Arizona Vs Davidson 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 11/27/24 530pm ESPN2

[WILD]

Arizona Vs Davidson 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 11/27/24 530pm ESPN2

Arizona (2-2) will face off against Davidson (4-0) in the first round of the battle 4 Atlantis tournament. The winner of this game will advance to play the winner of the Oklahoma/Providence game. Davidson is coming off a home win over VMI 93-66, winning and covering as 19.5 point favorites. Arizona just lost a tough home battle against #12 Duke, losing 69-55 as 1.5-point home favorites. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 EST from the Imperial Arena in the Bahamas on ESPN2.

Dave O'Brien (PxP) and Jimmy Dykes (Analyst) are on the call for Davidson vs #24 Arizona.

The Davidson Wildcats are 4-0 coming into this tournament and covered the spread in all three games that had one. There was no spread when they played William Peace University, a Division III school, but they still won by 41 points and likely would have covered any number. Davidson was favored in every game, but it has not been easy as they were only 5.5-point favorites against Bowling Green and East Tennessee State. This will be their first game as an underdog as they take on Arizona. Their most recent game was against VMI, where they were led by Reed Bailey with 23 points and eight boards in the win.

Bailey is their big man in the middle who leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 19.0 PPG and 7.8 RPG. Bailey is a 6'10, 230 pound junior who has started every game at Davidson since stepping on campus as a freshman. Bailey scored 18 or more in his last three games, and is an old school big who has not attempted a three all season. Their shooter is 6'7 forward Bobby Durkin, he has 13 made threes on the year while shooting 54.2% from deep. Durkin averages 16.8 PPG and 4.3 RPG in his second season with the team. Their point guard is Connor Kochera, he leads the team with 3.3 APG while scoring another 16.0 PPG. Kochera started every game with the team last year, bringing valuable chemistry as their top three scorers all played together last season.

Matt McKillop has been the head coach of the Wildcats since 2022, working his way up from an assistant role. Davidson is ranked 116th overall according to KenPom. They rank 89th in offensive efficiency and 172nd in defensive efficiency. They play relatively slow, ranking 233rd in pace of play out of the 364 Division I teams.

The Arizona Wildcats find themselves in a position most big programs do not find themselves in their preseason schedule, being losers of two in a row. They went to Wisconsin as small road favorites and took a loss, then hosted Duke in a high profile matchup and lost again. This makes their best win of the season a home game over Old Dominion where they were favored by 33. They get a new chance in this tournament to prove themselves. In the game against Duke, the Wildcats were led by Jaden Bradley with 18 points in the loss.

Bradley has been their top scorer with 15.5 PPG as a 6'3 junior guard. He came off the bench for Arizona last season, but now has a bigger role with the team, playing 28.0 minutes per game. Bradley has scored 18 or more in each of their last two games. KJ Lewis is a 6'4 guard who was also on the team last season, he is now second on the team with 12.3 PPG and adds 4.3 RPG. The Wildcats have not been shooting the ball well from deep, the team is only connecting on 27.1% of their attempts and no player on the team has more than six threes made through four games. Caleb Love is off to a slow start, he averaged 18.0 PPG last season for Arizona, but is down at 10.3 PPG in this season

Tommy Lloyd is the head coach of Arizona, he has been with the team since 2021 after being an assistant with Gonzaga. Arizona is rank 24th overall in KenPom. They are 33rd in offensive efficiency and 25th in defensive efficiency. They are one of the fastest teams in the nation, ranking 15th in pace of play.

Battle 4 Atlantis schedule



ARIZONA is favored at -15.5 points and the Over/Under is 155 points

Let's talk about the Wildcats Vs Wildcats

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[KansasCityCats]

Let's take care of business & not repeat the last time we were in Nassau Bay...

[|ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ|]

Hopefully Indiana will be waiting in the Championship so Oumar Ballo can drop 30 & 15 on us, including 8-8 FT, 7 blocks and 7 finger wags.

[KansasCityCats]

Lloyd would absolutely play hack-a-Ballo if we matched up with IU in the finals.

[arxpert]

It is a very strong field with a very diverse crop of talented teams. I don't expect to see Gonzaga in this tournament, but if it happens I will enjoy watching it. Tommy has ducked Few like the plague so far.

[WILD]

Game preview & odds updated above.

[WILD]

Zona going with the Blue Uni's against Davidson

https://x.com/Zona_Briggs/status/1861873195004883360?t=F9xNsYe8MzqZNwsV10TJUQ&s=19

[KansasCityCats]

With Gonzaga and IU out, the path is cleared for a title (although WVU looked surprisingly strong).

[WILD]

https://x.com/ArizonaMBB/status/1861912974195032309?t=Sey6YtLskpYbkVXmmdCmSA&s=19

[arxpert]

I'm not surprised Tommy went with Townsend, Tony Dell Taco tonight against Davidson. 2 of the top Mid Major players from last year looked right at home with this level of competition. There were 2 moments, 1 early, 1 late where we had it going well and Tommy rotated out what got us to that point. We let it slip back a bit.

Tommy needs to be part of the Solution, not exasperate the problem.