Bear Down Wildcats

UAEebs86 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 1:11 pm

Alieberman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 12:38 pm I'm certainly too old to start paying for Cock

Hehehe, for my part, it was never an age thing.

So I already used my free trial so I paid 5 bucks for it.

U.P. Zona Fan wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 3:28 pm So I already used my free trial so I paid 5 bucks for it.

You profligate sportswhore! How could you?!

Free Peacock for InstaCart members, and Xfinity customers can get it for $2.99 a month. Some older plans with Xfinity still get free Peacock.

"The first taste's free, honey."

They make it soooo easy to just give them the money.
But my wife will cancel that crap in 25 days, she genius, eh!

There are a lot of Cats fans in Indy tonight. Guaranteed they will make noise.

My daughter has a game today and I don’t have time to make it to the game.

BearDown Indy!!

Catintheheat wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:32 am There are a lot of Cats fans in Indy tonight. Guaranteed they will make noise.

I can’t wait to hear the U of A chants.

Not really feeling too anxious before this game. CTL appears to always have his teams prepared for these “big” in-season games.

If we continue the great pressure defense along with our distribution scoring approach we should come out of Indy with a W.

So we can’t record on the cock?

CalStateTempe wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:38 am So we can’t record on the cock?

No dick pics? That's unAmerican.

I’m so jelly of cats fans in Indy today

CalStateTempe wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:54 am I’m so jelly of cats fans in Indy today

The first and probably last time we will ever hear that phrase

Alieberman wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:58 am

CalStateTempe wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:54 am I’m so jelly of cats fans in Indy today

The first and probably last time we will ever hear that phrase

Living here has to be good for something.

Think I’m going to make the drive down more often. Go see TJ & Benn play. And maybe Caitlin Clark.

I want stories and pics please!!!

Chicat wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:41 am

This is crazy. Seems unusual that a line swings like that so close to the actual game. Everyone took AZ and the points.

Up to -2 on sportsline.

They should call this the Final Four challenge since both teams are so challenged to actually get to a Final Four. Should be a good matchup but I don't see either team going that deep in the NCAA tournament. Purdue is too one dimensional and Arizona just has the worst luck no matter how good they are. I think Kansas is the best team in the land followed by Houston and UCONN.

Because Kansas was down by 10+ to the 4th best team in Indiana for 30 minutes of that game? Is that why you think that?

That a bold take.
Michigan State is the best team in the country right now.

All good. Over here

Arizona wins this game if Larsson misses the flight. There i said it. There's my overreaction for the night. Logging off.

Was there any reason given for Boz’s bench time?

KillerKlown wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 5:14 pm Arizona wins this game if Larsson misses the flight. There i said it. There's my overreaction for the night. Logging off.

His turnovers sure didn’t help.

But it was also Boswell’s worst game of the year.

Larsson battled today, but yeah, he was off balance all game. He deserves credit for playing through a banged up wrist and that body blow he got in the 2nd half.

Boswell is perplexing. He has it in him to play MUCH better than he did today, obviously. I hate to say it, but I think those Purdue guards got in his head and disrupted his game.

Another lesson from today: we need our entire starting 5 to play well to advance in the tourney. We’re good, but we’re not good enough to survive an off night from two starters, especially in an E8 or FF game.

KillerKlown wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 5:14 pm Arizona wins this game if Larsson misses the flight. There i said it. There's my overreaction for the night. Logging off.

You misspelled Boswell.

Larsson had an off night for sure, especially on defense, but he really did have some inspired minutes to start the 2nd half and helped bring the team back.

Both players will learn from this and be back at the top of their games.

Just had a bad night where UA's 2 starting guards were extremely outplayed by a couple of unathletic pasty kids.

I'm fine with this loss as long as we learn and get better. One of the criticisms of last year's team is they never progressed past there December selves. This year we want to be getting better into March if we want to get to a final four.

They had two guys that shot really well and dominated a good part of the game. One of these guys shot way above this normal average (over 2X) and that was the game. KJ Lewis and Caleb along with KJ played really well. Ballo was steady and Larson and Boswell had a bit of a off night.

We didn't play bad. It will be interesting to see what Tommy says about the off night for the defense.

Had a great time. A lot of fun catching up with MyTwoCents and other longtime Wildcat friends.

Wish the Cats had pulled it out, but Purdue was just that much better today.

BTW, Purdue fans are way nicer and welcoming than Illini fans. Guess it’s not a conference thing.

pc in NM wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 9:35 am

Alieberman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 9:27 am I also think if we can keep the pace up and make Edey run up and down the court, we will tire him out in the 2nd half.

Like Wisconsin coach Gard said, if we're (especially Pelle) are hitting threes, we cause really difficult problems for anyone.

Also, control of the defensive boards will be critical.

