Pac 12 basketball

[tshirt]

Pac-12 Networks analyst Don MacLean:
"To me, Bachynski is hands-down the Defensive Player of the Year in the league’’
“I felt like he maybe should’ve gotten it last year, just because, yes, the shot-blocking numbers are impressive, but how many points a game does he save Arizona State with his presence inside?”

Arizona paper:
It’s not far-fetched to think Bachynski saves the Sun Devils 10 points a game, maybe more.
For every shot Bachynski rejects, he might change two or three more. Then there are times when guards penetrate only to dish because they see the 7-foot-2 senior center waiting.

Bachynski leads the nation in blocked shots per game

Entering Thursday night’s game against Oregon State, Bachynski had blocked more shots this season than 226 Division I teams.

Last season, Bachynski set the Pac-12 single-season blocks record with 120.

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Congrats to BOTH Zona schools last nite, altho is wasn't easy for either. Great games to watch as a fan and shows how much parity there is in the PAC.

Stay easy and enjoy the ride.

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Pac-12 Networks analyst Don MacLean:
"To me, Bachynski is hands-down the Defensive Player of the Year in the league’’
“I felt like he maybe should’ve gotten it last year, just because, yes, the shot-blocking numbers are impressive, but how many points a game does he save Arizona State with his presence inside?”

Arizona paper:
It’s not far-fetched to think Bachynski saves the Sun Devils 10 points a game, maybe more.
For every shot Bachynski rejects, he might change two or three more. Then there are times when guards penetrate only to dish because they see the 7-foot-2 senior center waiting.

Bachynski leads the nation in blocked shots per game

Entering Thursday night’s game against Oregon State, Bachynski had blocked more shots this season than 226 Division I teams.

Last season, Bachynski set the Pac-12 single-season blocks record with 120.

Guy was well on his way to a "triple double" last nite with 1 of the doubles being block shots. Not many players could ever think of doing this. Guy was like a tree in the middle with Collier trying his best to move around him. Terrific play by him. Thought the beavers would have the advantage @ the 2:30 mark of OT when he finally fouled out but, that lil' Jahii kid was unstoppable in the end.

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Bill Walton is nausating to listen too. His mouth "flows" with which ever team is on a short run. Hope he has a day off come Sunday.

 

[tshirt]

Time for the NorWest "native" Oregon clubs to r*pe-n-plunder the SouthWest desert for a few "RARE WINS". Hell those Zona clubs took a beating in the bay area burbs last week. I think their ripe for @ least 1 "L" each.

OSU put up a good fight at ASU, who is now 12-1 at home. OSU was only team to take them to OT in Tempe, UW only team to beat them.

Zona is undefeated at home for a year now (last home loss was Feb 10, 2013 to Cal)

Round 2 coming up:
Sat - Oregon at Arizona State, Fox Sports 1
Sun - Oregon State at Arizona, Pac-12 Network

 

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Zona coach on their win over Oregon:
"Tonight's game is a real tribute to the team that we have in that it took a lot of resiliency on our part, a lot of belief and toughness because things weren't going our way," Arizona coach Sean Miller said.

 

[Runeman]

Zona coach on their win over Oregon:
"Tonight's game is a real tribute to the team that we have in that it took a lot of resiliency on our part, a lot of belief and toughness because things weren't going our way," Arizona coach Sean Miller said.

IMO, Sean Miller is one fine coach and is really interested in team play; ball movement and people movement. I think Billy Donovan would also like him....seems like the same people.

 

[gordontrue]

IMO, Sean Miller is one fine coach and is really interested in team play; ball movement and people movement. I think Billy Donovan would also like him....seems like the same people.

Donovan must like him... Miller will be one of his assistant coaches for the USA U-18 team.

USA Basketball names Billy Donovan Under-18 head coach, Sean Miller and Ed Cooley assistants | CollegeBasketballTalk

 

[dcZONAfan]

IMO, Sean Miller is one fine coach and is really interested in team play; ball movement and people movement. I think Billy Donovan would also like him....seems like the same people.

agreed I see a LOT of similarities between the two coaches. When Billy suspended guys for the Wisconsin game, it was actually really similar to us suspending our PG two years ago in the game when we visited Florida. You break a rule, you sit, no matter who the opponent.

