Game Thread: Oregon @ AZ

[520GGATO]

That was a close one. AG needs to shoot about a 1000 FTs every practice though. RHJ played very good.

 

[TrollyMcTroller]

Wheeew! I was worried I was going to end up being the jinx. Good game guys! (good enough anyway)

 

[Arizona_Sting]

If AG knew how to make a FT that would be cool. It's all mental right now for him.

 

[The Derski]

That last 3 point attempt/alleyoop was actually pretty cool.

 

[Monte Carlo Wildcat]

Hope TJ's okay......

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Hollis-Jefferson's Jam Extends Arizona's Lead - ESPN Video - ESPN

 

[Arizona_Sting]

That dunk was on the front page of ESPN I guess. Wasn't that great... haha

 

[CatsTopPac]

Hope TJ's okay......

For sure!!!!!!

 

[GumbySquad]

Guys... that is five consecutive games where Arizona has shot 40% or worse.

15 assists isn't bad, 3 each for York, McGeneral and Rondae and 5 for Bunnies... but all of the missed shots? Most of them come on 1-on-1 nonsense. Teams are taking away the high pick and roll that Arizona has been thriving on this year and rather than adjust they are forcing drives.

I love Sean Miller as a coach, have for 8+ years, but he needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way for them to adjust to teams taking away the high screens. More back doors, more flairs by York/Johnson/Pitts to the corners... tons of ways to get around it, but thus far all I've seen is a lot of hero ball, especially from AG. He has been going 1-on-1 a lot more in the last 4-5 games than he ever did before.

 

[The Derski]

I think at one point Miller called three timeouts in what seemed like 5 mins

 

[Monte Carlo Wildcat]

Guys... that is five consecutive games where Arizona has shot 40% or worse.

15 assists isn't bad, 3 each for York, McGeneral and Rondae and 5 for Bunnies... but all of the missed shots? Most of them come on 1-on-1 nonsense. Teams are taking away the high pick and roll that Arizona has been thriving on this year and rather than adjust they are forcing drives.

I love Sean Miller as a coach, have for 8+ years, but he needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way for them to adjust to teams taking away the high screens. More back doors, more flairs by York/Johnson/Pitts to the corners... tons of ways to get around it, but thus far all I've seen is a lot of hero ball, especially from AG. He has been going 1-on-1 a lot more in the last 4-5 games than he ever did before.

Agree with everything you said GS. I think every team goes through a slump at some point and Coach Millers teams have slumped around the same time; take last year for instance. However, I've also noticed that Sean miller always seems to get his players playing their best come tourney time. And although I'm not happy about our performance over the last few weeks, I'm optimistic that history will hold true once again and our team will get over this slump and make some noise down the stretch and into March.

 

[GumbySquad]

Agree with everything you said GS. I think every team goes through a slump at some point and Coach Millers teams have slumped around the same time; take last year for instance. However, I've also noticed that Sean miller always seems to get his players playing their best come tourney time. And although I'm not happy about our performance over the last few weeks, I'm optimistic that history will hold true once again and our team will get over this slump and make some noise down the stretch and into March.

Yeah, completely agree. I know that they will work their way through this and be peaking by March, it is just frustrating to watch a team do the same thing for five consecutive games and be unsuccessful.

Admittedly, much of the 1-on-1 has been from AG and RHJ, and they are the two guys who you would expect to divert to playground style when things break down, because even as talented as they are, they are still Freshmen and the game is moving a bit fast for them.

I'm not worried at all... however, if they come out and have a sixth consecutive poor offense performance against the Beavers I will be disappointed, to say the least. They need to break out of it at some point.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

My thoughts after watching this game:

1) Nick will get out of this shooting slump
2) Rondae is just get started
3) It's going to take a couple games before we start to gel without Ashley
4) AG can't shoot any worse from the stripe

Things will get better. Hoping TJ is fine, if not then we're REALLY screwed.

 

[Monte Carlo Wildcat]

Yeah, completely agree. I know that they will work their way through this and be peaking by March, it is just frustrating to watch a team do the same thing for five consecutive games and be unsuccessful.

Admittedly, much of the 1-on-1 has been from AG and RHJ, and they are the two guys who you would expect to divert to playground style when things break down, because even as talented as they are, they are still Freshmen and the game is moving a bit fast for them.

I'm not worried at all... however, if they come out and have a sixth consecutive poor offense performance against the Beavers I will be disappointed, to say the least. They need to break out of it at some point.

Absolutely agree on the 1-on1 offense we've been playing lately. It's been killing us! Kind of reminds or last years team where we struggled to get anything going offensively and settled for a 1-on1 situation instead. I think we're still trying to find our personality on the offensive end. I can't remember the last time we overwhelmed a team with offense. We're 22-1 because of our defense! Our defense has allowed our offense to be mediocre this year, in particular our at the rim defense. If it weren't for that, it'd probably be a different story this year.