I felt confident in both these areas going in, and we didn't perform as expected in either. Love was awesome, but Boswell had an off game, and Pelle didn't even take a three... And their two shooters were 9/16 from three - that really took the heat off of Eady, and gave him room later in the game.

And their domination on offensive boards (11-5) was the only stat area that was really bad for us.

I gotta hand it to Eady - as much as I think we disrupted him, he really performed well - he's a better player than I've been giving him credit for...

They dominated us, but I think a rematch would be a tossup - I'd expect their shooters to regress to the mean (if not, I'd make them favorites for the NC!), and, alternately, I'd fully expect Boswell to play much better.

I'll bet fans that didn't have a rooting favorite loved the game - yet, it was on Peacock, so most will be basing their judgments on sports news reports and highlights...

Honestly, I won't be any less confident approaching any other opponent after yesterday's game, than I would had the outcome been different!!

You can't teach tall. How many times did Eady get a rebound, or make a shot, without even leaving his feet? He had 0" vertical on his dunk.

Not to deny his skillset, he certainly has a nice shot 5 feet in. But when you have a beast like Ballo who can't even budge you off the blocks, you know that being big and strong is a huge advantage at the 5.

Cats did a terrible job with entry passes to Ballo and Krivas. At least twice the balls were thrown at their ankles. Since he did end up with 3 fouls, I imagine next time the Cats will try and get Eady to foul out. Just have Love keep driving at him.

Besides Larsson and Boswell stinking up the place, the normal deep bench also failed to produce. Krivas was the only one to score in 7 minutes. Lewis and Bradley each played 17 minutes and had goose eggs in the points bucket. But they did get 7 assists between them, with 2 steals and only 1 turnover. Lewis was especially pesky on defense. Larsson had 6 assists, but 5 TOs himself and failed to play defense the first half.

Seemed like Purdoo had everyone getting rebounds while AZ stood around watching, especially in first half.

I thought Ballo held his own. I just wish he could refine his turnaround shot. It’s a little flat, sometimes short, sometimes long. I wish he would just use backboard and develop a spot to hit every time.

Here are the 40 minute "Bird" scores for Wildcats in the game:

38 Johnson
31 Love
18 Ballo
10 Larsson
7 Bradley
0 Lewis
0 Boswell
-6 Krivas

One takeaway - experience counts.

Merkin wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 2:43 pm You can't teach tall. How many times did Eady get a rebound, or make a shot, without even leaving his feet? He had 0" vertical on his dunk.

Not to deny his skillset, he certainly has a nice shot 5 feet in. But when you have a beast like Ballo who can't even budge you off the blocks, you know that being big and strong is a huge advantage at the 5.

Cats did a terrible job with entry passes to Ballo and Krivas. At least twice the balls were thrown at their ankles. Since he did end up with 3 fouls, I imagine next time the Cats will try and get Eady to foul out. Just have Love keep driving at him.

Besides Larsson and Boswell stinking up the place, the normal deep bench also failed to produce. Krivas was the only one to score in 7 minutes. Lewis and Bradley each played 17 minutes and had goose eggs in the points bucket. But they did get 7 assists between them, with 2 steals and only 1 turnover. Lewis was especially pesky on defense. Larsson had 6 assists, but 5 TOs himself and failed to play defense the first half.

Larsson displayed the Tubelis attitude yesterday……oftentimes disinterested and lackadaisical, which really hurt our chances

Postmaster wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 4:13 pm Seemed like Purdoo had everyone getting rebounds while AZ stood around watching, especially in first half.

I thought Ballo held his own. I just wish he could refine his turnaround shot. It’s a little flat, sometimes short, sometimes long. I wish he would just use backboard and develop a spot to hit every time.

I like Ballo a lot. I thought that he played well prior to the Pac games last season

Unfortunately, he hasn’t improved at all this year. It would be helpful if he could hit some push/jump shots within the lane.

I didn’t like the game plan against Edey. I would have liked to see our bigs at least attempt to front him AND I would have had both bigs HAMMER Edey and set the tone.

I am convinced teams put way too much emphasis on Edey. Unfortunately he is getting 20-30 pts no matter what you do. We held him to 3pts below his average but watched their guards torch us for 53pts. The focus has to be on their guards. One thing I underestimated was their ball screen offense.

Dave wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 7:26 pm I am convinced teams put way too much emphasis on Edey. Unfortunately he is getting 20-30 pts no matter what you do. We held him to 3pts below his average but watched their guards torch us for 53pts. The focus has to be on their guards. One thing I underestimated was their ball screen offense.

Agree. Those guards are simply too dangerous to let them have look after look from 3. Several of their makes were unguarded.

