Official 2006 Arizona Wildcats Basketball Thread

[PAQ77]

Cats destroyed Houston last night setting up a big game against anothwer C-USA foe in Memphis on Wednesday, which if anyone cares I'll be at McKale for. Should be an interesting game as Memphis is one of the few teams in the country and the only opponent thus far this season that can match Arizona's athleticism.

That's gonna be a great game. Up and down the floor all night long. Looking forward to it... It'll be the first big test before we get into conference play.

 

[Mulli]

UofA will get crushed tonight because Stoops is stoopid.

ASU fan.


kidding

 

[Chaplin]

Good win tonight, we're looking more and more dangerous as the season goes on.

 

[PAQ77]

Great win tonight... Memphis is no pushover, especially since Calipari took over as coach. We're starting to run on all cylinders as we begin Pac10 play. Should be a fun season as the Pac is one of the tougher conferences in the country this year.

 

[Lefty]

Cats go 9-1 on the non-conference schedule! I thought they woud lose 3 games before the Pac-10 season. Glad I was wrong. The Pac-10 looks to be pretty tought with UCLA, Washington, Oregon, USC and even Washington State being tough.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Nice game for Mustafa last night. As we have seen repeatedly over the last three years, when Shakur plays well the Cats are one of the five best teams in the country and when he plays poorly they are merely average. Staf has a shot for redemeption this season, let's hope he takes advantage of it.

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI Prince has officially announced he's transferring, hasn't said where yet said he'll go home to Memphis first and then consider his options.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

After Wise beat him out for the backup PG role, Prince was essentially as good as gone with Bayless coming in next year. Good luck to him wherever he goes, he had a chance last year to take the reigns from Shakur but blew it with a half-ass work ethic so he has nobody to blame but himself.

 

[Renz]

FYI Prince has officially announced he's transferring, hasn't said where yet said he'll go home to Memphis first and then consider his options.

He'll probably end up at Vanderbilt.

 

[Mrh182]

Great game today... though the bench was just ugly to watch during slop time.

And I wish Fendi got more time

 

[Lefty]

Cats played extremely well until the guys at the end of the bench came in. Shakur is doing everything the Cat fans have been waiting for.

 

[Lefty]

Cats beat a gamed Stanford team. Mustafa Shakur is really proving he made the right decision in returning for his senior year. If he continues to play like he has, he will be playing in the NBA next year.

 

[boondockdrunk]

FYI Prince has officially announced he's transferring, hasn't said where yet said he'll go home to Memphis first and then consider his options.

I saw him on campus once, and he might be the skinniest person this side of Calista Flockhart. This wasn't really a surprise at all. He never really got any playing time and when he did, it rarely warranted more. If he goes to Vanderbilt, he really should not find it hard to get a spot in their rotation.

Cats beat a gamed Stanford team. Mustafa Shakur is really proving he made the right decision in returning for his senior year. If he continues to play like he has, he will be playing in the NBA next year.

His shooting technique has a number of scouts worried. It would be easy to block in the NBA, but he is most likely going to be a middle-second round pick in the next draft.

 

[boondockdrunk]

I might just be nitpicking, but something that I find disconcerting about this team so far is the lack of production out of the bench. Maybe it is the fact that Walters didn’t start the season healthy or that the starting line-up is playing well, but I would like to see the bench get more involved in the games. One of the keys to having a deep run throughout the college season (not just March Madness) is having a deep team. Arizona really hasn’t shown their bench to be anything special; only two non-starters have averaged over 10 minutes a game (Dillon and Wise). In addition, the highest scorers, other than the starters, are only averaging 2.9 points/game. I do not know about anyone else, but I would really like to see Jordan Hill and Freddie Onobun get more minutes.

Also, if we are to be a better team, we need an enhanced inside presence. Ivan Radenovic has been playing very well for us this year, as he leads the team in scoring (17.5) and 3 point shooting (52.9%), yet he is not a dominating post player. Other than Hill, the only person who has the body to be a good inside presence is Mohamed Tangara. I would like to see him get more time at working on his post skills during the game, even if the game is a blow-out. Most of the Arizona players seem that they could be thrown around by stronger players.

 

[Lefty]

His shooting technique has a number of scouts worried. It would be easy to block in the NBA, but he is most likely going to be a middle-second round pick in the next draft.

He has changed his shooting form the last couple of years. Mustafa started to alter his shot after his freshman year. Lute was even quoted a while ago how much of an improvement his shooting has been since his first year.

 

[Russ Smith]

He has changed his shooting form the last couple of years. Mustafa started to alter his shot after his freshman year. Lute was even quoted a while ago how much of an improvement his shooting has been since his first year.

It's true, but he's still not a good jumpshooter. When he was at the camps for the NBA that's all you read online, can't shoot, can't run a halfcourt offense. Seems to have vastly improved the latter, but we'll see on his shooting, right now he looks great 53% overall, 42% on 3's, if he can hold that up all year he'll have greatly improved.

I feel happy for the kid he obviously wasn't happy in college, the rumors were he was telling scouts that Lute held him back in college with the system and really nonsensical comments like that, but he came back, and now so far is making it work.

 

[Lefty]

Cats with a big win at Washington. UofA was down 14 and stormed back and won by 9.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Great win for the Cats although the bench was horrific again. UW had their backs against the wall and the Husky faithful was rocking for the Pac-10 opener and Top 10 team and we just flat out beat them.
Can't have a letdown in Pullman though, Wazzu is no joke this year.

 

[Russ Smith]

Great win for the Cats although the bench was horrific again. UW had their backs against the wall and the Husky faithful was rocking for the Pac-10 opener and Top 10 team and we just flat out beat them.
Can't have a letdown in Pullman though, Wazzu is no joke this year.

Yep UCLA and USC kind of exposed UW and UA did even moreso, UW plays very poor defense especially in transition. How does a team shoot 65% from the floor for a game, over 50% from 3 on you?

Even when UW was up 16 guys on bruinzone were saying UA will win because it was obvious UW wasn't playing any better defense against UA than they did against us and we knew UA was too explosive.

Boy the UCLA/ UA game is going to be a blast, I can't wait, totally contrasting styles of offense but UCLA is much more uptempo this year and not as good at interior defense as they were last year. Should be a great game to watch.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

As marginal as Arizona is defensively, UW is awful. Hawes is useless on the defensive end (no college 7 footer should only have 5 boards in 30 minutes against a small team like Arizona) and Appleby can't cover his own shadow. UW fans are blaming the zone on Arizona's outburst in the second half, but they fail to realize we scored just as much against their man defense in the first.

That being said, Arizona looks much like last year's Villanova team to me. With Shakur hitting from outside at a serviceable rate, you really can't leave anybody open and expect to get away with it. And even if they are covered these guys are good enough to put points on the board. The UCLA game should be interesting but as long as Shakur plays fine then I like our chances. He was awful in all three games against UCLA last year. And games like that are where Arizona point guards need to be making their money.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

where Arizona point guards need to be making their money.

So true....

 

[abomb]

This Wa St game is insane.

Cats down 3 intentionally foul Stanford. The kid misses both.

Cats drain a 3.

Tie game 67-67. 8.5 rem.

 

[abomb]

Ot.

 

[Absolute Zero]

Looks like Cats going down in OT. Wow. Correction, 3:16 left, plenty of time.

 

[Absolute Zero]

Cats down 2, 13 seconds left. Hey, where is everyone?