UA & Pac-12 Basketball Thread

[SO91]

"They took pride in guarding us," Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "They took the life out of us."

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/wildcats-rout-utes-71-39-pac-12-quarterfinals-22903295

 

[Russ Smith]

At one point the score was Utah 15, Nick 14. Later on it was 51-17, they had tripled Utah.

 

[Cheesebeef]

this U of A team has early exit written all over it. NCAA #2 seed that can't shoot threes or free throws? I'm gonna surprised if they get past the Sweet 16.

And it's galling to me how little offensive game Gordon has. If he goes pro this year, I think it's a big mistake. He's a freak as an athlete but a 6'8 who literally can't shoot the ball at all? What kind of position can he play at the next level? Anyone who takes him has to know he's going to be very long term project.

 

[jw7]

Yup, in the 1st half, UCLA could not miss a 3-pointer or a free throw. AZ was cold.

And it's galling to me how little offensive game Gordon has.

I hope he goes pro, because he is killing this team. Nice D-player, but you have to shoot better than Kaleb Tarz at the line. He couldn't hit water if he fell out of a canoe.

 

[TJ]

It's not that Gordon has no offensive game, it's that he tries to do too much ball handling. If he averaged 65% from the stripe, he'd have more PPG and people wouldn't hyper-analyze him. I don't wish him gone next year, but that's reality.

And, FWIW, for a big man, he is a very good passer.

If we continue to shoot 38% from the stripe, we'll get bounced fast.
The fact that we only lost by four considering how the game started and our inability to shoot free throws is a testament to how well we play in every other facet of the game.

 

[Cheesebeef]

It's not that Gordon has no offensive game, it's that he tries to do too much ball handling. If he averaged 65% from the stripe, he'd have more PPG and people wouldn't hyper-analyze him. I don't wish him gone next year, but that's reality.

And, FWIW, for a big man, he is a very good passer.

he's a very good passer, but he couldn't hit water if he fell out of boat. and that's both at the FT line and just shooting the rock during games.

 

[jw7]

And, FWIW, for a big man, he is a very good passer.

If we continue to shoot 38% from the stripe, we'll get bounced fast.

Agree 100% with both points.

 

[Russ Smith]

Few points. UCLA was 4-12 on 3's, this was NOT even a good shooting game for UCLA from deep. We won because we scored in the paint. Powell hit a 3, but then Powell was 11 for his last 22 coming into the game, he's been hitting 3's for awhile now. LaVine and Alford usually are good for 3 or 4 3's combined, they were 0-3, UA hit a bunch of 3's in the first half including Gordon. Gordon hit a 3 and then a stepback jumper at which point I said out loud fools gold let him take that all game. He finished 4-11, great rebounder, great defender, can't shoot.

UCLA won because Alford got Miller to adjust to him instead of the other way around, and then won the matchup. Miller started Rondae over York so he could put Gordon on Kyle. that put Rondae on a Wear, Tarc on the other, Nick on Jordan and TJ on Powell. that was presumably better for Miller than starting York, putting Nick on Kyle, and risking Jordan going off on TJ(too small) and Powell overpowering York.

The problem is, Anderson outplayed Gordon, and Powell outplayed TJ, even with Alford inexplicably sitting Powell for 7 min straight in the 2nd half letting UA back in the game. David played far more minutes than he normally does, my guess is it was because CSA correctly realized that with both Wears out there, it spaced the floor allowing him to let Powell and Jordan attack the basket and it worked. Tarc couldn't sag off either Wear so he wasn't really a factor blocknig shots, in fact UA only had 3 blocks, all by Nick. CSA took away the help by playing the Wears together that much.

UCLA was also very smart with Gordon, don't let him dunk, foul him. Not an accident he can't shoot Ft's so make him do it.

I think if they played 10 times, UA would win 7. I think in this game with both teams tired, it became a game of matchups and adjustments and Alford won that game. I've seen a bunch of posts on UCLA boards tonight copied off UA boards of UA fans complaining York didn't play more, 20 min 11 points. That's because Alford didn't let him play more. After York went off in the first half Alford played the bigger lineup to keep York out, and when he was in, UCLA was always in man and almost always with Powell on York. I'm still not sure how I feel about Alford as a coach but he won the chess match today. He put the ball in his best players hands. I was furious with him for sitting Norm and Jordan so much in the 2nd half, but at the end of the game both were fresh and made huge plays.

