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Arizona Vs Kansas St 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 2/11/25 6PM ESPN+
The Arizona Wildcats and the Kansas State Wildcats meet Tuesday in college basketball action from Bramlage Coliseum.
Arizona started out the year on a pretty rough run, but they've been much better since mid-December or so. The Wildcats lost five of their first nine games, beating only Canisius, Old Dominion, Davidson, and Southern Utah alongside losses to Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and UCLA. Wins over Samford, Central Michigan, TCU, Cincinnati, West Virginia, UCF, and Baylor came next, then a loss to Texas Tech. Since then Arizona has been on a six-game win streak. Those victories have come courtesy of Oklahoma State, Colorado, Iowa State, Arizona State, BYU, and Texas Tech in succession. That gives the Wildcats a 17-6 overall record through their first 23 games of the season so far.
In the Texas Tech matchup, the Wildcats went into the locker room with a slim 39-37 edge. Arizona kept it going in the second on a 43-36 run and took the eventual win in impressive fashion 82-73. Leading the team in scoring were Caleb Love (three rebounds; six assists) and Jaden Bradley (two rebounds; five steals; five assists), each with 16 points. Tobe Awaka added a double-double with 14 points, 11 boards, and two blocks in 21 minutes of action as well.
Over on the Kansas State side, they came into the season with a decent run, then hit the skids into January. The Wildcats have looked much better since then, however. Kansas State won six of their first eight games, taking out New Orleans, Cleveland State, MS Valley State, George Washington, Longwood, and Arkansas Pine Bluff. A rough 1-9 run came next with a lone win over Cincinnati among losses to St. John's, Drake, Wichita State, TCU, Oklahoma State, Houston, Texas Tech, Kansas, and Baylor Kansas State has since recovered with five straight wins, though. Those have come versus West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Arizona State, and Kansas in succession, giving the Wildcats a 12-11 overall run through 23 games so far this season.
Matched up against Kansas on Saturday, the Wildcats came out of the break with a 44-36 edge. Kansas State kept the pace from there on a 37-37 run and took the upset home win 81-73. Tops in scoring was David N'Guessan with 20 points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes of work. Dug McDaniel chipped in with 15 points and 11 assists alongside six rebounds for a double-double, and both Coleman Hawkins (eight assists; five rebounds) and Max Jones (four rebounds; two assists) had 12 points each.
Why the Kansas State Wildcats will win
Kansas State has won 25 of its last 28 night games at Fred Bramlage Coliseum.
Kansas State has won the first half in each of its last six games against the Big 12 Conference.
Why the Arizona Wildcats will win
Arizona has won each of its last 10 night games.
Kansas State has lost three of its last four night games against AP-ranked opponents.
Kansas State has lost the first half in 11 of its last 12 night games against AP-ranked opponents.
Total Points Facts
Each of Kansas State's last 10 night games has produced a total of 149 or fewer points.
Each of Arizona's last eight night games against non-AP-ranked opponents has produced a total of 157+ points.
What one betting Experts is saying
I'll lean toward Kansas State. The Wildcats have been on an impressive run over their last five games, taking out some tough teams along the way. One of those teams was rival Kansas, as the Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field in that upset win. The 13 points off 14 Jayhawks turnovers helped quite a bit as well, though Kansas State can't be relying on mistakes in order to keep the win streak going. Still, the Wildcats are scoring great these days with 71 or more points in all five victories.
As for the other Wildcats in this scenario, they played well against a good Texas Tech team in their last outing. Arizona shot 51.7 percent from the field with a 42-29 rebounding advantage. The only real blemish was the 14 turnovers, but they didn't end up making a huge difference in the overall score. The Wildcats are on a nice six-game win streak themselves, scoring 78 or more points in each of those outings. Kansas State is going to have to hit the gas on offense in order to keep pace here, but I think it's doable at home.
Should be a fun matchup!
Arizona is favored at 3.5 points and the Over/Under is 150.5 points
Let's talk about the Wildcats Vs wildcats
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Headed directly to the Octagon of Doom after work. Glad it's a weeknight game because that place was rocking over the weekend for the rivalry game.
We need to hope that K-State reverts to its old self (prior to the five game winning streak) and makes poor shot selections. Lately, they are efficient...and deadly from beyond the arc.
Love 3-15 from the field 0-7 from 3. Not gonna win many games that way.