 

[tshirt]

only team to beat Cal in Berkeley this year thus far is Arizona State in OT

Cal's remaining home games:

rival Stanford (ESPN2) - 4-2 on the road
UCLA - 2-2 on the road
USC (Fox Sports 1) - 1-7 on the road
Utah (ESPNU) - 0-6 on the road
Colorado - 3-3 on the road

Stanford headed across the Bay to Cal and gave them an 80-69 beating.

Los Angeles Times: "Stanford deals Cal a rare home defeat"

NBC Sports: "California falls to Stanford , failing to build on Saturday's big win... Cal looked to be headed in the right direction ... But in order to do that the Golden Bears need to take care of business at home, something that didn’t happen against Stanford."

writer for SB Nation that went to the game:
"Stanford looks like a poor man's version of Duke with their offensive sets (motion sets, court spacing, etc.) and defensive schemes (strong man defense, tons of talking, etc.)
...
Stanford reminded me of how Kansas City Chiefs play football; safe passes, a lot of ground-and-pound, and always avoiding the turnover. Nothing flashy, nothing highlight-worthy, but by playing this way they never gave Cal any hope. Is Stanford more talented than Cal? No.
...
Stanford's 80-69 win (that tied them with Cal for 3rd place in the Pac 12) was a reminder that these two teams are both pretty good. ...We'll probably see both these teams in March Madness, but who knows if either team will really do any damage once they get in there."

 

[Runeman]

Donovan must like him... Miller will be one of his assistant coaches for the USA U-18 team.

USA Basketball names Billy Donovan Under-18 head coach, Sean Miller and Ed Cooley assistants | CollegeBasketballTalk

Didn't know that.....nice to be able to see the similarities. Again...both excellent coaches.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Rune, just to follow up:

I think that SU is the better team right now. I think that much is clear. But I will also say that AZ's resumé, even with the loss, is much better than SU. SU is playing good basketball, but they have been largely un challenged. Now, before the rebuttal of playing Duke, Nova and Pitt; just know that there is only a month left in the season, and SU is still yet to play a top 50 opponent on the road. That stat alone leaves much to be desired from SU, and their ability to handle true adversity.

I hope I can have a better conversation with you about this than John, because he's terrible for seeing anything outside of his little box. I am not saying that SU can't win on the road to a top 50 RPI team, I'm just saying that they haven't. And furthermore, the fact that they haven't played one yet, would be very worrisome to me if I was a fan of SU, because they have 4 such games in this last month. And even their neutral court victories against top 50 opponents are pretty week, because they have not happened in reflective environments of the tourney. All of those games came in Maui, against 2,500 people, and most were SU fans. You look at top teams who have played neutral court games in games that directly resemble deep tourney atmospheres, and games in tough tough road environments, against top 25 opponents, and those are the teams whose wins show that they can maintain composure late in March.

Again, SU is the better team with Ashley gone, no doubt. But AZ still has a month to mend the hole left by Ashley, and they have already proven that the can handle absolutely any opponent, in any arena.

 

[john01992]

Rune, just to follow up:

I think that SU is the better team right now. I think that much is clear. But I will also say that AZ's resumé, even with the loss, is much better than SU. SU is playing good basketball, but they have been largely un challenged. Now, before the rebuttal of playing Duke, Nova and Pitt; just know that there is only a month left in the season, and SU is still yet to play a top 50 opponent on the road. That stat alone leaves much to be desired from SU, and their ability to handle true adversity.

I hope I can have a better conversation with you about this than John, because he's terrible for seeing anything outside of his little box. I am not saying that SU can't win on the road to a top 50 RPI team, I'm just saying that they haven't. And furthermore, the fact that they haven't played one yet, would be very worrisome to me if I was a fan of SU, because they have 4 such games in this last month. And even their neutral court victories against top 50 opponents are pretty week, because they have not happened in reflective environments of the tourney. All of those games came in Maui, against 2,500 people, and most were SU fans. You look at top teams who have played neutral court games in games that directly resemble deep tourney atmospheres, and games in tough tough road environments, against top 25 opponents, and those are the teams whose wins show that they can maintain composure late in March.

