2015 AZ BBALL Conference Thread

[johnson]

Oregon won and AZ lost. The probably does it for any chances we had at a conference crown. Oregon has three tough games remaining, but so do the Cats (minus, arguably, the Stanford game at home).

They need to avoid a sweep. Utah is red hot and Poeltl has been unstoppable the past few games. Not going to be easy.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Honestly, this isn't a bad loss. Half of the Pac has only one loss at home or less. It's just tough to get those wins. Same with Utah. Hell, Oregon could go down to SoCal and get swept.

I'm not really worried about it. Our seeding isn't going to be very good going into the dance anyway. I just want us to stay healthy, and continue to develop the cohesion that was missing from the beginning of the season and the injuries. There are no games in these road environments in the dance. If this game was on a neutral court, I think we win. We have 5-6 games left to just focus on limiting turnovers, having an active offense and stiff defense. Lack of boards killed us tonight.

 

[johnson]

Honestly, this isn't a bad loss. Half of the Pac has only one loss at home or less. It's just tough to get those wins. Same with Utah. Hell, Oregon could go down to SoCal and get swept.

I'm not really worried about it. Our seeding isn't going to be very good going into the dance anyway. I just want us to stay healthy, and continue to develop the cohesion that was missing from the beginning of the season and the injuries. There are no games in these road environments in the dance. If this game was on a neutral court, I think we win. We have 5-6 games left to just focus on limiting turnovers, having an active offense and stiff defense. Lack of boards killed us tonight.

It's not a bad loss, but I still have elite standards for the Cats and expect them to win the conference. With their injuries this year, and the ever-increasing parity in the conference, that's probably not fair...but can't help it.

Just read that 10 of the last 11 road losses for the Cats involved storming the court. Miller continues to be ignored re: his legit gripes about it.

 

[CatsTopPac]

It's not a bad loss, but I still have elite standards for the Cats and expect them to win the conference. With their injuries this year, and the ever-increasing parity in the conference, that's probably not fair...but can't help it.

Just read that 10 of the last 11 road losses for the Cats involved storming the court. Miller continues to be ignored re: his legit gripes about it.

I hear ya. I think at the end we will be the best team in the conference. But Zeus's first game back was a loss @UCLA on a last-second 3pt. Trier played the last 15 minutes with a broken hand in the following loss @USC, by 2 in 4OT. We lost @Cal by one without trier. Although we didn't have Trier in the loss against Oregon, I think that was a legit loss. Then we lost after getting healthy @Colorado, by 3. USC, Cal, and Colorado all only have one loss at home this year and there is nothing wrong with losing those games on the road by a bucket or less.

I'm not making excuses, but like you said, it's a lot to win the Pac this year with some serious injuries to multiple starters. It's just not going to happen. But I like where we are. We need to keep the turnovers down, work together on offense, and sharp on defense. We need to tighten up our shot selection, and a lack of boards hurt us against CU, but that was rare. If we keep working on those things, it'll figure itself out when we play on neutral courts and not on the road. I think we win a lot of those games on neutral courts.

And I read that too. And it's true. I think @UCLA was the only one that didn't count. But it is ridiculous that it's like clockwork now for teams to rush on us every time we lose on the road. I think that injury is a legit concern, but another layer is just that it's bad sportsmanship, immature, and bush league. I don't like it in football, either. And a kid in Tucson died from that after a high school game a while ago.

 

[johnson]

I hear ya. I think at the end we will be the best team in the conference. But Zeus's first game back was a loss @UCLA on a last-second 3pt. Trier played the last 15 minutes with a broken hand in the following loss @USC, by 2 in 4OT. We lost @Cal by one without trier. Although we didn't have Trier in the loss against Oregon, I think that was a legit loss. Then we lost after getting healthy @Colorado, by 3. USC, Cal, and Colorado all only have one loss at home this year and there is nothing wrong with losing those games on the road by a bucket or less.

I'm not making excuses, but like you said, it's a lot to win the Pac this year with some serious injuries to multiple starters. It's just not going to happen. But I like where we are. We need to keep the turnovers down, work together on offense, and sharp on defense. We need to tighten up our shot selection, and a lack of boards hurt us against CU, but that was rare. If we keep working on those things, it'll figure itself out when we play on neutral courts and not on the road. I think we win a lot of those games on neutral courts.

And I read that too. And it's true. I think @UCLA was the only one that didn't count. But it is ridiculous that it's like clockwork now for teams to rush on us every time we lose on the road. I think that injury is a legit concern, but another layer is just that it's bad sportsmanship, immature, and bush league. I don't like it in football, either. And a kid in Tucson died from that after a high school game a while ago.

Beating Utah would be HUGE in my book. They were up 30-2 on ASU tonight and look unstoppable. They are a top 10 RPI. A win on the road against the Utes would be a huge statement IMO.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Beating Utah would be HUGE in my book. They were up 30-2 on ASU tonight and look unstoppable. They are a top 10 RPI. A win on the road against the Utes would be a huge statement IMO.

Yeah, we're going to have to do a better job of stopping Poeltl than we did stopping Scott. He is like the mirror image of Zeus, and Zeus is going to need to match him. Zeus needs to stay out of foul trouble and match Poeltl's minutes, because there were like 5 possessions in a row where Scott took the ball with Zeus on the bench and just shoved it down Ristic's throat.

Again, Utah has also only lost one home game this year. If we lose by a bucket or so, and we just got beat by a better effort on the road, I'm okay with it. I think that's a win in Vegas, or on a neutral court in the dance. If we keep turnovers down and we look good, I'll live.

 

[johnson]

Huge win tonight over Cal. That was a must-win.

 

[gordontrue]

money triple

 

[The Derski]

 

[johnson]

Fair to say Gabe York was feeling unstoppable this week.

 

[CatsTopPac]

And only 3 of those even hit rim I think. Dirty.

He's averaging 17 points per half in his last 3.