Who here is old enough to remember UofA fans clamouring for Lute to be fire?

[WILD]

UofA fans might scoff at the idea of fans calling for Lute to be fired, but after Lute/Arizona had losses in the 1st round to East Tennessee St in 1992, 1st round to Santa Clara 1993, and 1st round to Miami of Ohio 1995 fans were calling for Lutes head. That's 3 highly ranked Zona squads with Bad 1st round losses in 4 years. I vividly remember the feeling of utter disbelief after each of those losses.

I'm going to take most of you on a trip down memory lane. The younger fans will gain an understanding of the heartache Wildcats fans had to endure before the 1997 Title win. ⤵️


1992, East Tennessee State, 1st Round
With six future pros in the lineup and another top-10 national ranking, Arizona was loaded and ready for a deep tournament run. The Buccaneers of East Tennessee State had other ideas. The Bucs won their conference and actually gained confidence from a strong performance in Tucson the year before.

The Wildcats got decent performances from all their stars, Mills, Reeves, Stoudamire and Rooks, but East Tennessee State had too much scoring of their own. Six players nearly scored double figures and Arizona was never able to get on top, losing 87-80. This loss continued the frustration for Wildcat fans but it was only the beginning of what was to come.

1993, Santa Clara, 1st Round
This upset is talked about a lot. What is lost in the midst of the 1992-93 season (because of its unfortunate ending) is just how good this Arizona team was. With Chris Mills, who won the Pac-10 POY, Khalid Reeves, Damon Stoudamire, Ed Stokes, Ray Owes and Reggie Geary, the Wildcats had real NBA scoring threats at multiple spots. Six players on this team eventually ended up playing on an NBA team.

The Wildcats started the season with losses in two of the first four. Chris Mills and company dropped from ninth to 22nd in the AP poll. Then they won 19 games in a row. They finished the season at 24-3 and won the Pac-10 with a 17-1 conference record. This team could compete and beat anyone in the nation on any given night. They just happened to have trouble with the Santa Clara Broncos.

Santa Clara didn't win the West Coast Conference in the regular season. In fact, to end the regular season, the Broncos were barely over .500 with a 15-11 record. They lost to teams like San Diego (twice), Pepperdine and to Stanford by 29. They had one NBA player, Steve Nash, who was just a freshman and averaged less than 10 points. To be frank, this was not a good team.

Still considered one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history, the Wildcats shot 25 percent in the second half and 31 percent for the game. Adding to the Wildcats' problems, Chris Mills picked up his fourth foul very early and sat for 10 minutes. When the horn sounded, the fifth ranked Wildcats put Santa Clara and Steve Nash on the map with a 64-61 loss.

1995, Miami (OH), 1st Round
Damon Stoudamire's senior season would end very similarly to Jason Terry's. Both Wildcat point guards won the Pac-10 Player of the Year award, both played on teams that had less talent than the year before and both were upset in the first round.

In the 1994-95 season, Arizona was coming off an incredible run to the Final Four. The Wildcats lost one of the all-time greats in Khalid Reeves but still had Stoudamire, a very productive Ray Owes, and two youngsters in Michael Dickerson and Miles Simon. The team finished the regular season ranked 15th and was seeded fifth.

They played an unknown Miami of Ohio in the first round. The Wildcats were in a funk the entire contest and lost by nine. It was a disappointing way to end the stellar career of Damon Stoudamire.


Coach Lloyd/Arizona just suffered a devastating 1st round loss to Princeton after getting to the sweet 16 last season. Looking back at Lutes ups and downs should help remind everyone that This Is ARIZONA and we will be back to winning in March Madness.

BEARDOWN!

[Wiidslifecoach]

Easy to fucking forget those exits when we went to the FF in 94'. I'd take 3 early exits in 4 tries if we went to the FF every 4 tries.

[LeftCoastCats]

You're supposed to learn from history.

Recruit and get top tier guards, play some damned defense and demand excellence from your guys.

It's nice to score 100 points in the regular season, but defense travels. This isn't an all or nothing sport. To win a championship the metrics are in:


Top 40 in adjusted offensive efficiency
Top 25 in adjusted defense efficiency

We got the offensive part figured out. Can we please stop pretending like the harder metric, defense, is as big if not a bigger part of the equation. That was always the criticism of Lute teams, their lack of defense and the list of early exits proved the critics right too often.

Tournament time requires you to get stops to win close games. Lutes teams often struggled with that. Tommy's teams have struggled with that.

Guards and Defense. The magical combination for getting to April college basketball.

[Zona Nation]

Fans can be crazy

[KansasCityCats]

The defense continually improved as the season progressed, including limiting our final three opponents to 59 points.

KU fans were calling for Bill Self to be fired because he struggled to reach the Final Four during his first four seasons in Lawrence.

Patirnce is a necessity if you want to determine whether your coach can get you over the hump.