Again, SU is the better team with Ashley gone, no doubt. But AZ still has a month to mend the hole left by Ashley, and they have already proven that the can handle absolutely any opponent, in any arena.

i dunno dude.....I call BS.

you played duke & michigan when they were much different teams than they are today.

you played SDSU when they were 1-0 and an afterthought

SU may have played duke/nova at home, but both games were highly anticipated games against opponents who were at the best they have been all season.

personally. anyone who wants to write off another teams resume simply because of home/away is just a homer. you wanna say beating #6 & #11 isn't as great.....fine. You can't look at things outside the W/L such as home/away and leave it at that. you can't look at part of the picture.....you have to look at the whole picture. no true BB fan with a straight face can say that duke & michigan were dominant top 10 teams during their OOC.

 

[john01992]

i am not saying that zona's resume is better than SU. i just feel that

1. dismissing quality wins because they were at home is stupid. the home crowd advantage varies from arena/arena and team/team. plenty of good teams have lost at home this year and you are effectively making this a no win situation for SU. they dominate nova outscoring them by what....30+ points in the final 31 min of playing time and it doesn't matter because it was played in the dome? WTF kinda logic is that?

2. tournys are played most in venues that are a lot closer to the dome than a small arena. i don't get how you can argue from a tourny experience standpoint that zona is more adequately prepared. cuse has had high intensity games, cuse has played in front of very large crowds. that is much better in terms of team preparation for a tourny than playing in a 10k or 15k completely hostile arena.

 

[The Derski]

i dunno dude.....I call BS.

you played duke & michigan when they were much different teams than they are today.

you played SDSU when they were 1-0 and an afterthought

SU may have played duke/nova at home, but both games were highly anticipated games against opponents who were at the best they have been all season.

personally. anyone who wants to write off another teams resume simply because of home/away is just a homer. you wanna say beating #6 & #11 isn't as great.....fine. You can't look at things outside the W/L such as home/away and leave it at that. you can't look at part of the picture.....you have to look at the whole picture. no true BB fan with a straight face can say that duke & michigan were dominant top 10 teams during their OOC.

How many times you are going to say the same thing? Maybe you have dementia.

 

[john01992]

How many times you are going to say the same thing? Maybe you have dementia.

until you guys finally learn. are you really gonna pretend that duke & michigan were at their best all season when arizona played them?

 

[CatsTopPac]

This was a conversation for Rune, because obviously you just refuse to admit that AZ's resumé is in fact better. Absolutely every metric, and probably most people would agree. And I'm not dismissing SU's wins. They are quality wins. I don't know how many times I have to say this. I feel like you are just picking what you want to here. I'm also not denying that SU is the best team in the country right now. I just think it's safe to say that AZ is the best team in the country this year.

You love to lean on Duke and Michigan being much different teams when AZ played them. And that's either just a homer statement, or it proves that you didn't watch the games. If you wanted to say that Duke was a different team when they lost to Clemson, or that Michigan was a different team when they lost to Charlotte, then that's fine. But if you saw either game against AZ, everyone believes that both games were between two teams that at the time were playing their highest level of basketball. Duke had only lost to KU, 500 miles from Lawrence, and they were still playing great basketball. I just can't see how you would say otherwise if you saw the game. It was a great basketball game in a great venue, between two great teams. And Michigan played out of their minds against AZ. Everyone was left saying that Michigan had played without a doubt their best game of the season, and that if they continued to play like that, they would be a top ten team and fighting to win the B1G. Everyone who saw the game said that. I definitely was wondering if it was the same team who had fallen to the very back of the top 25, because they played an absolutely great game. I also thought that if they played like that then they could hang with anyone in the country. And here both teams are, playing how they played against AZ. And no one who watched the games could really say otherwise. AZ has one of the best defenses in the country. Michigan is only one of two teams that has scored 70 or more points against AZ. AZ didn't give up those points, UM earned them. To say that those two teams played much different than they play now is a flat out insult to them, as well as AZ. It really shows me that you either didn't watch the games, or that you are just hating to hate. AZ played great games to beat them, and nothing less would have gotten them the win. I completely agree that UM and Duke didn't have good games in the OOC, but those two games (among others) against AZ, those teams looked like top ten teams. I don't know if you just didn't watch the games, or if you have a horrible memory. But I can assure you that no one thought that AZ didn't look like a top ten team against them. And that means you can't say that either of those teams didn't look like a top team in those games. Aside from the fact that they actually played well, you don't barely lose to a top ten team and not also look like a top ten team. It's really hard to say that both games didn't look like top ten matchups. The majority of people who watched the games agree.

