Bear Down Wildcats

Salty wrote:It hasn't been easy to defend coach this year.

Comments like that don't help.

Puerco wrote:Salty, instead of whining why don't you suggest how Miller should have reacted to the CU postgame? I don't blame him. He's worried about the safety and reputation of his players. There's no way that CU should have the arena set up the way it does.

84Cat wrote:This is why it doesn't happen to Kentucky. Has been a rule in the SEC since 2004:

SEC fines South Carolina 25K for court storm after Kentucky game

The SEC has fined the University of South Carolina $25,000 in accordance with league policy after fans rushed the floor Saturday following the Gamecocks' 72-67 home victory against No. 17 Kentucky.

Dating back to December 2004, the SEC remains the only conference in college basketball with a tiered fining system in place for its schools that break protocol against court storming.

According to the SEC, "The policy states that 'access to competition areas shall be limited to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel and properly-credentialed individuals at all times. For the safety of participants and spectators alike, at no time before, during or after a contest shall spectators be permitted to enter the competition area. It is the responsibility of each member institution to implement procedures to ensure compliance with this policy.'"

A first-time violation is $5,000, with a second breaking of the rule upping to $25,000 and a third/all ensuing offenses equaling a $50,000 punishment against the school.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... tucky-game" target="_blank

Bangkok Wildcat wrote: Good one 84Cat, thanks.....I bet if you made the fine payable directly to the opposing teams AD budget, that would make it even more effective ......and yes Salty, ever heard of Security? You don't necessarily need to hire a ton of extra-security but actually have the existing ones there 'try' to actually prevent the storming rather than 'expect' it and thus 'condone' it by that attitude.

Could Arizona lose during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament? Sure. Are the Wildcats on the lengthy list of teams that could heat up and earn a trip to Houston? Yep.

baconus66 wrote:I've been to most home games in the Sean Miller era and I have never seen him as pumped up as he was tonight as the game was decided. He was gesturing to the crowd after Zues was fouled with .7 left and after it was over he went over to the other side of the court clapping and waving his arms to the crowd. He really wanted this one.

Bangkok Wildcat wrote:Miller is as STUD and I truly believe a worthy heir to HOF Coach Lute Olsen.......BTFD.

Puerco wrote:http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketba ... tery-picks

Could Arizona lose during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament? Sure. Are the Wildcats on the lengthy list of teams that could heat up and earn a trip to Houston? Yep.

rgdeuce wrote: When we were down 8 with a minute and something left, I felt in my gut the season was dying. Like a dog that had been fighting a whole year and you see something where you know there is no fight left and its days are numbered.

dcZONAfan wrote:

rgdeuce wrote: When we were down 8 with a minute and something left, I felt in my gut the season was dying. Like a dog that had been fighting a whole year and you see something where you know there is no fight left and its days are numbered.

Felt the exact same way RG. I remember after the Wallace layup, when they showed CSM kneeled on the sideline with a distraught look on his face, feeling like the season was slipping away. Even thought to myself "there goes our streak of not having lost by double digits" because right then and there it felt like we would undoubtedly miss on our next possession and foul and they would start pulling away.

Just an incredible turnaround and, for seeding purposes, a "much easier to advance to the second weekend" win IMO

Merkin wrote:

Bangkok Wildcat wrote:Miller is as STUD and I truly believe a worthy heir to HOF Coach Lute Olsen.......BTFD.

BK, really? Olsen?

rgdeuce wrote:I mean, I get it, Miller did an outstanding job. Altman had adversity too, no Ennis and no home game against Arizona, no problem: still won the deepest conference in the country, beat Arizona on the road, top 10 ranking, 4th in RPI, etc. Both Miller and Altman were deserving, only one can win, and I can see how Altman won.

azcat49 wrote:When Miller goes 18-0 next year he will finally win it

Longhorned wrote:

rgdeuce wrote:I mean, I get it, Miller did an outstanding job. Altman had adversity too, no Ennis and no home game against Arizona, no problem: still won the deepest conference in the country, beat Arizona on the road, top 10 ranking, 4th in RPI, etc. Both Miller and Altman were deserving, only one can win, and I can see how Altman won.

