UA & Pac-12 Basketball Thread

[Mulli]

Woo hoo, good job, Cats!

 

[Cheesebeef]

nice W for the Cats today. After a down year last year, Miller's rebounded pretty well with a Sweet 16 run and maybe more. i gotta say, I'm not overly impressed with Ohio State... or the Zags for that matter. Zona might have a Final Four run in them.

 

[Lefty]

Another Sweet 16! For all the crap Lyons gets, he sure had a big game. When Harvard made that little run early in the 2nd half, Mark made some tough baskets. If they can keep the defense intensity up, you never know how far they can go.

Btw, don't know if it's true but rumor has it that Aaron Gordon told Sean Miller he will commit to the Cats.

 

[TJ]

Another Sweet 16! For all the crap Lyons gets, he sure had a big game. When Harvard made that little run early in the 2nd half, Mark made some tough baskets. If they can keep the defense intensity up, you never know how far they can go.

Btw, don't know if it's true but rumor has it that Aaron Gordon told Sean Miller he will commit to the Cats.

Someone affiliated with UW tweeted out that Gordon gave his verbal to Miller, already.

Waiting for it to come from the horse's mouth. Even if he's already decided, theres still time between now and the McDonalds game for him to change his mind....or someone to give him some $100 handshakes.

97Cats from GoAZCats has been implying that Gordon is coming to Zona. He has a good pulse on the team, so take that for what it's worth.

 

[ProdigalSun]

sweet 16...nice!

 

[AzStevenCal]

Arizona is still undefeated when Pac 12 officials are not involved. Probably a coincidence, but...who knows.

Steve

 

[jw7]

Mark Lyons won this game for the 'cats.

He is nowhere on any NBA draft radar, but he seemed to harass any Harvard comeback with a drive and layup.

 

[carey]

Any info on Jerett's injury?

 

[TJ]

Any info on Jerett's injury?

X-Ray today or Monday

 

[Lefty]

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1514171/solomonslam_medium.gif

 

[Gee!]

http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1514171/solomonslam_medium.gif

Thats awesome

 

[gmabel830]

Howland out at UCLA.

 

[AzStevenCal]

nice W for the Cats today. After a down year last year, Miller's rebounded pretty well with a Sweet 16 run and maybe more. i gotta say, I'm not overly impressed with Ohio State... or the Zags for that matter. Zona might have a Final Four run in them.

I'm not sure why. They are top 10 in just about every ranking, rating or index and they're top 5 in most of them. They haven't lost a game to a single non-tourney team and their only non-conference losses were against Duke and Kansas and they were competitive in both (led most of the game at Duke when the Dookies were healthy). They are riding a 10 game winning streak right now that includes wins against Michigan State (twice), Wisconsin (twice), Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. This is a very good Ohio State team.

Steve

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Ohio State is really good. Just going to be if we can outsize them or their speed gets the best of us.

 

[TJ]

Fortunately, this game is being played in L.A. Will be a Wildcat home game, essentially. Team needs to limit its turnovers if it wants to win this one.

I got my tix last night. Sitting behind the basket 15 rows up. Stoked.

 

[ProdigalSun]

If the Cats don't make it all the way...I'm rooting for Florida Gulf Coast to win it all

 

[gmabel830]

If the Cats don't make it all the way...I'm rooting for Florida Gulf Coast to win it all

I'm rooting for Florida Gulf Coast regardless!!

They are a really fun team.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think he's a good coach when he's working with true student athletes but he doesn't really benefit commensurately from the kind of talent that a school such as UCLA can bring in. Yeah be might not go all the way back to the NAU level but I really don't see him at one of the programs that serve as a minor league to the NBA. I could see him at a school such as Nebraska but not at a Kentucky. IOW, major college perhaps but major basketball program, doubtful.

Steve

if Dixon took the USC job Howland likely would have been hired back at Pitt.

His problem at UCLA was simple, the first 5 years were great but his personality did him in. THe longer he was there the less people wanted to deal with him, that included HS coaches, AAU coaches, assistants at UCLA, players etc.

So he had a diminishing returns situation where he can't recruit California anymore and that's why UCLA hired the assistants they did. If you read the LA Times article about Bazz and his dad the dad openly said in there UCLA hired Phil Matthews to get Bazz. Phil's son Jordan(going to Cal next year) was on the same AAU team as Bazz, so they were friends, by hiring Matthews he was able to attend everyone of Bazz' AAU games when no other coaches could during dead periods. It also showed Bazz' dad how committed UCLA was to getting his son. Personally I HATE that sort of stuff, I knew Matthews was primarily a recruiter but it was an example apparently of UCLA giving Howland extra help by allowing him to do something they don't normally do.

That wasnt' enough, so they hired McCray to get players off his AAU team.

They figured out that's not sustainable you can't just keep hiring assistants to get certain kids, they hoped the team would win enough to make Howland salvageable, it didn't, he's gone.

I just hope there's no lasting NCAA problems from the end game and I hope I get the bad taste out of my mouth of the last couple of years of what they did to try and save Howland.

 

[Russ Smith]

I'm not sure why. They are top 10 in just about every ranking, rating or index and they're top 5 in most of them. They haven't lost a game to a single non-tourney team and their only non-conference losses were against Duke and Kansas and they were competitive in both (led most of the game at Duke when the Dookies were healthy). They are riding a 10 game winning streak right now that includes wins against Michigan State (twice), Wisconsin (twice), Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. This is a very good Ohio State team.

Steve

I think it's that they don't have that one dominant kid like they have recently that people think they're down. They're a very good team they defend well they do everything pretty well.

Tough matchup, but certainly UA has enough talent to compete with them.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

It'd be pretty funny if UCLA hired Pastner after hearing the Bruin faithful knock Sean Miller for allegedly being a terrible coach but a good recruiter.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Howland has to recruit a certain type of player to be successful and they are hard to find among the top kids especially on the laid back West Coast. If he wants to stay out here I could see him taking a year off Nd lobbying for Stanford or maybe ASU since he hates Miller. But his best bet is going back to the East or Midwest where players are more accustomed to an abrasive and grinding style.

 

[Russ Smith]

It'd be pretty funny if UCLA hired Pastner after hearing the Bruin faithful knock Sean Miller for allegedly being a terrible coach but a good recruiter.

I'd be furious but he's not on the list, at least if he is way down.

He's way up on USC's list apparently.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I'd be furious but he's not on the list, at least if he is way down.

He's way up on USC's list apparently.

All the same I'll bet you Pastner has a better resume than whoever you hire.

 

[Russ Smith]

All the same I'll bet you Pastner has a better resume than whoever you hire.

if true I'd be too mad to pay off the bet.

I think the top 3 are all somewhat unlikely. I think Minnesota firing Tubby screws things up a bit because the AD there hired Smart at VCU and Smart is his top choice now at Minnesota. So if UCLA whiffs on their top 3, their 4th might already be at Minnesota.

But it had to be done, howland had worn out his welcome.

UA should own the conference next year with their roster and then hopefully the new UCLA coach gets us back on the map starting the next season.

 

[Dback Jon]

if true I'd be too mad to pay off the bet.

I think the top 3 are all somewhat unlikely. I think Minnesota firing Tubby screws things up a bit because the AD there hired Smart at VCU and Smart is his top choice now at Minnesota. So if UCLA whiffs on their top 3, their 4th might already be at Minnesota.

But it had to be done, howland had worn out his welcome.

UA should own the conference next year with their roster and then hopefully the new UCLA coach gets us back on the map starting the next season.

If Smart turned down a better job at Illinois, why would he go to Minnehaha?