SDSU is the same. Just because you didn't know how good they were going to be, doesn't mean that anyone who watched the game couldn't see. Everyone who watched that game sat back and knew that this is probably the best SDSU team they've ever had. Everyone thought it was supposed to be a rebuilding year for them, but everyone who watched that game knew better. If AZ would have treated the game like they were playing an unranked team, then they would have lost, just like Creighton and Kansas. You ask some of the teams that Villanova beat at the beginning of the season if the knew that they were going to be a solid team this year, and they will tell you the dame thing. Just because they were barely receiving votes, doesn't mean that they weren't playing like a top 10 team. Everyone who saw that game said that SDSU was not going to be a secret for much longer. If anything, it shows that AZ prepared for the game, and didn't overlook them, like it could have been expected.

And I'm not writing off SU's schedule because of home and away. I'm taking a look at the whole picture. AZ has played 8 teams in the top 50. Out of the 4 games against the top 25, none of those games were at home. None!!! And three of them were on the road. That's insanely difficult. And it's not the same thing as SU playing 3 games against the top 25 and all of them being at home. It's not even close. I just can't see how you are missing that. No one is going to agree with you. Period. Four out of the 5 games that SU has played against the top 50 have been at home. That is not the same thing as AZ playing 8 games against the top 50 with 4 of them on the road. Not neutral locations, actually on the road. AZ has played as many games against top 50 teams away from home, as SU has played total against top 50 teams, and 80% of those games for SU have come at home. That's not cherry picking. Those are the facts. AZ has played almost twice as many games against the top 50 as SU. And we are all still waiting for SU to play a top 50 team on the road.

And finally, what we are talking about in comparing regular season games to tourney games is facing tourney teams away from home that sizable fans on hand. That is what tourney games are for the most part. I understand that from time to time, UNC or Duke play in Charlotte, or Illinois plays in Chicago, or Cuse plays in MSG. But playing home games does not reflect playing tourney games. They don't. You have 90%+ Cuse fans in the dome, and it's your home court. That's the reason they don't allow teams to play tourney games on their home court. Because it's a direct advantage. When you play tourney teams at venues where you have to deal with a good team, and their fans, then that simulates what you face in March. So yes, playing an away game against a top team with 10k opposing fans, is more of a simulation that you can handle the pressures of March, than playing a tourney team in front of a split (at best) crowd of 2,500 people in Maui, or in your own house with 30k of your own fans cheering you on. You can't say that playing in font of 30k Cuse fans is a better game to prepare for March than playing in front of 10-15k fans of another team on their court. It just doesn't even make sense. Again, that's why they don't let teams play on their home court in March. How does it prepare you for March better when you have 30K and over 90% of your home fans cheering you on at your home court???

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Unimpressed @ either Zona schools last nite, they stunk up their home gyms and gawd knows what will happen to em on the Pac road.

Tank gawd for "home cookin" refs last night. Amirite?

 

[CatsTopPac]

AZ played Duke in MSG and Cuse played them at home. Which do you think was a better simulation of a March Matchup?????????? Cuse played Nova at home, while AZ played them in SD. Which do you think is a better prep for March, and why? AZ played UM in Ann Arbor, while Cuse played Pitt at home, which do you think was a better prep for March??? AZ played UCLA in Pauley, while Cuse played Minnesota in Maui, Which do you think was a better prep for March?????

No one is going to believe you that those home games or a game in Maui were better than playing those 4 teams against tourney teams and having to deal with opposing fans breathing down their necks.

 

[The Derski]

Unimpressed @ either Zona schools last nite, they stunk up their home gyms and gawd knows what will happen to em on the Pac road.

Tank gawd for "home cookin" refs last night. Amirite?