I agree that we need more back doors and flairs to open up the high screen. The high screen is where TJ, AG, and Kaleb can do some damage but teams are trying to take that away. We need more back doors coupled with made shots and we could have a much smoother looking offense.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

We need to get out on the break more. Our half-court offense can't succeed unless we find ways to score in transition more. Need a better balance. Also, our spacing needs to improve. It was better for the most part tonight, but we still aren't spreading the floor as good as we could be. Zeus needs some room to work down low.

Pitts and York bring shooting off the bench, but we need AG to step up most and start looking to shoot. Teams sagging off him clog the paint. I'm confident in NJ turning things around quickly.

 

[nogicat]

Guys... that is five consecutive games where Arizona has shot 40% or worse.

15 assists isn't bad, 3 each for York, McGeneral and Rondae and 5 for Bunnies... but all of the missed shots? Most of them come on 1-on-1 nonsense. Teams are taking away the high pick and roll that Arizona has been thriving on this year and rather than adjust they are forcing drives.

I love Sean Miller as a coach, have for 8+ years, but he needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way for them to adjust to teams taking away the high screens. More back doors, more flairs by York/Johnson/Pitts to the corners... tons of ways to get around it, but thus far all I've seen is a lot of hero ball, especially from AG. He has been going 1-on-1 a lot more in the last 4-5 games than he ever did before.

Took the words straight out of my mouth and until this and the FTs get addressed we are going to continue to see these kind of games

 

[dcZONAfan]

We need to get out on the break more. Our half-court offense can't succeed unless we find ways to score in transition more. Need a better balance. Also, our spacing needs to improve. It was better for the most part tonight, but we still aren't spreading the floor as good as we could be. Zeus needs some room to work down low.

Pitts and York bring shooting off the bench, but we need AG to step up most and start looking to shoot. Teams sagging off him clog the paint. I'm confident in NJ turning things around quickly.

I'm sorry sting, but no. We need AG to stay down low, to actually play the PF position. If he shoots it from outside, HE WILL MISS. Teams will continue to sag off of him, because they know he can't shoot. Even if he makes one, do you think they won't continue to take their chances with him hitting ANOTHER one??

Every time he shoots a perimeter jumper, it is a guaranteed 0 points. At least if he was posting up or cutting through the lane he would have a chance at an And-1 (which is more like an And-0 since he can't hit the FT)

 

[gordontrue]

I just want to take a moment and point out how far Kaleb has come.

He was atrocious at times his freshman year, couldn't buy a free throw, couldn't catch the ball, couldn't handle a double team.

He's turning into a serious offensive presence and is the best free throw shooter on the team right now.

He should have a talk with AG about what a sophomore year can do for you.

 

[CatsTopPac]

I'm sorry sting, but no. We need AG to stay down low, to actually play the PF position. If he shoots it from outside, HE WILL MISS. Teams will continue to sag off of him, because they know he can't shoot. Even if he makes one, do you think they won't continue to take their chances with him hitting ANOTHER one??

Every time he shoots a perimeter jumper, it is a guaranteed 0 points. At least if he was posting up or cutting through the lane he would have a chance at an And-1 (which is more like an And-0 since he can't hit the FT)

Yes and no. He needs to at least be some sort of threat from outside. Like GS said, he can catch and shoot. Even that will make teams go out on him to block, even if it's not a catch and shoot. We need to be able to start with him on the perimeter, and have defenders shy away, so he can hit a couple. Not as a go-to from outside, but just to spread the defense, like he was able to do at the beginning of the season. Because he has shown that he can hit from outside. Because although it has been very selective, at least he is able to do it (as opposed to RHJ or Zeus). He has to get involved from the perimeter, even if it's a very very limited role.

If RHJ, AG, and Zeus provide absolutely zero threat from long range, then teams will do nothing but clog the middle. And without the ability to spread the defense whatsoever, it will be difficult to do any kind of penetration, or be able to create in the post.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

I'm sorry sting, but no. We need AG to stay down low, to actually play the PF position. If he shoots it from outside, HE WILL MISS. Teams will continue to sag off of him, because they know he can't shoot. Even if he makes one, do you think they won't continue to take their chances with him hitting ANOTHER one??

Every time he shoots a perimeter jumper, it is a guaranteed 0 points. At least if he was posting up or cutting through the lane he would have a chance at an And-1 (which is more like an And-0 since he can't hit the FT)

He tends to catch the ball on the perimeter quite a bit and him not even looking to shoot hurts us. I know he's in a mental funk right now, but remember how well he started the year from behind the arc? If he doesn't make himself a threat out there then the defense won't respect him and we'll continue to have the defense sag and it will hurt our spacing offensively.