Game Thread: AZ @ Cal

[gordontrue]

Neither team has been playing their best basketball as of late.

Here's to hoping 1 of these teams gets back on track. (Not you golden bears!)

Cal would be angry and motivated for a win no matter who they play next, after 3 straight losses. The fact that its the #1 team in the nation can only increase that anger and motivation.

22 would be sweet!

 

[The Derski]

I felt this video was appropriate... and awesome.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgAGo3ov1us]Sean Miller Halftime Interview vs Cal - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

This team was an easy win.......... If you don't beat em by more than 10 you should be embarrassed!

 

[The Derski]

This team was an easy win.......... If you don't beat em by more than 10 you should be embarrassed!

ASU won in OT..

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

ASU won in OT..

Haha ik im joking....... Isnt it crazy that Jahii had all this confidence in his shot last year...... Dragic didnt and now its the other way around?

 

[CatsTopPac]

I honestly think that if we play AZ Basketball, it won't matter what Cal does; we'll win. That will ring true for the remainder of our games this regular season (except probably for the CU/Utah trip). But that's not the way we played against Stanford. We played some very selfish/scared basketball against them, and we were lucky to get the win. It really reminded me of last year's team: come out sloppy, play uninspired and selfish all game, and then finish with just enough of a sense of urgency to win. That's not going to get us very far.

It looks like our real weakness is playing against a good frontcourt that will spook the freshmen into throwing up shots, instead of finding the open man around the basket or passing it back out. AG and RHJ are usually good for about 5 assists per game between the two of them, and last night they had 1 total. Instead of those assists, they put up low percentage shots, and that led to them going 4-17. That seemed to be the difference in squeaking out a victor, and a comfortable win.

The free throws are obviously a problem, but they have been all year. We've been able to work through that with good offensive sets.

I also think that BA and Zeus feel the pressure when we don't look good offensively, and play timidly in their shooting, and their ability to rebound. I think they count on the freshmen to get a lot of boards, and didn't step up when AG and RHJ were off. They need to be able to pick it up. Those two have played in enough games to be comfortable in any situation. Them failing to stay strong on the boards and confident in their shots added to the troubles.

Everyone seemed to be looking for NJ to bail them out, and not relying on running their offense in order to get the team back on track.

It was a recipe for disaster, and it almost cost us. Good news is; we still came away with a win. But we can't lose the lesson, because we will not win a single game past the first round in March, playing like that. Stanford is certainly not as good of a defensive team to have caused us to get that rattled. Their two bigs are great players, and definitely gave us a good look at what a tough game inside looks like. But it looked like we just game them the post, and didn't even put up much of a fight.

Cal will have another good frontcourt with Kravish and Solomon. I think our back court can play well against anyone in the country, but we have got to stay strong underneath. If we can bounce back against Cal, and prove to ourselves (once again) that we can compete with good frontcourts, then we can get back on track and keep moving forward. If we can't, and Cal shows up to play with upset on their minds, we are going to drop this one.

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

Uofa should beat em by 20............ Cobbs head is still not screwed in right. He should of beat us seriously he missed a lay up that got stuck in between the rim and backboard a wide open layup............

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

Cal is as good as the production they get from Bird.......

 

[johnson]

I think the Cats come out and win this one handily. After the debacle in Stanford, there will be plenty of tape to review about what not to do and they should get back to basics...which for them means dominating.

 

[CatsTopPac]

For some reason, I have this feeling that Miller lit a fire under their asses, and told them that with the exception of OSU and at home against Stanford, AZ will lose every other game this year if they play like they did on Wednesday. I feel like Cal is going to play above themselves, but I think that AZ pulls away with about 8 minutes left, and wins by double digits. Not a prediction, because I wouldn't be surprised if it's close either way, but I just have a feeling that AZ comes out with an axe to grind, and takes it out on Cal.

 

[GumbySquad]

After tomorrow the team will be halfway through the conference, 9 games left... With a win tomorrow @Cal Arizona will practically have the title won. The UofA will always hold the tiebreaker over UCLA, since they do not play again, and the Bruins are not going to go undefeated down the stretch, so that means that the Cats would have to lose 4 out of the last 9 in order to let the Bruins (or someone else) back into the race.

I've always been a one-game-at-a-time kind of guy, ever since I was younger and playing the game myself... and I am not guaranteeing anything by any means. However, goal #1 is win the conference, goal #2 is get a good seed in the tournament, goal #3 is win six games in a row... and being only 1/2 way through the conference season the team is fairly close to wrapping up goal #1.

 

[The Derski]

 

[520GGATO]

4* CB. Hale flips from Zona to UW. Not really news. Actually RR pulled his scholarship after Hale took a trip to UDub this weekend. It was a slap in the face from Hale and they stopped putting up with his antics. hopefully all this means is that Denson would more likely play CB then WR. Nothing to worry about. All this shows is that the staff doesn't put up with this crap.

 

[mrwallace2ku]

Good day for Pac BB...


GOBEARS!

 

[FORKWDEVIL]

Go Bears! It would make things a bit nicer for ASU.
Cannot wait until the day you guys lose so we can all move on LOL.

 

[FORKWDEVIL]

These fuckers even have charts!

 

[Arizona_Sting]

BEAR DOWN AYEEEE

 

[GumbySquad]

This Syracuse Duke game is off the charts. Huge 3 at the end to send it into overtime... but Duke won't have 2 starters who fouled out. Should be another W for the Orange.

 

[The Derski]

Duke with the buzzer beater!!! no Parker for OT though

 

[Arizona_Sting]

wow... the refs screwed Dook over