Game Thread: Round of 8: Arizona vs. Wisconsin

[CatsTopPac]

I said at the beginning of the season: nothing less than an Elite Eight. Well, here we are. With Ashley going down, I couldn't be more proud of the season. Still more basketball to play, gotta take it to Wisky. Hopefully, the SDSU fans will join us for some West Coast homecourt advantage.

Arizona, where Bear Down isn't just a catch phrase, it's a way of life.

BTFD

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Gordon on Kaminsky and RHJ on Dekker. I like how we match up with them. BEAR DOWN!

 

[520GGATO]

On to the next one. BEAR DOWN.

 

[520GGATO]

NOOOOOOOOO! Dick Vitale just gave Arizona the Kiss of Death! We're done for! Why couldn't you just pick Wisky!

 

[johnson]

Dammit Dick Vitale!

This is going to be a battle. Wisconsin is an elite team playing at an elite level at the right time. They've beaten Florida, Michigan on the road (like us), Virginia on the road, and Michigan State. They had a patch during the season where they looked out of sorts and like they could lose to just about anyone, but that's not how they are playing right now. Cats need to remind them of how feeble they can be (losing at home to Northwestern, lol).

I haven't watched much Wisconsin basketball, but they are usually a good, not great team, that makes a little run in the tournament but never too deep.

But as always, we bring out A game, nobody beats us. We don't...things could get interesting.

 

[gordontrue]

Wisonsin - Elite offense, decent defense that has occasionally looked more like a very good defense.
Zona - Elite defense, decent offense that has occasionally looked more like a very good offense.

When it comes to the tourney, I give the edge to the more defensive-minded team. The track-record of elite defenses in the tourney is a very good one.


Wisconsin has my full attention and respect, but they have yet to play even a decent defense in the tourney. Since January, they are 1 - 4 against top-50 defenses (using AdjDE).

Call me crazy, but I like this matchup for Zona much, much more than the SDSU one.

 

[nogicat]

Well we will have the homecourt advantage for sure
I will back at this one on Saturday too.
Key to this game is our defense.
Wisconsin is not as good defensively as they have been in the past, so if we can hold them down on the other end we have a great shot.

 

[GumbySquad]

Could you even fathom what it would be like... to be up by 7 points, with four minutes to go in a Sweet 16 game against asu, only to lose?

Yeah, it's kind of like that for Louisville who just blew a late game lead to Kentucky.

 

[520GGATO]

Could you even fathom what it would be like... to be up by 7 points, with four minutes to go in a Sweet 16 game against asu, only to lose?

Yeah, it's kind of like that for Louisville who just blew a late game lead to Kentucky.

Louisville just can't seem to beat UK.

 

[GumbySquad]

Check out this awesome TISC spot from a few years ago... [ame=www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-lpaWj7qZ0]Bucky fantasizing about Wilma[/ame].

 

[GumbySquad]

Only 1 team in the last 15 years has won the NCAA championship with a defense that ranked outside the top-20... and that one team? Was UNC in 2009, and they ranked 21st.

Teams remaining with top-20 defenses:

Arizona (1)
Florida (2)
UConn (13)

Other remaining teams defensive rankings:

Kentucky (26)
MSU (34)
Wisc (45)
Dayton (71)
Michigan (99)

 

[nogicat]

I was at both games Thursday.
Baylor did a pathetic job defending Wisconsin and they simply couldn't miss.
They travel well but homecourt should still be easily in our favor.
Need to play our tough man to man defense, rely on the crowd, and get a better offensive game from our stars.
I see Arizona in a close one 67-63.

 

[GumbySquad]

At the end of the day... which in this case is the end of the season.

We had a great defense. The greatest defensive team in the history of the University of Arizona.

and..

We had good offensive players and a good offensive philosophy... but were prone to long periods of time where they settled for bad shots. If I could give one piece of advice to coach Miller it would be this: Focus on teaching your players what is, and what is not a good look. The last 5-10 minutes, other than the 3 by Gordon, the only offense they could muster was off of offensive rebounds, and all of those were off of hurried shots, not within the offensive flow. Terrible shot by TJ at the end of the OT. Terrible shot. Pull up off the dribble with 10+ seconds left, down by 1? That is the best shot you can get?

Great season. Horrible way to go out by falling apart offensively in the last 1/3 of the game. Good luck to the players who we don't get to see in a UofA uniform again.

 

[sunsguns]

Refs intervene

Congrats to Wisconsin on the win. Great game as predicted. It woulda been nice if the referees woulda allowed the players decide the game at the end though. Bogus call against Nick Johnson with 3 seconds to go in a one point game!

 

[GumbySquad]

Kind of sad that UofA fans were strong on this board for the entire season, up until the last week.

These boards are ok, but I doubt that I'll be back next year. Not enough people.

 

[CatsTopPac]

Kind of sad that UofA fans were strong on this board for the entire season, up until the last week.

These boards are ok, but I doubt that I'll be back next year. Not enough people.

Let us know where you're off to. Pleasure choppin it up with ya.

 

[FORKWDEVIL]

I will take Gumbys spot.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Kind of sad that UofA fans were strong on this board for the entire season, up until the last week.

These boards are ok, but I doubt that I'll be back next year. Not enough people.

So we lose Gordon, Nick AND Gumby. WTF man.

 

[GumbySquad]

Let us know where you're off to. Pleasure choppin it up with ya.

I will always be on ESPN and on StarNet... along with the dozen or so other boards that I comment on occasion.

I'm not saying that I'm never going to comment on SportsHoopla again, I'm just saying that this whole no comments for an hour thing does not work for me. Needs to be more active people for it to be worth it. Even on the national SportsHoopla game-board it would up being me and Sting and DC and a couple of others along with a majority of fans from other schools. It's not a UofA gameboard to me unless there is a strong representation from UofA fans. Biggest game of the year and a lot of people were not around.

It's cool. I will always be a member of this site. I'm just saying that unless there are more than a handful of people commenting then it's simply not as much fun. I would rather go back and forth with Fork...

btw, Jahii is on ESPN, says he got kicked off of here for being an idiot. Sends his regards.

 

[nogicat]

I think we need to transition back to that board we had for a while. That was live.
I like SportsHoopla but I never understood why we left that one.
Sting do you remember what it was?