Cats vs. Crusaders

[carey]

I watched it on ESPNU last night here in the South.

I didn't take much away from the game other than the obvious stuff. The Cats are going to miss Williams a hell of a lot. I know it's only the first game of the season but there is no go-to scorer yet. I doubt we'll see one until mid-season.

I was impressed by Kyle Fogg. 5-7 for 16 points, one turnover.

Perry played really hard as well. 7-10 for 14 points & 10 rebounds.

Kyryl was terrible. I expected good things when I heard about him coming in, working hard, and losing the weight he had gained. Then I saw him play tonight. Just awful. He almost fouled out with 0 points and 4 rebounds. He needs to be a whole lot better.

I expected Hill to make a little bigger jump this year. 2-6 for 8 points and 4 rebounds, but 4 turnovers! No bueno for the big guy. He needs to improve.

Obviously we're going to need Turner to be much better, but I thought he was fairly aggressive when others weren't. 1-6 for 7 points and 1 assist. Sometimes I forget that these highly touted kids are just Freshmen in College.

Hopefully I'll be able to see a lot more games here this year, but you never know what ESPNU is going to air.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Kyryl Walters is garbage. We need Parrom back so we can play Solo at PF with Perry at the five and then obviously Turner/NJ/Chol to grow into themselves and we'll be fine.

 

[TJ]

Looks like Sidiki Johnson has lost favor with Miller.

Sean Miller

"Hopefully he can work to get better, but I'm not counting on it."

I didnt watch the game, but I heard he took some ill-advised shots and played a whopping one minute. I also heard he has not been taking practice and preparation seriously. Can anyone corroborate?

 

[Russ Smith]

I think so far the take away is interesting. Miller's comments seem to imply that Turner will play more than Mayes going forward he's just learning the system. The thing is you've played 3 games(1 real) and UA has been better with Mayes on the floor in all 3. Turner has more talent and is a natural 1, even mayes admits he's a shooter not a passer, but so far the team is better with mayes. I don't think that lasts but it's an interesting comment he's clearly convinced Turner's upside is higher so we'll take some lumps now so he's ready later. Gutty.

he's already talking about shortening his rotation, again gutty most coaches don't talk about it that early because kids who get left out aren't happy.

Sidiki comment is interesting but I don't know the background.

Miller seems to have already decided the best lineup is what mao talked about Parrom at the 3, Hill at the 4 and Perry playing 5. When parrom is back of course, but that's a really small lineup. He clearly likes chol so you can assume he's in the rotation and they'll deal with youthful mistakes because of the upside over Kyryl and Sidiki. Will be interesting how far he can go with that small a team but not like Butler was huge the last 2 years.

I like that he's willing to commit to Turner even if it's not the best lineup now. many coaches don't do that and you get Roll playing twice the minutes of a freshman Westbrook or probably Anderson playing way more than Powell this year.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Looks like Sidiki Johnson has lost favor with Miller.

I didnt watch the game, but I heard he took some ill-advised shots and played a whopping one minute. I also heard he has not been taking practice and preparation seriously. Can anyone corroborate?

He'll be gone by the the end of the calendar year. There's a reason we loaded up on two power forwards and a center in 2012 when we already have Chol. And let's be honest here - for the most part at Arizona Miller will be getting better players than he got at Xavier. Sidiki, much like Alex Jacobsen, Brendon Lavender, and Kyle Fogg are relics from a not-so-distant past when the Arizona program simply needed bodies.

 

[carey]

How does that work? Can they just jettison players after they've already given them a scholarship? Do they stay at school & at least get to finish their education? Or are you assuming they will get frustrated and transfer somewhere where they can play?

I've often wondered this because it seems like they recruit four or five players every year and obviously those numbers don't add up. I guess it's obvious that I don't really stay on top of recruiting or really know how the whole system works, but I am curious.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

How does that work? Can they just jettison players after they've already given them a scholarship? Do they stay at school & at least get to finish their education? Or are you assuming they will get frustrated and transfer somewhere where they can play?

I've often wondered this because it seems like they recruit four or five players every year and obviously those numbers don't add up. I guess it's obvious that I don't really stay on top of recruiting or really know how the whole system works, but I am curious.

I don't think Sidiki wants to be here anymore than Miller wants him here at this point. It will end up being a mutual decision.

 

[Russ Smith]

How does that work? Can they just jettison players after they've already given them a scholarship? Do they stay at school & at least get to finish their education? Or are you assuming they will get frustrated and transfer somewhere where they can play?

I've often wondered this because it seems like they recruit four or five players every year and obviously those numbers don't add up. I guess it's obvious that I don't really stay on top of recruiting or really know how the whole system works, but I am curious.

There are coaches who just flat run kids off, Calipari does it, Tim Floyd was notorious for doing it.

What most coaches do is tell the kid look we'll honor your scholarship, but I don't see you playing much. You have to be honest most schools play at most 9-10 kids, so the idea that this kid is killing your program by taking up 1 ride when you have 13 isn't usually true. If the kid wants to stay at that school you honor it but in many cases the kid still wants to play so he ends up transferring.

There's nothing wrong with that approach it's the most common one.