Sad Arizona ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. I didn't enjoy this game very much. Watching it, I never felt like we we really in it.
2. About the 10 minute mark, Cobb took a defensive board, threw a great outlet to Vital, who made an acrobatic catch and spin to get away from being covered, and then made a pretty lay-in with a defender closing in on him. The sequence was the only time in the game I actually cheered.
3. The other high points, if you can call them that, were the overall play of Cobb and Wilson's 12 quality minutes.
4. Vital shot 50% overall, 50% on 3s, went 3 for 3 at the line and pulled down 3 boards. Great line, until you get to the turnover column. 7. Uggh.
5. He and Jalen combined for 12 of our unacceptable 19 turnovers. They're guards, dammit. They are supposed to be able to handle the ball.
6. All through the 1st half and into the 2nd, I was begging Polley to shoot the 3. Then around the 13 minute mark of the 2nd half, he finally did. And of course he bricked two in a row on consecutive possessions. Never mind, kid. Don't listen to me. It appears that I'm an idiot. Note: See #12 below
7. Seemed like Jalen deflected the ball out of bounds instead of catching it a whole bunch of times today.
8. We do not appear to know where each other are on the court an awful lot of the time. Players have to reach way out for a pass -- often in the direction opposite of their own motion -- way too often. And guys who get in trouble inside have to look for someone to pass it too, instead of knowing where the open man is supposed to be. Stark contrast to zona often making multiple semi-blind passes on the interior with precision.
9. 9:50 they called an offensive foul on Jalen after he had slipped the defender and the defender stuck his arm out and hooked him, then fell down. But that's just one example of shippy officiating.
10. Speaking of officiating, there were bad calls in both directions, but I don't think there can be any question that it was called much tighter on our end of the floor. We were called for 23 fouls to their 15. Nore to the point, they shot 22 FTs to our 13. Even at the 66% we were shooting them at, if we had 9 more attempts, we win the game. Or if they had 9 fewer attempts we win the game. So, yeah, the refs were a factor.
11. Not all the calls were horrible though. In either direction. At 4:43 2nd half, Jalen got called for a charge. It was an obvious offensive foul, but he bitched about it pretty hard. Unnecessary and not at all helpful to the cause.
12. And after Polley made that 3 with a minute left, I was screaming for him to shoot it again on the next posession. I'm fickle that way. Note: See #6 above
13. Statistically, this was a closer game than it felt like as it unfolded. We shot 48% to Zona's 46. Took one fewer shots than them and made one more. Rebounding? 8 Offensive and 24 Defensive for each team. Assists were dead even as well, with a dozen for each team. We had one more block (5/4). The areas of notable difference were we made 5 more 3s than them on 33% to 18% long range shooting, and they outscored us by 11 on the free throw line, shooting 86% on 24 freebies, to our 62% on 13 tries.
14. If you were in the chat room, you would have thought we were turning it over 3 times as often as Zona, but in reality, that difference was 19/14. Too many TOs for sure, but not nearly as big a difference in the outcome as the 11 point differential in free throws.
15. Gilbert seemed in some kind of daze even before he banged his head.
16. Cobb played so well in the first half, I can't figure out why he only played a little more than 6 minutes in the 2nd half.

 

[Jaker]

in your thread title next time please

 

[Kitaman]

Our guards seemed to get into mixtape mode. Not sure what the hell they ate this morning but they regressed to high school/street ball totally messing up our offensive flow including ball movement. Saw some unnecessary impossible dribbling through defenders and impossible shots when surrounded by defenders. Its like they saw the hoop as goal posts and the basketball turned into a football.

 

[nomar]

Can't disagree with much...except I enjoyed the game. Not the result, and not the sloppiness, but watching a competitive game against real competition where our guys played hard.

I'm lot more concerned about whether Hurley's the right guy for the job than I am about how far this imperfect team is going to go this March. And as to the former, I continue to like what I see.