That'll happen when you do nothing but go under screens and mess up your switches

LuteIsGod wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 5:12 pm Larsson displayed the Tubelis attitude yesterday……oftentimes disinterested and lackadaisical, which really hurt our chances

Can't remember if it was Tubelis or Kriisa, but one of them said that NCAA college basketball means nothing to European players.

It's all about getting ready to make money in Euro-ball.

We simply were not tough enough, especially in that first half. This was very evident from our foreign players.

We had sand kicked in our face and just stood there and liked it. We didn’t fight through screens or send any kind of message on the glass except Purdue come get it because we don’t want it.

Purdue was ready and really wanted it. I was surprised we couldn’t see that and then couldn’t or wouldn’t match that effort and emotion.

I am going yo forget this one but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a hangover and we play poorly in the next two due to teams taking that film and kicking us in the nuts because we seem to enjoy it

It might not hurt to notice the commentary of most sports reporters on this game - respect for both teams!!

Chill the fuck out!! BTFD!!!!

College basketball rankings: Purdue reclaims the top spot after beating Arizona

https://theathletic.com/5144532/2023/12 ... ign=601983

Arizona

Purdue was the first team to have real success against Arizona’s defense. Prior to that game, the Wildcats had held seven of their first eight opponents to either their lowest or second-lowest efficiency game of the season.

Arizona still looks like one of the best teams in the country, and there’s little reason to worry. The main takeaways for the Wildcats should be what they’d change next time against Purdue, because a rematch in April could definitely occur. Next time they might want to reconsider playing a deep drop coverage against Braden Smith and where they bring their doubles from against Edey.

Purdue beats No. 1 Arizona as guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith come up big

https://theathletic.com/5142452/2023/12 ... ign=601983

The last one, against Arizona, was an Indy Classic game that should be an instant classic, played at a breathtaking offensive pace so pretty that officials couldn’t even get a dead ball for a media timeout until 11:47 remained in the first half. Purdue has KenPom’s second-best offense and Arizona the fifth, but the Boilermakers played at such a level of efficiency that Lloyd pulled out a 2-3 zone he’s never used to try to slow down their shooting. It worked for a little bit, too.

Men's Power Rankings: Purdue tops Arizona, Kansas for No. 1

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... -impresses

4. Arizona Wildcats (8-1)
Previous ranking: 1
This week: vs. Alabama in Phoenix (Wednesday), vs. Florida Atlantic in Las Vegas (Saturday)

Arizona showed some character after getting punched in the mouth for the first time this season, fighting back from a 15-point deficit in the first half to take Purdue nearly to the wire. And it was a positive that Caleb Love (29 points) and Keshad Johnson (24 points) continued their strong starts. The big issue came on the defensive end, as the Wildcats simply weren't able to effectively defend the perimeter in their man-to-man defense. Purdue scored 1.20 points per possession, by far the most Arizona has allowed this season.

We're just have a discussion. I'm not worried as we played a good game, especially Caleb Love and Keshad Johnson. Learn, get better and move on. This week should be fun

How many games, against any competition, are the Purdue guards going to shoot 60% from three? Not many. If they do that, with Edey in the middle, they are almost unbeatable. And yet, we stayed with them and made them work for the win in the 2nd half. Nothing we can do but tip our hat to Purdue. They deserved to win and it took a near perfect effort from an excellent team to beat us.

And we played well, but had some issues, especially the last 5 minutes of the first half. Just not quite tough enough, especially on our defensive boards, and a little too careless with the ball. That was the difference in the game in my opinion. Purdue really didn't have any major lapses for a long period like we did. Again, nothing but kudos to the Boilermakers. Would love to see a rematch, would likely be the first weekend in April much closer to our home turf.

Yea this has nothing to do with losing a game but rather how we lost. We played well on offense as usual but we just didn’t grind and it brought up memories of Houston and Princeton and the same toughness issues from some of our guys.

I see more athleticism in Bama and FAU than toughness so we might look like things are great. The conference offers very few teams that should test us so I will remain skeptical until I see the March matchups.

To get to Phoenix and the FF we have to show more toughness in those kind of games on the glass and on defense.

Can’t develop toughness if you’re never challenged.

Talked to some Purdue folks before the game who were hoping we’d take them down a peg, and a few after who thanked us for giving them such a tough second half.

Guys, we were down 15 (17?) on the road against a legit top 5 team, and our guys scraped and clawed their way back. We were within striking distance at the 5 minute mark, which is around when their shooters started heating up again. And yes, we had some pivotal turnovers and defensive lapses. We couldn’t catch any breaks in the final minutes, and yet still played that team close into the final couple minutes.

I can’t remember the last time I felt this pumped up after a damn loss. You know you’re in a good spot when you lose a game and still end up in the top 5, which is where I expect to be ranked today.

Remove the middle ~10 minutes of this game and we're having a much different conversation today. We got punched in the mouth at 30-30 and didn't recover for a while