I still think its' likely UA goes further than UCLA because of their defense, but I'm very happy with how hard UCLA played. Maybe the WSU debacle was like the loss to USC the year they first made the FF under Howland, wakeup call.

And hats off to the UA fans who booed when they announced Kyle as MOP after the game, were they expecting an arizona player would win it?

 

[TJ]

And hats off to the UA fans who booed when they announced Kyle as MOP after the game, were they expecting an arizona player would win it?

Those boos were directed at Larry Scott...for obvious reasons.

 

[Russ Smith]

Those boos were directed at Larry Scott...for obvious reasons.

They said something like and now the trophy for MOP goes to Kyle Anderson "boo".

If they were booing Scott they should have done it earlier or later not as Kyle is getting his ridiculously small trophy(they give bigger ones for participation in 8 year old soccer)./

 

[Russ Smith]

Side note. I still hate conference tourneys. The last 5 min of that game were 2 exhausted teams unable to score until Adams hit the 3. Just ugly. Kyle came up limping late although his dad says he's fine. Last year Adams broke his foot etc.

UA was the best team all year winning the conf without Ashley. The tourney is for money and fans, it's fun to watch, but I still prefer giving the auto bid to the regular season winner.

I've seen UCLA as high as 4 seed now in brackets, some had them a 7 after the WSU loss. So it helped our seeding and probably helped team morale, but I do worry every year someone's going to get hurt playing 3 or 4 days in a row like that.

 

[Iceman]

Congrats to the wildcats on the #1 seed in the west region! Bear down cats!

 

[Russ Smith]

I have UA making the Final 4 in both my brackets. Outside of possibly Ok State, they seem to have a very good matchup. OSU had that 7 game losing streak midseason, 4 before Smart got suspended 3 after, but they seemed to finish up well so they're probably a bit under seeded. But I suspect UA's too big for them


I have UCLA losing to Florida in the SS. I think Oregon got a good draw too.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Other than having to face a underperforming OSU or Gonzaga in the second round a pretty light draw for the Cats.

 

[TJ]

If Arizona plays Arizona basketball without missing a ton of free throws, it's hard to pick against them. The Sunday matchup looks brutal, so if they get out of San Diego, the path to Dallas is pretty clear.

 

[Russ Smith]

If Arizona plays Arizona basketball without missing a ton of free throws, it's hard to pick against them. The Sunday matchup looks brutal, so if they get out of San Diego, the path to Dallas is pretty clear.

To be fair this year missing a ton of freethrows IS Arizona basketball. I was glad that Fox showed the stat, Gordon is dead last in D1 among players with a certain # of attempts. It was mentioned in the post game stuff well after the game but UCLA instructed their kids before and during the game don't let Gordon or Rondae dunk. If you're in foul trouble, foul them.

Rondae seems to be making his at a better clip now but Gordon's got such terrible form I refuse to believe that he makes 80% in practice nonsense, they're just trying to pump up his confidence because he misses so many in games.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

The biggest misses was the two front ends on the last four minutes including one from Nick who is 77%. You can't "teach" free throws per se in college, there's just not enough time allowed by the NCAA to get it right unless you don't want to practice offensive or defensive sets. Guys just have to be loose mentally and get in the reps on their own.

Regardless, the free throws didn't concern me as much as allowing 75 points and not destroying the Wear sisters on the boards did.

 

[Russ Smith]

The biggest misses was the two front ends on the last four minutes including one from Nick who is 77%. You can't "teach" free throws per se in college, there's just not enough time allowed by the NCAA to get it right unless you don't want to practice offensive or defensive sets. Guys just have to be loose mentally and get in the reps on their own.

Regardless, the free throws didn't concern me as much as allowing 75 points and not destroying the Wear sisters on the boards did.

Nick's miss was the definition of Ball Don't Lie. the shot goes up and Travis has inside position, Nick goes over his back no call, they fight for the ball no call, it pops out to David, and then the ref blows the whistle and calls a foul on Travis.

Such a late call and classic don't call the first one. There's a play towards the end of the game where UA fans were complaining that Jordan Adams tried to "take out" Tarc. If you watch the replay what actually happens is Nick pushes Adams, he goes into Tarc, Tarc loses his balance and grabs the back of Adam's shirt(horse collar) and yanks Adams down to the floor on his back. The refs didn't call anything but it's hilarious seeing Tarc and then Miller screaming for a foul because if you watch the replay the entire thing is caused by Nick's shove of Adams.

