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Arizona Vs California 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 12/29/23 At 830pm PAC12N
The Arizona Wildcats and the California Golden Bears meet Friday in college basketball action from Haas Pavilion. Arizona enters this one at 9-2 overall in the Pac-12 standings. The Wildcats took their second loss to Florida Atlantic last weekend. As for California, they're coming off a win over UC San Diego that improved the Bears to 4-7 on the year.
Arizona Wildcats
The Arizona Wildcats have lost to Purdue and FAU recently, while beating Alabama. The Arizona Wildcats are averaging 92.5 points on 49.3 percent shooting and allowing 70.3 points on 41 percent shooting. Caleb Love is averaging 16.5 points and 3.6 assists, while Keshad Johnson is averaging 13 points and 6.5 rebounds. Oumar Ballo is the third double-digit scorer and Pelle Larsson is grabbing 3.9 rebounds. The Arizona Wildcats are shooting 36.6 percent from beyond the arc and 75 percent from the free throw line. The Arizona Wildcats are allowing 32.1 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 41.5 rebounds per game.
Cal Golden Bears
The Cal Golden Bears rebounded from losses to Butler and Ole Miss with a win over UC San Diego. The Cal Golden Bears are averaging 76 points on 44 percent shooting and allowing 75.9 points on 44 percent shooting. Jaylon Tyson is averaging 19.4 points and 7 rebounds, while Fardaws Aimaq is averaging 16.9 points and 1.5 assists. Jalen Cone is the third double-digit scorer and Keonte Kennedy is grabbing 6.8 rebounds. The Cal Golden Bears are shooting 34.7 percent from beyond the arc and 73.3 percent from the free throw line. The Cal Golden Bears are allowing 36.8 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 34.4 rebounds per game. California will take on Arizona State after this game.
BDU's Free Pick
The Cal Golden Bears will be up for this game at home, and they've been battle tested, so there's no excuse for them here. With that said, the Arizona Wildcats have been a powerhouse through 11 games, and they're also 9-2 ATS on the season. No matter what you think of Cal, Arizona just isn't a team anyone would want to face, especially after a loss. Give me Arizona to cash another ticket!
Arizona Vs Cal Game Program (26 pages) ⤵️
arizonawildcats.com/documents/2023/12/28/Notes-G12-at_Cal.pdf
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Arizona is favored at -13.5 and the Over/Under is 156.5
Let's talk about the Wildcats Vs Bears!
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92-73 CATS
89-76 Cats
This team has shown some signs of life. I think Tommy let them get complacent tonight. Shouldn't be getting into it with scabs like Cal.
Tommy needs to seriously consider a change to the starting lineup:
Bradley
Love
Pelle
Keshad
Ballo
Boswell (benched for 1 game for playing like a beta and not showing hunger)
KJ Lewis (I feel gunning for Pelle's minutes + should push Pelle back to 6th man)
Krivas (Needs Ballo's minutes soon. He should be working on nothing but FT's for 80% of practice. We will need at least 1 Big to be able to hit around 70% FTs)
Side Note: I have no idea what Tommy is thinking not allowing Borovician to play. Since Henri is no where to be seen for whatever reason, I think Tommy is making a colossal mistake not having a guy who can stretch the floor available who is tall enough to make a difference if something were to happen to Keshad in-game like foul trouble. Tommy again as always has tunnel vision and a very limited plan. Each year we saw Kerr get hurt in the Pac12 Tournament and no one was "ready" to play AKA Tommy refused to let anyone on the bench even try. No one could do worse than what this team did last season vs Princeton and Tommy chose to fully go down with his ship as he lost the locker room with this mentality.
Boro can hit some FTs and stop the Hack-A-Shaq Ballo tactic.
After defeating Cal, t. lloyd has won 1 regular season PAC12 game in a row.
Many more to come in this winning streak!
Quote from: arxpert on December 29, 2023, 10:16:56 PMThis team has shown some signs of life. I think Tommy let them get complacent tonight. Shouldn't be getting into it with scabs like Cal.
Tommy needs to seriously consider a change to the starting lineup:
Bradley
Love
Pelle
Keshad
Ballo
Boswell (benched for 1 game for playing like a beta and not showing hunger)
KJ Lewis (I feel gunning for Pelle's minutes + should push Pelle back to 6th man)
Krivas (Needs Ballo's minutes soon. He should be working on nothing but FT's for 80% of practice. We will need at least 1 Big to be able to hit around 70% FTs)
Side Note: I have no idea what Tommy is thinking not allowing Borovician to play. Since Henri is no where to be seen for whatever reason, I think Tommy is making a colossal mistake not having a guy who can stretch the floor available who is tall enough to make a difference if something were to happen to Keshad in-game like foul trouble. Tommy again as always has tunnel vision and a very limited plan. Each year we saw Kerr get hurt in the Pac12 Tournament and no one was "ready" to play AKA Tommy refused to let anyone on the bench even try. No one could do worse than what this team did last season vs Princeton and Tommy chose to fully go down with his ship as he lost the locker room with this mentality.
Boro can hit some FTs and stop the Hack-A-Shaq Ballo tactic.
Fili B is a legit, well-rounded ball player. I am also not a fan of seeing his opportunities being this limited.
https://twitter.com/GregDMroz/status/1740972233617772899
Also allowed over 50 points in the 2nd half. We have an identity under Tommy of playing well in the 1st half then quitting in the 2nd half / being gamed on. Which means in good games or closer games, teams don't go away and we end up in a dicey situation or run out of the gym.
