Arizona Basketball 2019-2020

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If you really look at it closely, the team didn't really play any better here than it did in the Battle for Atlantis debacle two years ago. The only difference is we got three wins instead of three losses thanks to the inferior level of competition.

This team still looks to be nowhere near ready to compete against quality opponents.

I’ll give you some similarities with them but that team had no cohesion or PG. Ayton and Trier got theirs on their own. I think this team can peak higher offensively there’s 6-7 guys that can score.

Nico
Smith
Hazzard
Baker

All shooting 40% or better from 3. Stone Gettings is up despite limited attempts.

Green, Zeke and Jeter are capable of taking over at times. This is a Lute team.
 
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Baylor is a 10 am game as well. Not sure we’ll have a tier -1 win in the non-conference if we don’t win two of the next three. That would give the committee reason to bone us.

I think we win 3 of 4 with two of those being against Omaha and St Johns. I think the game against Gonzaga is a more likely victory than Baylor simply because of the McKale factor.
 
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I’ll give you some similarities with them but that team had no cohesion or PG. Ayton and Trier got theirs on their own. I think this team can peak higher offensively there’s 6-7 guys that can score.

Nico
Smith
Hazzard
Baker

All shooting 40% or better from 3. Stone Gettings is up despite limited attempts.

Green, Zeke and Jeter are capable of taking over at times. This is a Lute team.

IIRC, in the Bahamas, there were a few players on that team who got into tussles during practice. Alkins and Trier didn’t like each other, so I’d imagine that they were involved. That, and the FBI chatter fresh in everyone’s minds, really messed that entire team up mentally
 
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Miller and his “obvious offensive deficiencies”

Worth noting that we held #4 on this list to 69 points
 

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Miller and his “obvious offensive deficiencies”

Worth noting that we held #4 on this list to 69 points

Offense hasn't been the problem this year. Other than yesterday, the shots have been falling.
 
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Bet your mortgage on Baylor :madarms:
 
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Are they hurt? Haven't heard anything about it...
Nico - back pain from Penn game

Green - strep throat

Stone - facial fracture/concussion


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Nico - back pain from Penn game

Green - strep throat

Stone - facial fracture/concussion


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Hope nothing serious on Mannion - his style of play can lead to injuries though
 

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Bet your mortgage on Baylor :madarms:

Frankly, I thought we were going to have trouble with Baylor even WITH all of them. This has the makings of a 30 point loss.
 

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Today's wretched performance has come as no surprise to me, given how the team has played the last two weeks.

I maintain that unless the level of play improves tremendously, this team finishes no better than fourth in the conference and is one and done in the NCAA Tournament. Should that happen, it might just be time to rip the band-aid off, fire Miller and start from scratch.

EDIT: After sleepwalking for 36 minutes, they are finally trying to make a game of it. Still doesn't change my overall assessment. This team is underperforming horribly.
 
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Today's wretched performance has come as no surprise to me, given how the team has played the last two weeks.

I maintain that unless the level of play improves tremendously, this team finishes no better than fourth in the conference and is one and done in the NCAA Tournament. Should that happen, it might just be time to rip the band-aid off, fire Miller and start from scratch.

EDIT: After sleepwalking for 36 minutes, they are finally trying to make a game of it. Still doesn't change my overall assessment. This team is underperforming horribly.

Arizona is 9-1 and just lost a road game by 5 it was an underdog in. Your definition of “underperforming horribly” is fairly expansive. there are about 320 teams that’d love to be underperforming as horribly as we are.
 

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Bad decision for Nico to play in hindsight but a concerning performance from everyone. I take back everything I said about Smith.

Zags game is even bigger now...
 
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I digress.

If Jeter is going to play with no energy, you gotta get Koloko in there more often. He’s raw, but it’s fairly evident that he wants it more.

Credit to the team for getting it within a bucket with 10 seconds left. Not the result they wanted; however, last season’s team would’ve completely turtled and let itself get blasted.

Gotta beat Gonzaga now.
 
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Bad decision for Nico to play in hindsight but a concerning performance from everyone. I take back everything I said about Smith.

Zags game is even bigger now...

Im concerned about effort to start games. We win had Arizona played a little harder in the first half. Miller’s gotta do a better job of having his troops ready at tip. They played their asses off in the second, but I hope Sean and the team knows it can’t ease itself into games, especially since the team’s identity is attacking the basket on offense
 

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Im concerned about effort to start games. We win had Arizona played a little harder in the first half. Miller’s gotta do a better job of having his troops ready at tip. They played their asses off in the second, but I hope Sean and the team knows it can’t ease itself into games, especially since the team’s identity is attacking the basket on offense

This has been a problem under Sean Miller from Day One a decade ago.

Meanwhile, as I see Nnaji, Green and Mannion start to regress, as I see Lee, Smith and especially Jeter regress over time, and as I recall Stanley Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Kaleb Tarczewski, Grant Jerrett, Brandon Ashley, Gabe York, Brandon Randolph, Allonzo Trier, Rawle Alkins, Kobi Simmons, DeAndre Ayton and others underperforming expectations, I am left to wonder just how positive of an impact Sean Miller has as a coach. Can anyone recall the last time a player appreciably improved under Miller's watch? The best I can think of is TJ McConnell and Mark Lyons maintaining the same level of play and Nick Johnson regressing horribly and then improving back to what he was when he first came here. Dusan Ristic, perhaps...though he WAS a projected second round NBA draft pick when he came here. Lauri Markkanen, perhaps...though even he regressed down the stretch.
 
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This has been a problem under Sean Miller from Day One a decade ago.

Meanwhile, as I see Nnaji, Green and Mannion start to regress, as I see Lee, Smith and especially Jeter regress over time, and as I recall Stanley Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Kaleb Tarczewski, Grant Jerrett, Brandon Ashley, Gabe York, Brandon Randolph, Allonzo Trier, Rawle Alkins, Kobi Simmons, and others underperforming expectations, I am left to wonder just how positive of an impact Sean Miller has as a coach. Can anyone recall the last time a player appreciably improved under Miller's watch? The best I can think of is TJ McConnell and Mark Lyons maintaining the same level of play and Nick Johnson regressing horribly and then improving back to what he was when he first came here.

Depends on your expectations. If you’re expecting OAD players to develop in college, you’re asking to be disappointed. RJ Barret and Marvin Bagley III didn’t get any better at Duke than they were in high school. In fact, Bagley was supposed To be a better NBA prospect than Ayton and Ayton leapfrogged him in the draft.

Gordon, Trier, York, and others were fine at Arizona. Guys like Jarrett and Simmons were dudes that were far worse than their rankings and used Arizona as a pit stop. They whined and complained, which led them to be parked on the bench.
 

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Meanwhile, what happened to the open, aggressive, fast paced style of play we were cheering in the first few games?

It seems we have gone back to the same old plodding Sean Miller system that seems to do nothing but hold our own players back.
 
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Someone get Miller some of that clinical strength antiperspirant.
 
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