Arizona Vs Colorado 🏀 Game Preview/Discussion Thread 1/4/24 At 730pm ESPN

[arxpert]

There's a possibility Cody Williams & Tristan da Silva could be back to play tonight. Cody sounds highly likely. Tristan sounds like an ambitious 50/50 chance at best.

Hope they play so that this team doesn't think they are better than they are. Cody especially if he is healthy. 50% doesn't sound that good to me, but every coach knows they need a win vs us especially @Arizona if they want to make the Big Dance so I don't blame anyone for going all in against us.

[Cactus🌵Cat]

In the second half of AZ's two PAC conference games this season, t. lloyd has allowed 55 and 56 points respectively.

#BearDown and beat the Buffs!

[WILD]

https://twitter.com/Zona_Briggs/status/1743031791999734242

[WILD]

https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1743099441215639954

[LeftCoastCats]

https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1743099441215639954

To avoid any excuses, Tommy and Co. Have decided to make it a goal of winning by more than 30.

[arxpert]

Impossible to fairly assess the performance tonight. We can only look at some things, make some observations, and hope that when we play a team that has their 2 best players available that we won't get dragged.

1A. Boswell checked my post pregame and got mad, but I think there is a new observation to be made for him ---> He is basically a Gabe York/Kyle Fogg. It is abundantly clear that he cannot defend man to man. We are playing Zone because of this. It is also abundantly clear he is just out there to jack up 3s. He can't play inside the arc. I saw a semi-decent pass where he rolled the ball up court. A good team with real starters would have picked that off. Cocky isn't going to hack it when the chips are down.

1B. Jaden Bradley is the correct option to play beside Caleb Love. The fact that Boswell is no longer a true PG and is now an undersized SG means we are stuck with no True PG unless we roll with Bradley. I think that it is a mistake to not play Bradley with Love when we have a devoted 3pt shooter on the floor. Pelle is not a PG at all. If you put Bradley out there with Caleb, you have 2 Guards unafraid to create off the dribble. If you want to roll with 3 Guards then I believe Boswell would be a nice piece to stand on the perimeter and receive a pass from the drives of our alpha Guards.

2. Lampkin had his way with Ballo. In fact he shut Ballo out from the Field in the 1st half completely and only 1 FG made on a little gimmicky Lob pass. Ballo got a couple points on FTs in the Hack A Shaq. A Terrible Liability. Hopefully you all understand Ballo is 6'9". He is not a great player for this era of College Basketball. He is too short to defend True Centers. He is too slow to defend bigger PFs like Lampkin. Lampkin bullied him. Kind of sad to see. The way I see it, Tommy has no choice, but to bench Ballo for Krivas. It is the only way to get Krivas enough action to make an impact by the end of the season. Maybe Krivas doesn't have the motor to play a ton of minutes, but I would prefer to see Krivas out there for the Tipoff and play the first 5 minutes then Ballo would be a great veteran spark off the bench vs anyone's backups. Let's be honest about it. Ballo was great playing side by side with Koloko. Tommy may even have to deploy Krivas and Ballo together if anything ever happened to Keshad. Just has to be considered. Krivas is not special in relief of Ballo. Ballo would be special in relief of Krivas. Minutes can be equal, but it is the method of deployment that matters.

3. This is and has been Caleb Love's team for a while now. It is Keshad's team after that. I find that to be sad. Unfortunately we are going to have to surrender to the fact that Love is going to take 25 shots in a game that truly matters for better or worse. Boswell and Love coming into tonight were equal from the Field (FG%). So before you say "Love is a chucker", Boswell is a 42% shooter too and he defers. Would you rather have someone who tries to play with the Will to Win or someone who just hangs around the perimeter having more Off-Nights than On?

4. Pelle plays hard enough to merit his minutes. I think he should be getting no less than 8 shots per game, mostly on drives as he is one of the guards along with Love + KJ + Bradley that have the guts to take the ball to the rim. You all know who that leaves out. Kylan York/Fogg

5. Still not playing lockdown defense. Don't look at the scoreboard. Hopefully we are able to play strong basketball in the next game after a waste of being out there tonight where we learned nothing about our team. Colorado was absolute trash without their real Starters. This was a walkover. Just waiting for Colorado to miss their shots sitting in a 2-3 Zone is a bit comical when you think about how poor we are at defending the 3 to come out playing 2-3... but Tommy is cocky as I continue to say. He seems to think disrespecting opponents is the correct way to play basketball. It will bite us. That's not a prediction. That's a spoiler. How many times will he need to be humbled? Not sure, but it will be disappointing if we do lose to Tommy's ego ultimately.

[|ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ|]

1A. Boswell checked my post pregame and got mad

Can confirm. Boz was in my DMs pregame on his BDU burner account saying how pissed he was. Good call.

[Cactus🌵Cat]

t. lloyd will be looking to extend his 1-game win streak vs. PAC12 opponents at McKale Center. Next up, Utah!   

I feel confident t. lloyd will roll thru this conference for the PAC title, PIN IT.

[TooStonedCat]

Eddie Lampkin owns Arizona. His injury mid-TCU game is the only reason we advanced.

KJ Simpson is better than Boswell. If Kylan wants to shut me up he will have a dominant game vs KJ. Only way. The game within the game. If Boswell wants to go pro, he will have to show dominance against KJ.

Expecting to see more of the Caleb Love show if Tommy isn't going to flip the script.

Where was your boy Eddie last night?

[TooStonedCat]

Plumpkin bulletin board material:

"I owe them from two years ago," Lampkin said. "They beat us in March Madness and I've been waiting on this for two years. I hope they're ready."

https://www.buffzone.com/2024/01/02/mens-basketball-eddie-lampkin-familiar-with-cu-buffs-rivalry-against-arizona/

Let's not give this guy or this team another career high.

That's halarious, is that really what he said? He didn't do a damn thing last night, and it made me so happy seeing him be a non factor! Lol @LeftCoastCats