Lute did it. I think Miller had a chance if we gave him another 4-5 seasons…

[arxpert]

UofA fans might scoff at the idea of fans calling for Lute to be fired, but after Lute/Arizona had losses in the 1st round to East Tennessee St in 1992, 1st round to Santa Clara 1993, and 1st round to Miami of Ohio 1995 fans were calling for Lutes head. That's 3 highly ranked Zona squads with Bad 1st round losses in 4 years. I vividly remember the feeling of utter disbelief after each of those losses.

I'm going to take most of you on a trip down memory lane. The younger fans will gain an understanding of the heartache Wildcats fans had to endure before the 1997 Title win. ⤵️


1992, East Tennessee State, 1st Round
With six future pros in the lineup and another top-10 national ranking, Arizona was loaded and ready for a deep tournament run. The Buccaneers of East Tennessee State had other ideas. The Bucs won their conference and actually gained confidence from a strong performance in Tucson the year before.

The Wildcats got decent performances from all their stars, Mills, Reeves, Stoudamire and Rooks, but East Tennessee State had too much scoring of their own. Six players nearly scored double figures and Arizona was never able to get on top, losing 87-80. This loss continued the frustration for Wildcat fans but it was only the beginning of what was to come.

1993, Santa Clara, 1st Round
This upset is talked about a lot. What is lost in the midst of the 1992-93 season (because of its unfortunate ending) is just how good this Arizona team was. With Chris Mills, who won the Pac-10 POY, Khalid Reeves, Damon Stoudamire, Ed Stokes, Ray Owes and Reggie Geary, the Wildcats had real NBA scoring threats at multiple spots. Six players on this team eventually ended up playing on an NBA team.

The Wildcats started the season with losses in two of the first four. Chris Mills and company dropped from ninth to 22nd in the AP poll. Then they won 19 games in a row. They finished the season at 24-3 and won the Pac-10 with a 17-1 conference record. This team could compete and beat anyone in the nation on any given night. They just happened to have trouble with the Santa Clara Broncos.

Santa Clara didn't win the West Coast Conference in the regular season. In fact, to end the regular season, the Broncos were barely over .500 with a 15-11 record. They lost to teams like San Diego (twice), Pepperdine and to Stanford by 29. They had one NBA player, Steve Nash, who was just a freshman and averaged less than 10 points. To be frank, this was not a good team.

Still considered one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history, the Wildcats shot 25 percent in the second half and 31 percent for the game. Adding to the Wildcats' problems, Chris Mills picked up his fourth foul very early and sat for 10 minutes. When the horn sounded, the fifth ranked Wildcats put Santa Clara and Steve Nash on the map with a 64-61 loss.

1995, Miami (OH), 1st Round
Damon Stoudamire's senior season would end very similarly to Jason Terry's. Both Wildcat point guards won the Pac-10 Player of the Year award, both played on teams that had less talent than the year before and both were upset in the first round.

In the 1994-95 season, Arizona was coming off an incredible run to the Final Four. The Wildcats lost one of the all-time greats in Khalid Reeves but still had Stoudamire, a very productive Ray Owes, and two youngsters in Michael Dickerson and Miles Simon. The team finished the regular season ranked 15th and was seeded fifth.

They played an unknown Miami of Ohio in the first round. The Wildcats were in a funk the entire contest and lost by nine. It was a disappointing way to end the stellar career of Damon Stoudamire.


Coach Lloyd/Arizona just suffered a devastating 1st round loss to Princeton after getting to the sweet 16 last season. Looking back at Lutes ups and downs should help remind everyone that This Is ARIZONA and we will be back to winning in March Madness.

BEARDOWN!

Might I add that this is a good portion of the basis for why I have always put Conference Championships, Conference Tournaments, and Recruiting above March Madness? Very interesting to see people still think that Arizona is something they never were. Yeah, we got 1 title and it was as a 4 seed in a year with a ton of losses, middle of the pack in the Conference. A very Random run that should have never happened... why's that? Because it never happened before. Beating 3 1 seeds in a dance? We were the turd in the punchbowl that year. The #7 Seed UConn. The team that won it, but wasn't supposed to.

People seem to misunderstand things.

I don't have a problem with Arizona's Conference record nor Conference Tournament success over the last 2 years. I have a problem with the way our losses look and it doesn't matter that they are few and far between. They are the losses that of a Mid Major. I have a problem with the way we are coached on the court. I have a problem with the way Tommy is ending our recruiting pipeline to turn Arizona into a soft baby shit version of Gonzaga.

This is a direct reflection of why people like Jefferson, Arenas, etc all wanted Damon Stoudamire as Head Coach. This is a culture issue. The talent was here for Lloyd when he showed up. There was nothing Lloyd did except let these guys play a Run N Gun free flowing style of basketball. It is undisciplined and unchecked. Anyone can put on shoes and play for Tommy Lloyd. I don't care what BS you all want to believe about Tommy "re-recruiting" these players. They were all given full reins to showcase themselves so they stayed. 3 got drafted right away. 1 might this year, though I don't think Tubelis is NBA Ready at all. The rest are not going to the pros and Tommy has held back Boswell on purpose

CARRY ON.

[KansasCityCats]

#1 in points, assists, rebounds and wins in the PAC-12 over the last two seasons. #5 in defense this season. Lots to complain about…