 

[Horatio]

Our guards seemed to get into mixtape mode. Not sure what the hell they ate this morning but they regressed to high school/street ball totally messing up our offensive flow including ball movement. Saw some unnecessary impossible dribbling through defenders and impossible shots when surrounded by defenders. Its like they saw the hoop as goal posts and the basketball turned into a football.

Yep. Straight hero, street basketball and the problem is we had about three off them do it at The same time , in the same game. No poise. No patience. Just hot sauce

 

[Jaker]

none of those guys can hold the "Professors" jockstrap

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Can't disagree with much...except I enjoyed the game. Not the result, and not the sloppiness, but watching a competitive game against real competition where our guys played hard.

Yep - I don't like the outcome, but I certainly don't regret having watched. After the past two years, that says a lot.

 

[zls44]

I can't remember a game with a bigger disconnect in anger between the people who were there (stinks to lose, we'll be ok) and who weren't (THAT GAME WAS TRASH MAKE FREE THROWS).

Not saying either is right or wrong. Truth's probably in the middle there. But its interesting.

I wasn't at the 1990 games, but I can't recall a louder XL than that first half rally. Whole fanbase can smell the program is on the rebound and wants to get back so bad.

 

[imno1]

Yep. Straight hero, street basketball and the problem is we had about three off them do it at The same time , in the same game. No poise. No patience. Just hot sauce

I think I read that about 21 nba scouts were going to be at the game. Possibly a reason for the hero ball. But my biggest grip is they weren’t committed to defense until crunch time. An average Zona team looked much quicker and crisper than us. The season is early though. If we play better defense for 40 minutes this team could win a lot of games.

 

[jibsey]

the. Xl crowd was trying to lift the team, looking for any excuse. The crowd was great but the team was sloppy and fidnt shoot well. Mismatch inside as they had easy layups. Tough one to lose really, but i’ll say this and its not sour grapes, those refs hurt us IMO.

 

[Horatio]

I think I read that about 21 nba scouts were going to be at the game. Possibly a reason for the hero ball. But my biggest grip is they weren’t committed to defense until crunch time. An average Zona team looked much quicker and crisper than us. The season is early though. If we play better defense for 40 minutes this team could win a lot of games.

Exactly. They waited for the end of the game to play defense and get stops. Hurley has 8 games of film now. He’ll fix it

 

[UconnU]

We need to relax. It’s a game we could have, should have won but it’s not the end of the world. We’re going to beat Nova and KILL it in conference this year. A talent upgrade is on the horizon with 2019 and 2020 classes.

 

[browndog319]