No one "good" ever wins @ Kansas State. It's a freaky, bizarre, ominous place where Kansas Jayhawks can't seem to really ever win and I said it in a post not long ago that we won't win there either. I was met with the usual "KSU is not good and we will beat them" (as if it is a walkover - nonsense).
Don't trust me. Trust the results. Trust the facts.
This team has been able to be only slightly above where I expected them to be right now. The Big12 is starting to gain it's respect back as the Top Teams of the Big12 are nothing like the dead weight of the conference.
SEC is overrated in my book. They will be that conference that gets 14 Bids and only possibly 1 team makes the Elite 8 or Final 4. Reminds me of the NFC North this year in the NFL. Easy schedules / easy matchups against their own Conference (division).
I think we are looking at the first major experiment and should keep an open mind. Just about anyone out of the Top 35-45 "Power 4" can win 6 games in March. Basketball is a little different where there are some other Conferences in play besides the Football Power 4, but the fact of the matter is these Super Conferences don't do anything to help people understand who is actually elite and who is pretending.
I am very interested in seeing how the Bracket looks on Selection Sunday. I want to see if the Committee puts emphasis on Record or SOS/NET/KenPom or any other BS metric.
The cream of the crop will always rise to the top. March Madness will inevitably take out many elite teams along the way to the Final 4, but there will be at least 1 or more Top Teams and it will be for good reason. Doesn't matter what seed they have either. I remember a 4 seed that was able to win the whole thing and that just proved they were underseeded from the get up.
I also know some 7 seeds that have proven the world who's who.
I'm not worried about this loss to Kansas State, but I am crestfallen for the implications it puts on our chances at winning a Conference Banner which is the #1 priority of EVERY season.
This makes Houston @ Arizona our Superbowl and we better come ready to play unlike the Chiefs who had a Quitter under center and it was painful to watch.
If we lose this next game, then we might as well try to win-out and the moment we lose another game, just pack it in, get as healthy as possible, install some new concepts, and prepare for the Big12 Tournament as the next Opportunity to Achieve a Season Goal.
McDaniel was a stud. Otherwise, neither team looked good on offense because both teams played stellar defense.
K-State didn't give our players an inch to operate, even without the ball. It was an unbelievable performance, although both teams should be embarrassed about their outside shooting.
Despite the sloppiness, it was a "fun" game to watch.
Glad the game was early because my windshield was completely iced over on the way back to KC and it'll be nasty in the morning. Hoping the team flies out tonight...
Neither team could do anything from 3pt range, and yet both teams continued to jack it up. Why would we let KSU off the hook for their bad choice to shoot threes by making an even worse choice to shoot more threes than they did? It doesn't matter if there are no openings to drive. Drive anyway and force them to exert themselves and make mistakes. We have two guards with good enough ball skills to create breakdowns out of nothing. I'm frustrated dude.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on February 11, 2025, 11:15:16 PMMcDaniel was a stud. Otherwise, neither team looked good on offense because both teams played stellar defense.
K-State didn't give our players an inch to operate, even without the ball. It was an unbelievable performance, although both teams should be embarrassed about their outside shooting.
Despite the sloppiness, it was a "fun" game to watch.
Glad the game was early because my windshield was completely iced over on the way back to KC and it'll be nasty in the morning. Hoping the team flies out tonight...
For a game with basically 40 missed 3pt shots and only 3 makes, it was a good game. The problem I saw was that our defense was not nearly as good as their defense. We should have actually blown them out. Tommy didn't utilize his tool belt tonight. Even inserting E-Man would have turned the tide enough.
Tommy was too afraid to dare K-State to take more 3's. I don't blame him because this was a Road Game, but in this situation, Tommy had no other plan and that is a Typical Tommy loss.
Conrad deserved and earned at least 15 minutes tonight in various lineups. 3 minute stretches. Just to give K-State something different to deal with and who knows, Conrad may have made a 3 and set up Carter to make another 3.
96.462354% of our 3pt shots were terrible. Not open looks.
An opponent cannot be everywhere at once if you have a good passing Guard on the roster.
We played sloppy basketball. We took it for granted. KSU played to their best ability and No One
"Good" Wins in Manhattan, Kansas.
