Arizona March Madness thread

[The Derski]

Other coaches have told Sean Miller that making a magical run often comes when you least expect it. Let's do this Cats.

 

[The Derski]

If whichita beats vandy then they will bring a good amount of fans to our game.. If vandy wins I think we have a pretty good advantage crowd wise... Not that is has mattered to us in recent tourney games in SoCal but I'm just thinking out loud.

 

[gordontrue]

If we get Vandy... we'll need Zeus to have a big game defensively and on the glass going against Damion Jones.

 

[gordontrue]

Providence is a 90 minute drive from Kaleb's hometown. I imagine he's going to have a pretty big crowd there to cheer him on.

 

[gordontrue]

Geez... Whichita St is ranked #12 by KenPom and has the #1 defensive efficiency in the nation.

Meanwhile, Vandy has 2 first-round draft picks on the roster.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Geez... Whichita St is ranked #12 by KenPom and has the #1 defensive efficiency in the nation.

Meanwhile, Vandy has 2 first-round draft picks on the roster.

AZ will definitely have a tough matchup either way. Pretty brutal matchups, even for a 6 seed. And, AZ doesn't even know which team they'll face until 48 hours prior, because of the play-in. Hopefully Miller will have them ready.

 

[gordontrue]

AZ will definitely have a tough matchup either way. Pretty brutal matchups, even for a 6 seed. And, AZ doesn't even know which team they'll face until 48 hours prior, because of the play-in. Hopefully Miller will have them ready.

Yeah, there are so many ways to explain how tough of a draw Arizona got.

Underseeded. Overseeded first round matchup. 3rd most distance to travel (after Hawaii and Holy Cross). Going up against play-in game means harder to prepare. Most underseeded region. Most NBA prospects in region.

I guess the good news is that most teams in the field have been just as inconsistent as we have. Hoping we can put together a magical run.

 

[johnson]

Cats should have been a 4 or 5 seed. I'm not sure who I'd rather play...not sure it matters. It's so hard to figure out this year. I like our chances of getting to the Sweet 16.

I am disappointed that Oregon was clearly the elite PAC 12 team this year. Used to that being us. Injuries had a lot to do with it, but that doesn't take away the sting. A deep run in the tourney could salvage an otherwise (by AZ standards) forgettable year.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Cats should have been a 4 or 5 seed. I'm not sure who I'd rather play...not sure it matters. It's so hard to figure out this year. I like our chances of getting to the Sweet 16.

I am disappointed that Oregon was clearly the elite PAC 12 team this year. Used to that being us. Injuries had a lot to do with it, but that doesn't take away the sting. A deep run in the tourney could salvage an otherwise (by AZ standards) forgettable year.

I can write a novel about what I think happened this year (but I'll spare ya). I just think we didn't put it together. We had pieces. But we had no leader, new roles for everyone but Zeus and Dusan, and some injuries that also helped prevent us from developing as a team like we needed to. We were all pretty accurate going in, on recognizing exactly what this team was, and what we were missing. I think we were hoping that the cohesion would happen. And for the most part, it hasn't. I think we can see it in the turnovers, the missed assignments, the lack of offense, and the losing of close games.

Unfortunately, you can't teach leadership. In general, and without a leader, it's a tall order to coach cohesion, especially with a bunch of new roles. And of course, injuries will fuck with all of that.

If we play together from tip off until the game is over, I genuinely think we can beat anyone (except maybe Kansas, right now). But we haven't done that once this year. So it is what it is. We'll go as far as our team basketball will take us, and absolutely no further.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Anyone else feel like AZ has to play 3 Sweet 16 games in order to get to the Elite Eight?

 

[gordontrue]

Anyone else feel like AZ has to play 3 Sweet 16 games in order to get to the Elite Eight?

 

[gordontrue]

Didn't know who to root for last night because I feel like both are equally dangerous.

Wichita scares me because their weakness is in their offense. You know their defense will be solid. Which means if they get hot from outside (and they've got the guys who can do that) they are going to be very tough to beat.

I think Kaleb and RA are the keys to this matchup. Those 2 guys are going to have great matchups inside and need to take advantage of it. Something vandy really failed to do.

 

[The Derski]

Our bigs need to draw a ton of fouls inside. they have no matchup for our frontline.

 

[The Derski]

 

[johnson]

Anyone else feel like AZ has to play 3 Sweet 16 games in order to get to the Elite Eight?

Was thinking the same thing. Really bad draw. I guess that's the risk though when you aren't a top seed.