1. I didn't enjoy this game very much. Watching it, I never felt like we we really in it.
2. About the 10 minute mark, Cobb took a defensive board, threw a great outlet to Vital, who made an acrobatic catch and spin to get away from being covered, and then made a pretty lay-in with a defender closing in on him. The sequence was the only time in the game I actually cheered.
3. The other high points, if you can call them that, were the overall play of Cobb and Wilson's 12 quality minutes.
4. Vital shot 50% overall, 50% on 3s, went 3 for 3 at the line and pulled down 3 boards. Great line, until you get to the turnover column. 7. Uggh.
5. He and Jalen combined for 12 of our unacceptable 19 turnovers. They're guards, dammit. They are supposed to be able to handle the ball.
6. All through the 1st half and into the 2nd, I was begging Polley to shoot the 3. Then around the 13 minute mark of the 2nd half, he finally did. And of course he bricked two in a row on consecutive possessions. Never mind, kid. Don't listen to me. It appears that I'm an idiot. Note: See #12 below
7. Seemed like Jalen deflected the ball out of bounds instead of catching it a whole bunch of times today.
8. We do not appear to know where each other are on the court an awful lot of the time. Players have to reach way out for a pass -- often in the direction opposite of their own motion -- way too often. And guys who get in trouble inside have to look for someone to pass it too, instead of knowing where the open man is supposed to be. Stark contrast to zona often making multiple semi-blind passes on the interior with precision.
9. 9:50 they called an offensive foul on Jalen after he had slipped the defender and the defender stuck his arm out and hooked him, then fell down. But that's just one example of shippy officiating.
10. Speaking of officiating, there were bad calls in both directions, but I don't think there can be any question that it was called much tighter on our end of the floor. We were called for 23 fouls to their 15. Nore to the point, they shot 22 FTs to our 13. Even at the 66% we were shooting them at, if we had 9 more attempts, we win the game. Or if they had 9 fewer attempts we win the game. So, yeah, the refs were a factor.
11. Not all the calls were horrible though. In either direction. At 4:43 2nd half, Jalen got called for a charge. It was an obvious offensive foul, but he bitched about it pretty hard. Unnecessary and not at all helpful to the cause.
12. And after Polley made that 3 with a minute left, I was screaming for him to shoot it again on the next posession. I'm fickle that way. Note: See #6 above
13. Statistically, this was a closer game than it felt like as it unfolded. We shot 48% to Zona's 46. Took one fewer shots than them and made one more. Rebounding? 8 Offensive and 24 Defensive for each team. Assists were dead even as well, with a dozen for each team. We had one more block (5/4). The areas of notable difference were we made 5 more 3s than them on 33% to 18% long range shooting, and they outscored us by 11 on the free throw line, shooting 86% on 24 freebies, to our 62% on 13 tries.
14. If you were in the chat room, you would have thought we were turning it over 3 times as often as Zona, but in reality, that difference was 19/14. Too many TOs for sure, but not nearly as big a difference in the outcome as the 11 point differential in free throws.
15. Gilbert seemed in some kind of daze even before he banged his head.
16. Cobb played so well in the first half, I can't figure out why he only played a little more than 6 minutes in the 2nd half.

Free throws baby. All comes down to our missed FTs.

 

[browndog319]

I can't remember a game with a bigger disconnect in anger between the people who were there (stinks to lose, we'll be ok) and who weren't (THAT GAME WAS TRASH MAKE FREE THROWS).

Not saying either is right or wrong. Truth's probably in the middle there. But its interesting.

I wasn't at the 1990 games, but I can't recall a louder XL than that first half rally. Whole fanbase can smell the program is on the rebound and wants to get back so bad.

I wasn’t angry. It was winnable but I do think it’s frustrating to miss FTs.
Turnovers... yeah, that stinks but when you’re playing fast mistakes will happen.
FTs are fundamental and the action has slowed to a stop.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

We need to relax. It’s a game we could have, should have won but it’s not the end of the world. We’re going to beat Nova and KILL it in conference this year. A talent upgrade is on the horizon with 2019 and 2020 classes.

I don't know if you're right, but I like this post.

Before it felt stupid and like I was living in a disappeared past, my signature for a long time was "Defensive stops made free throws, and low turnovers." Today it felt relevant, and like a mantra to go back to.

 

[zls44]

I wasn’t angry. It was winnable but I do think it’s frustrating to miss FTs.
Turnovers... yeah, that stinks but when you’re playing fast mistakes will happen.
FTs are fundamental and the action has slowed to a stop.

They're a subpar FT team and its really annoying (do NOT look up Tarin Smith's career FT numbers, you will have a stroke) but...I mean...KO's teams were good at FT's and bad at everything else!

 

[Waquoit]

the. Xl crowd was trying to lift the team, looking for any excuse. The crowd was great but the team was sloppy and fidnt shoot well.

If only we could have had a few more runs. It was rare that we didn't give up a noise-killing bucket.

 

[polycom]

We need to relax. It’s a game we could have, should have won but it’s not the end of the world. We’re going to beat Nova and KILL it in conference this year. A talent upgrade is on the horizon with 2019 and 2020 classes.

Uh we wont beat Nova if we play like we did v. Zona.

 

[Ewekon]

Uh we wont beat Nova if we play like we did v. Zona.

It is all about conference play now. We played to our talent level, at home, against a Decent D1 team. Nova and FL st. are better.

AG is out of control.