In a vacuum, yes. But if so, then why didn't Miller win it last year? Last year, Altman got it for bravely coaching an also-ran team, while Miller cleaned up against the conference. This year Altman won it for winning the conference while Miller successfully coached a taped-together team with injuries.

azcat49 wrote:When Miller goes 18-0 next year he will finally win it

ChooChooCat wrote:Have no issue with Altman winning the award this year, he earned it. Last year however the awards overall (Miller COY snub, Joseph Young winning POY over TJ, and Gary Payton winning DPOY over Rondae when his team ran a zone 100% of the time) were pure bullshit. That should have been an Arizona clean sweep. The conference race was never close.

ChooChooCat wrote:Have no issue with Altman winning the award this year, he earned it. Last year however the awards overall (Miller COY snub, Joseph Young winning POY over TJ, and Gary Payton winning DPOY over Rondae when his team ran a zone 100% of the time) were pure bullshit. That should have been an Arizona clean sweep. The conference race was never close.

ChooChooCat wrote:Have no issue with Altman winning the award this year, he earned it. Last year however the awards overall (Miller COY snub, Joseph Young winning POY over TJ, and Gary Payton winning DPOY over Rondae when his team ran a zone 100% of the time) were pure bullshit. That should have been an Arizona clean sweep. The conference race was never close.

Longhorned wrote:

rgdeuce wrote:I mean, I get it, Miller did an outstanding job. Altman had adversity too, no Ennis and no home game against Arizona, no problem: still won the deepest conference in the country, beat Arizona on the road, top 10 ranking, 4th in RPI, etc. Both Miller and Altman were deserving, only one can win, and I can see how Altman won.

In a vacuum, yes. But if so, then why didn't Miller win it last year? Last year, Altman got it for bravely coaching an also-ran team, while Miller cleaned up against the conference. This year Altman won it for winning the conference while Miller successfully coached a taped-together team with injuries.

Olsondogg wrote:Altman is a good coach, especially when he is not keeping quiet about a gang rape involving his players to ensure bonuses for himself and staff.

"I guess if you're the coach, you can look at it this way: Hey, everything's fine. We're in the semifinals against Oregon. Awesome job. We advanced. A lot of teams would have loved to," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "Or you can really say our effort level is as bad as I've ever seen in the last 20 minutes. I choose to focus on the second one."

rgdeuce wrote:Glad hes healthy and feeling good, but I kind of miss the pudgy Sean Miller lol

Graduates pursue a fondest wish without waiting

By William C. Rhoden
Sports of the Times

LAS VEGAS — This was the moment Mark Tollefsen had been waiting for his entire athletic career: Pacific-12 Conference tournament, standing at the foul line with the game on the line, his Arizona Wildcats trailing by 77-76 with less than a second left in regulation.

Tollefsen missed the first free throw but made the second to send the game to overtime.

After Oregon pulled away for a 95-89 victory in that game Friday to advance to the conference final, Tollefsen, a 6-foot-9 senior forward, was disappointed but philosophic: This was why he had transferred from the University of San Francisco after graduating last year with one year of eligibility remaining.

Tollefsen could have stayed to star with the Dons, but he elected to do what he had always wanted — get a piece of big-time college basketball.

“I wanted to win a championship,” he said. “I wanted to make the N.C.A.A. tournament. I wanted to cap off my college career with some kind of championship.”

A national championship was not going to happen at San Francisco, a West Coast Conference team, and is not likely to happen at any of the other programs outside the so-called Power 5 conferences. So Tollefsen went to Arizona, a national powerhouse.

College basketball players have few rights, but those with eligibility remaining when they graduate — like Tollefsen, who had redshirted in 2011-12 — at least have leverage and mobility: They, unlike their undergraduate peers, do not have to sit out a year if they transfer.

That is a good thing.

