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- Aug 26, 2011
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Better. However, the bar was really low.
The idea that we might be better off without Adams and Larrier is nuts to me. Adams should be better by now, but he's still a gamer who represents our best chance against elite competition. Let's not forget that Larrier tore his ACL just over a year ago. I thought last night was the best he's looked in terms of putting the ball on the floor and getting to his spots. Adams and Larrier are our only two players who can get baskets one on one. Life would be extremely difficult with zero guys who can do that.
The KenPom ranking is what it is because we've been a bad team. The fact that we dropped on the KenPom rankings last night isn't, to my mind, an accurate reflection of what happened. Last night reminded me of an 8/1 match-up in that both teams had players but talent/depth/size won out in the end. One of the reasons we may have dropped on KenPom is because they don't seem to respect Arizona as much as Vegas. Vegas realizes that they're undefeated with their full array of players and that they're closer to a one or two seed caliber. Not sure how anybody can come away from that thinking Cincinnati or Wichita has a better chance to win the title regardless of what KenPom might think.
All in all, I thought they played last night like we could have reasonably expected them to play at the beginning of the season. It's not cause to celebrate but they looked competent.
The idea that we might be better off without Adams and Larrier is nuts to me. Adams should be better by now, but he's still a gamer who represents our best chance against elite competition. Let's not forget that Larrier tore his ACL just over a year ago. I thought last night was the best he's looked in terms of putting the ball on the floor and getting to his spots. Adams and Larrier are our only two players who can get baskets one on one. Life would be extremely difficult with zero guys who can do that.
The KenPom ranking is what it is because we've been a bad team. The fact that we dropped on the KenPom rankings last night isn't, to my mind, an accurate reflection of what happened. Last night reminded me of an 8/1 match-up in that both teams had players but talent/depth/size won out in the end. One of the reasons we may have dropped on KenPom is because they don't seem to respect Arizona as much as Vegas. Vegas realizes that they're undefeated with their full array of players and that they're closer to a one or two seed caliber. Not sure how anybody can come away from that thinking Cincinnati or Wichita has a better chance to win the title regardless of what KenPom might think.
All in all, I thought they played last night like we could have reasonably expected them to play at the beginning of the season. It's not cause to celebrate but they looked competent.