UA gave up that many points twice all year, both times to UCLA. in fact UCLA had as many points at the half as UA had given up in a game in the conf tourney. If not for the fatigue we would have gone over 80. I think we went 2 for our last 15.

I also think a point lost was what a great call it was by Alford at the end to go 2 for 1. It's common in the NBA but you almost never see it in college. But UCLA comes out of a timeout and instead of running the clock down they go right into a set play for Adams, the same one he missed in Pauley against UA, he nails the 3 and it's a perfect 2 for 1 scenario.

Was an interesting game, I think UA is the better team because of their defense, but UCLA is a tough matchup for UA because of guard size, it's very difficult for UA to matchup. Powell in the first half was killing TJ, really if Alford hadn't sat him so long who knows what he ends up with. UA should be able to counter that with inside scoring against the Wears, but for most of the game UCLA was actually outscoring UA in the paint because of Powell and Adams.

 

[Cheesebeef]

If Arizona plays Arizona basketball without missing a ton of free throws, it's hard to pick against them.

but missing a ton of free throws is a major part of Arizona basketball this year.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

but missing a ton of free throws is a major part of Arizona basketball this year.

So do a lot of other good teams.

Arizona - 65%
Virginia - 66%
Louisville - 66%
Florida - 67%

Is it a problem? Yes and could absolutely cost us a game but my bet is if/when that game is lost then poor defense or a bad offensive night as a whole would be the bigger culprit. As an example college basketball teams as a whole attempt around 20 FT attempts per game. The leading team in the NCAA this year shoots 79% from the line which means they would make 16 of those round up and Arizona would make 13 if both hit their season averages. Arizona when they're playing well defends and rebounds well enough to make that up and then some especially since they average 23.5 FT attempts a game due to their size.

 

[TJ]

Thanks for the heart attack, Zona.

Team played about 27 minutes of solid basketball total and took 13 minutes off completely: the first 5 minutes and last 8 minutes. Typical 1 seed looking ahead to the 2nd round matchup and ignoring the hungry, all-or-nothing mentality of the 16 seed.

I suppose if the team is going to have a mental lapse in the tourney, this game is where it should happen. Do this against any other team in the West bracket and Zona is going home.

 

[Russ Smith]

Thanks for the heart attack, Zona.

Team played about 27 minutes of solid basketball total and took 13 minutes off completely: the first 5 minutes and last 8 minutes. Typical 1 seed looking ahead to the 2nd round matchup and ignoring the hungry, all-or-nothing mentality of the 16 seed.

I suppose if the team is going to have a mental lapse in the tourney, this game is where it should happen. Do this against any other team in the West bracket and Zona is going home.

Didn't see any of it but the score surprised me. UCLA beat them by 23 early in the year. My lasting memories were Davion Berry(who I saw play in HS) and the freshman Richaud Gittens who just destroyed Bryce Alford in mopup time, got a career high and then didn't top it all season. Athletic kid had 12 today and of course he's from Arizona. I remember MacLean saying when UCLA played them he was surprised Gittens didn't get Pac 12 offers but then being guarded by Bryce will make you look that good.

Pac is 3-2 now, hopefully UCLA comes to play tonight and makes that 4-2.

Gotta love the way UA's bracket is shaping up, if they beat OSU/Gonzaga they then play the winner of ND State or SD State(who they already beat at home). If they get that far it's Wisconsin, Oregon, Creighton or Baylor so not a strong other half of the bracket at all.

 

[Cheesebeef]

have they announced when the Zona-Zags game is on Sunday yet? That should be a freaking good one!

 

[SO91]

I haven't been able to watch a ton of college basketball besides Arizona games, but I've really enjoyed watching Kyle Anderson the few times I've seen him. You've seen him a lot Russ, what do you think of him now and at the next level? I'm thinking about one of the Suns picks in the late teens. What do you and anyone else think?

 

[jw7]

have they announced when the Zona-Zags game is on Sunday yet? That should be a freaking good one!

Just got tweeted. 6:40 PM Pacific on TBS.

Arizona Basketball ‏@APlayersProgram 7m Our game time Sunday will be around 6:40pm PT on TBS.