Kind of comical both schools boast approximately a 64% Graduation Rate too. It is quite telling where the Arizona Wildcats truly are in a game like this against the Kansas State Wildcats. 1 team is being talked up as as high as a 3 seed while the other is barely making it's way back into the Last 4 Out Conversation... Yet these teams are very evenly matched.
If you are "that dude" who thinks that we win that game 8 out of 10 times you are off your rocker. It is more like we win it 5.5 out of 10 times. Just barely enough to say we could win at KSU more than half the times we play there.
Big time Trap Game. A shame too because it upgrades Houston to a Must-Win with a ton of pressure and I hope we can win the game because it will be the only way we have a puncher's chance at the Banner. A loss and we are 1 loss away from packing it in and looking strictly toward how we can win the Big12 Tournament, earn a Banner in Year 1, and figure out a way to settle for a 4 seed or the Bracket of Doom 3 seed potentially if we go through Kansas and Houston to get it (and especially if we some how are able to dig out a victory @Kansas... which I would say is about 78% to 82% chance we lose that game definitively.
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on February 12, 2025, 01:16:32 AMNeither team could do anything from 3pt range, and yet both teams continued to jack it up. Why would we let KSU off the hook for their bad choice to shoot threes by making an even worse choice to shoot more threes than they did? It doesn't matter if there are no openings to drive. Drive anyway and force them to exert themselves and make mistakes. We have two guards with good enough ball skills to create breakdowns out of nothing. I'm frustrated dude.
Tommy got scared that if we promoted KSU to take a few more 3's that they would actually make some and send us to a 10pt embarrassing looking loss in a closely played game. So Tommy does what Tommy does best. He plays it scared and we end up losing the game.
This is the type of mentality that always causes Tommy's March Madness Losses. Especially 1st half when he took some players out of the game with 2 fouls. He proved that he was afraid to go to Conrad. The other team's PG looked about 5'4" 145lbs. He may have been faster than Conrad, but playing right into Henri, Awaka, and E-MAN if Carter "had" to sit out (which he didn't), was not going to be an option.
The worst thing to come from tonight is Jerome Tang put the blueprint out on how to beat what we do.
Good coaches saw that tonight and are going to do it way better. If we can't hit the 3 our season is about to derail...
And guess what... We are about to play Houston. They are going to make what KSU did look like Junior Varsity Defense.
We better come ready to rain some 3's at home though we usually don't do too well early in the day in big matchups. I'm surprised we aren't a big later, but I realize the great Dunk Contest (Never once featuring Lebron James) and "All Star Saturday Night" is way more important in the litany of the history of the known universe, nanoverse, and the unknown as well as beyond the unknown. RIP Doobie Bill Walton. You are missed. I wonder what games he would have called this season tbh. UCLA Games in the Big10 or Big12 Games? Or would he float around to Ranked Matchups outside of the ACC and Big East...
Oh well... Please.. Tobe Awaka has a body chiseled like the Statue of David.
Play On....
Not even Houston could play better man-defense than KSU last night. There's no shame in saying their D was better than ours because their players didn't even allow an inch, while coming off screens.
Stephen could have made a slight impact on offense but there's no way he could guard their bigs along the perimeter. Hawkins missed 9 shots because our frontcourt made it tough.
We had plenty of open three-point opportunities. Bradley, Love, Bryant and KJ couldn't take advantage when screens allowed them to open up.
Conrad was inserted when we couldn't stop McDaniel. On his FIRST defensive play, he allowed the easiest basket of the game, when he lost his man through a screen. I still think he deserved a second chance because Love was obviously "off" all night.
BTW, Lloyd should never dare K-State to shoot threes. Outside of last night, that has been their most dangerous weapon...and their one made three resulted in the only time that their home crowd lit up, which led to a run that put them up by 8.
Quote from: KansasCityCats on February 11, 2025, 11:15:16 PMMcDaniel was a stud. Otherwise, neither team looked good on offense because both teams played stellar defense.
K-State didn't give our players an inch to operate, even without the ball. It was an unbelievable performance, although both teams should be embarrassed about their outside shooting.
Despite the sloppiness, it was a "fun" game to watch.
Glad the game was early because my windshield was completely iced over on the way back to KC and it'll be nasty in the morning. Hoping the team flies out tonight...
Only thing I'd change is that both teams should be embarrassed that they continued to choose to shoot lazy 3's.