Some of you may remember the term as I said it all last season. Tommy is like a football coach with the first 15 plays scripted then has no plan after that. He just expects us to come out and put up a 100-120ppg pace in the first 10 minutes and our opponent to automatically be so shook and rattled that they just go away. However, good teams will weather our storm.
Tighten up the defense Tommy or BENCH players who are not showing interest.
You nailed it. Arizona is an awful second half team. In "fact", the Cats scored less points in the second half of games in TWO of their first TEN games...
Quote from: KansasCityCats on December 30, 2023, 03:57:44 PMYou nailed it. Arizona is an awful second half team. In "fact", the Cats scored less points in the second half of games in TWO of their first TEN games...
All last season they were run out of the gym by teams in the 2nd half. It is a Tommy thing. Confirmed. This is a different thing and the mentality is still to let up. Doesn't matter if it's 2 games. If you put up 50 in the 1st half and hold a team to 25 or so, you are expected to play defense in the 2nd half too.
Bad Habits.
Breeding Bad Habits. That is not debatable.
No, it's not debatable because numbers don't lie.
Arizona has been a top-2 offense nationally in each of the past three seasons. In addition, they scored more points in the second half of most games so far this season.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on December 30, 2023, 10:55:07 PMNo, it's not debatable because numbers don't lie.
Arizona has been a top-2 offense nationally in each of the past three seasons. In addition, they scored more points in the second half of most games so far this season.
My original comment spoke to last season as well. The stats do lie in both seasons. The play on the court diminished dramatically in the 2nd half since Last season and has carried over to this season. It is now called a Habit.
That habit is a poor habit to have when you have lofty goals. The #1 quality necessary to win a basketball tournament at any level is to not be outplayed (coaches are not on the court taking shots). The next quality is to be the team that finishes the strongest (coaching plays a big factor). There are many instances of 15-30pt type leads melting away in March Madness whether it was the WVU Pittsnogle vs Louisville Fransisco Garcia game or Lute's meltdown up 15 with 3:30 to go vs Illinois.
Nip bad habits in the bud. Don't make it your cultural identity.
I am getting tired, both here and in the shoutbox, of so much nitpicking about the CATs. Too many have their glass half full. Like I have said, a lot of teams would love to be #3 in KP and #3 in NET. 9-2, with a two OT loss at a neutral site to a team that is capable of scoring. Stuff happens. Oh, that other loss? A single digit loss to a top team in what was essentially a home game for them. Where one of their streaky guards got hot.
In the Cal game the starters averaged 24.4 minutes. So Cal had a little second half run. Haven't many of us wanted CTL to play deeper into the bench to prepare for foul troubles or injuries? So he played the bench 40% of the time.
Anyone can spin these facts however they like, my glass is half full. To blend in two new starters in Johnson and Love and to get them to commit to defense and the team game is a great job by CTL. Could we be disappointed and not reach the EE/FF? Yes. But we also could enjoy a spectacular finish to this season, one to remember. Sit back with me and enjoy the ride.
I have yet to find an easy place to research our stats by half from last year and this year.This page has some interesting numbers. For instance, in our 7 losses last years we shot 41.1% while in our 28 wins we shot 51.5%. Was the bad shooting in our losses due to injuries? The other team playing great defense? Lack of effort? Bad luck/bad shooting night? Coaching breakdown? Some of each I bet.
To me the beauty of college basketball over the NBA is that teams can get up for games and on a given night throw the stats out the window.
Quote from: Wildcat Dad on December 31, 2023, 09:27:44 AMI have yet to find an easy place to research our stats by half from last year and this year.This page has some interesting numbers. For instance, in our 7 losses last years we shot 41.1% while in our 28 wins we shot 51.5%. Was the bad shooting in our losses due to injuries? The other team playing great defense? Lack of effort? Bad luck/bad shooting night? Coaching breakdown? Some of each I bet.
To me the beauty of college basketball over the NBA is that teams can get up for games and on a given night throw the stats out the window.
Unfortunately some people here suffer from the disillusion that Arizona is a College Basketball Powerhouse with Many National Championships and Routine Final Fours. The way people speak it is as if we average a Final Four at least 2 to 3 times per Decade and a National Title Game + Championship at least once every 5-10 Years.
The fact is we aren't that, but there are many instances of people losing their minds under the prior coach who did in fact get Arizona to 3 Elite 8's in a 5 year period with 3 very narrow losses by last second shots or a miss that led to a 2 possession FT loss AS WELL AS a couple of Sweet 16 losses where one was a buzzer beater incredible shot by the opponent or losing when we were the much higher seed. As you said, anyone can have a night. Seeds go out the window. One Shining Moment is what it is for a reason. March Madness the same.
HOWEVER, all of That created a new sense of entitlement in my very humble, non feather ruffling opinion. People around here thought it would be considered COOL to bash that coach into oblivion for those narrow losses even though the consistency was plenty strong as a whole. The Conference Titles, Conference Tournament Titles. All there. Recruiting TOP TIER, best Ever in Arizona's storied history.
Now we have a new guy in charge and he got a great head start from the old guy. He has coached a ton of Wins. However he has fallen short and done the least with the most opportunity. So when you see these comments, just know it is Fair Criticism and for ME as I can only speak for myself, there is no such thing as Fair Criticism without Due Credit when deserved.
If you search the forums enough you will find plenty of appreciation posts.