Coaching staffs that had ignored Tollefsen a few years ago began banging down his door when they found out last year that he was on the market.

“It was pretty hectic,” Tollefsen said. “As soon as I got my release, I had schools calling every hour.”

Still, the transfer-rule exception can hurt a program if a player like Tollefsen decides to leave. Lorenzo Romar, the coach at Washington, said: “I’ve seen it be the difference between winning and losing seasons and N.C.A.A. tournament berths and non-N.C.A.A. tournament berths. Coaches have literally lost their jobs because guys left and went to other programs where, if they would have stayed, they could have had winning seasons.”

Last week, during the W.C.C. tournament, I spoke with Rex Walters, who coached Tollefsen at San Francisco for four years.

“It hurts,” Walters said. “We had a chance to be a really good team this year if we have a guy like Mark Tollefsen. It’s a kick in the gut, but at the end of the day, you love the kid, and you want what’s best for him, but it’s a kick in the gut.”

Walters added, “We’ve become a farm system for the high major programs.”

Two days after that conversation, San Francisco fired Walters.

Tollefsen was heartbroken when he heard the news, saying of Walters, “We went through so many battles together, and he changed my life.” But Tollefsen also stuck by his decision to leave the program, saying, “I just knew in my heart that it was time for me to move.”

Arizona Coach Sean Miller said he was sympathetic to Walters’s plight.

“My heart goes out to those guys,” Miller said. “It’s a difficult position to put them in. It’s a difficult position to put us in, too. You find yourself, as a college coach, watching other games with the understanding that every once in a while, there’s a guy on this team who could potentially want to leave. It’s human nature. It’s our game.”

Miller said that he did not especially like the transfer-rule exception and that he would prefer that every student-athlete who transferred sit out a season.

“I think it’s great for the overall culture of our game that you’re not allowed to transfer and be eligible,” he said. “If you want to go and leave, fine, but you have to sit out a year.”

But Miller also acknowledged that he had taken advantage of the exception. This season, the Wildcats got a battle-tested veteran.

As for Tollefsen, rather than playing a fourth season for a midmajor that would invariably have been devoured by a power team had it made the N.C.A.A. tournament — and San Francisco did not — Tollefsen is on the power side of the equation.

On Sunday, two days after the tough loss to Oregon, Tollefsen came one step closer to fulfilling his dream. Arizona, which finished the regular season tied for third in the Pac-12, was selected for the N.C.A.A. tournament as a sixth seed.

“I’ve lived for this moment my entire career,” Tollefsen said.

Dana Altman, Oregon’s coach, has been on both sides. His Ducks have been helped considerably by fifth-year players. But when he was the coach at Creighton, he had his share of players transfer away, so he knows the feeling.

“It would be very difficult to coach a young man for four years, bring him along for three years, through injury and all of those things, and have him leave,” Altman said. “I do understand that. It’s not an easy question.”

I think it’s fairly simple. When a player leaves your program, you hate the rule; when you get a solid fifth-year player, you love it.

Tollefsen has little ambivalence — and he shouldn’t.

He played well for San Francisco for three seasons and grew as a result of the experience.

He earned a degree and earned the right to determine where to spend his final season.

He chose Arizona, and on Sunday, that choice paid off.

I’d call that a good day for college basketball.

Puerco wrote:That resume reads like that of an elite mid major. Unfortunately he's no longer at a mid-major program.

Olsondogg wrote:

Puerco wrote:That resume reads like that of an elite mid major. Unfortunately he's no longer at a mid-major program.

Uh, what?

Alieberman wrote:

Olsondogg wrote:

Puerco wrote:That resume reads like that of an elite mid major. Unfortunately he's no longer at a mid-major program.

Uh, what?

I was going to say the same thing. Show me a mid major with a resume anywhere close to that...

Alieberman wrote:

Olsondogg wrote:

Puerco wrote:That resume reads like that of an elite mid major. Unfortunately he's no longer at a mid-major program.

Uh, what?

I was going to say the same thing. Show me a mid major with a resume anywhere close to that...