basketball-first schools advantageous since they don't have football sucking away athletic funds & resources like a gigantic black hole.

Since schools can now start paying students this year, and schools can allocate the money as they wish, or not at all. I read that some major football school is allocating 85% towards their football program. But with new roster limits of 105 for CFB, and 15 for MBB. that's pretty close. Believe the SEC has said they are leaving scholarship limits at 85, although all athletes are now eligible for scholarships.

azcat49 wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 4:02 pm The early bets have gone towards the Zips. Line has shrank from 15.5 to as low as 13.5

Fn genius.

TheCat wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 3:07 pm

azcat49 wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 4:02 pm The early bets have gone towards the Zips. Line has shrank from 15.5 to as low as 13.5

Fn genius.

It's kinda crazy how many people make these crazy bets when they haven't watched college ball all year.

I think it is the pro's just floating shit to lower the line then they bet. Also the stupid media trying to simply drum up interest in their product.

Yep, Vegas got fat on that one. Looks like early money is on Oregon so let’s get Vegas fat again