We need one of the three bigs for 2019. Idk how this year's play impacts the rest of recruiting. A talent upgrade is needed.

Sid is going to be good.

 

[August_West]

They're a subpar FT team and its really annoying (do NOT look up Tarin Smith's career FT numbers, you will have a stroke) but...I mean...KO's teams were good at FT's and bad at everything else!

Well we were better defensively too.

Everything about this team is improved but the defense makes me cringe.

 

[jibsey]

Guards are supposed to be a strength of this team but our guards have their own flaws as every player does I guess. Jalen, 3 point shooting. Vital turnovers, poor shot selection. Gilbert, size shot selection. Smith FT’s. All of them, turnovers. So if you add that to our big man issues we have a real problem that only an infusion of talent can fix. Those who have us penciled in for the tourney are not paying attention, although what happened yesterday was better than it would have been under KO IMO.

 

[husky429]

I don't think you have a very good sense for basketball if you think this game felt out of reach the entire game.

We are 1-2 of our 10 foolish mistakes away from winning. Or 1 of the charges. Or 1 or 2 of the stupid turnovers. That is not bad against a decent Arizona team. We were in it the entire game, but couldn't get over the 4 point hump. I don't think that is unexpected from a team accustomed to losing with a new coach.

Cobb did not play as well as you think. He probably should have gotten more 2nd-half burn, but he wasn't Emeka Okafor out there. Our defense looked worse than D2 teams with him out there.

Edit: I came across as more of a jack --- than I should have here. I don't like losing either. My bad haha

 

[willie99]

Disappointed we lost, too many turnovers, think the kids may have pushed too hard, but gee whiz, I found an awful lot to cheer about

 

[notthestuff]

I don't think you have a very good sense for basketball if you think this game felt out of reach the entire game.

We are 1-2 of our 10 foolish mistakes away from winning. Or 1 of the charges. Or 1 or 2 of the stupid turnovers. That is not bad against a decent Arizona team. We were in it the entire game, but couldn't get over the 4 point hump. I don't think that is unexpected from a team accustomed to losing with a new coach.

Cobb did not play as well as you think. He probably should have gotten more 2nd-half burn, but he wasn't Emeka Okafor out there. Our defense looked worse than D2 teams with him out there.

Completely agree. There were probably 20 individual plays that if any one of them go the other way the outcome would have been different. The 5 point swing where there was a missed open layup in the first half that led to a transition 3 for them being one. The 4 open 3's in the 2nd half that were all missed when we had momentum, the multiple times someone got lost on basic cross screens that resulted in lay-ups or dunks in the first half, missed free throws, charges that could have gone either way, bad fouls, etc. We were there the whole time and in spite of some of the poor play were 1 break away from winning.

I'm upset with the loss and frustrated by some of the foolish plays but this team still has exceeded any realistic expectation I had coming into the season and is only going to get better regardless of what happens against Florida State and Villanova.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Good grief. I can't believe the reacting from people here is so negative. Get your heads our of your collective asses.

Our guards were sloppy and tried to do too much. Arizona played really well, especially on the defensive end, and we had numerous break-downs, leading to poor decisions with the ball. The officiating was inconsistent, with many early touch fouls on UConn and a bunch of questionable charge-block calls. I think that took away some of our defensive intensity. We were lousy shooting from 3, but so was Arizona. Call that a wash. We fouled a jump shooter, what, 3 times in the second half? I appreciate the close-out effort but just get a hand up, don't try to block it when you are running at the shooter.

So with all that, we lost to the team that will probably win the Pac 10, by 4. Now, unless I'm wrong, this is still the team that people said didn't have enough talent to win. So that team, playing poorly, facing uneven officiating and an Arizona team that did play well, lost by 4. And we somehow think this bodes ill for our chances this season? This team is in good shape. We got a nice contribution from Sid for the first time and that will give us needed flexibility when Vital and Smith both lay eggs. Once Diarra is back, and we can put him alongside Cobb or Carlton with Sid on the wing, we can begin to do some real damage inside and take the pressure off the guards.