Arizona and March Madness

[arxpert]

The Brand isn't tarnished for the sheer fact that we are consistently winning in ways that matter. All of your "down seasons" recently are including Pac12 Championship Banners, Pac12 Tournament Banners, Top Blue Chip Recruits. There is always something good to talk about with Arizona. More people talk about the positives. In fact, more people talk about the past losing a march madness game or 2 these days than the FBI. I'm sure that will pop up again at some point, but the only thing I personally have heard recently is Bill Walton mention "the Fruitless allegations that kept Miller out of the Oregon game last year".

There are 99.9% of other schools who do not talk about college basketball 365 days a year. For example Alabama talks football 365 days a year and basketball for a few months just like we talk football for a few months. 

In conclusion: There is no damage to the brand when you are a winning program. Miller has excelled at making sure we are the best team in the Pac12 top to bottom and March Madness will only make his legacy more complete, but the school and program itself has already been there and done that and hopefully will do it again.

I also think KC Cat made a good point overall. We won it all the year we were 11-7, 5th in the Pac10. March Madness is really fun, but it doesn't define a basketball program more than it celebrates a specific coach and temporary group of players who have an amazing 6 game run which has nothing to do with anything else.

[ichi]

If the team underperforms for  the next 4-6 years, the brand will be tarnished.

I agree, because Miller's stock will drop as will the stock of our players, which will take us out of the conversation and we'll back in the middle of the PAC, which isn't a selling point to the elites coming up

so I'm willing to wait for the end of his current contract to see where we are, I think when that time comes we'll all review the situation, you'll know if his contract gets renewed

but remember our brand wasn't elite until Lute came along, and if we can't recruit elites maybe we'll rely more on three and four-year guys

my guess is that before Miller's contract is up we'll see some substantial changes to college hoops, lots of pressure to move on from the plantation model

[jumpinjohnny]

The Brand isn't tarnished for the sheer fact that we are consistently winning in ways that matter. All of your "down seasons" recently are including Pac12 Championship Banners, Pac12 Tournament Banners, Top Blue Chip Recruits. There is always something good to talk about with Arizona. More people talk about the positives. In fact, more people talk about the past losing a march madness game or 2 these days than the FBI. I'm sure that will pop up again at some point, but the only thing I personally have heard recently is Bill Walton mention "the Fruitless allegations that kept Miller out of the Oregon game last year".

There are 99.9% of other schools who do not talk about college basketball 365 days a year. For example Alabama talks football 365 days a year and basketball for a few months just like we talk football for a few months. 

In conclusion: There is no damage to the brand when you are a winning program. Miller has excelled at making sure we are the best team in the Pac12 top to bottom and March Madness will only make his legacy more complete, but the school and program itself has already been there and done that and hopefully will do it again.

I also think KC Cat made a good point overall. We won it all the year we were 11-7, 5th in the Pac10. March Madness is really fun, but it doesn't define a basketball program more than it celebrates a specific coach and temporary group of players who have an amazing 6 game run which has nothing to do with anything else.

Yes

[Cats fan in CT]

If the team underperforms for  the next 4-6 years, the brand will be tarnished. Couple that with the lingering NCAA investigations your guess is as good as mine if what the future holds. I read an interesting take about the state of the UOfA basketball program stating that the "once feared program is now a shell of itself, and no one fears playing them anymore". The program also has a track record of playing the bottom tier of NCAA program resulting in inflated record. Maybe I was spoiled having a HOF coach directing the program, that had a completely different approach to basketball. Lute played anyone, anywhere and had the stones to say it, now we look forward playing Long Beach State. Hopefully this is an eye opening seasonfor the coaching staff and things change. Maybe I'm wrong and this last five years is variance in sports the next five will be more like Miller's first five.

This is the drum I've been pounding for years . I hate miller's scheduling . They play 6 or 7 cupcakes at home every year and those games do nothing to harden a group of young top recruits . I hate it . Just pulled up a random year 2000 Schedule under lure and look at the difference

vs. Chaminade
Maui Invitational quarterfinal   W 97–57    1–0
Lahaina Civic Center
Maui, HI
Nov. 21, 2000*
No. 1   vs. Dayton
Maui Invitational semifinal   W 76–59    2–0
Lahaina Civic Center
Maui, HI
Nov. 22, 2000*
No. 1   vs. No. 8 Illinois
Maui Invitational championship   W 79–76    3–0
Lahaina Civic Center
Maui, HI
Nov. 25, 2000*
No. 1   at Purdue   L 69–72    3–1
Mackey Arena
West Lafayette, Indiana
Nov. 29, 2000*
No. 5   Gonzaga   W 101–87    4–1
McKale Center
Tucson, Arizona
Dec. 2, 2000*
No. 5   Saint Mary's   W 101–41    5–1
McKale Center
Tucson, Arizona
Dec. 9, 2000*
No. 5   at No. 15 Connecticut   L 69–71    5–2
Harry A. Gampel Pavilion
Storrs, Connecticut
Dec. 16, 2000*
No. 7   at No. 5 Illinois   L 73–81    5–3
Assembly Hall
Champaign, Illinois
Dec. 20, 2000*
No. 10   LSU   W 88–75    6–3
McKale Center
Tucson, Arizona
Dec. 28, 2000*
No. 12   Butler   W 72–60    7–3
McKale Center
Tucson, Arizona
Dec. 30, 2000*
No. 12   Mississippi State

[TucsonTruckStop]

First, it is not realistic to schedule only above average teams, so there will always be cupcakes at home. There is definitely a strategy to scheduling though and Miller just needs to schedule smarter. Build a schedule to help your team grow and make sure a win help and a loss does not hurt. A team will never be penalized for a loss against: (1) a Q1 team home or away or (2) a Q2 team on the road. Also, try to limit the lose-lose games; where a win does not help, but a loss hurts (for example a road game against a Q4 team). The 2 biggest factors come March will always be (1) Q1 wins. (2) road wins and (3) Q4 losses.

[TucsonTruckStop]

I wanted to post this because I saw someone ask what the Quadrant system looked like, so here are the metrics (and Arizona's Resume as of Jan 18).
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30 (Colorado), Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75 (Illinois, ASU), Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
Arizona is 1-4 (Q1); 2-1 (Q2) and 0-3 (Road) with 0 Q4 losses.

[Deb]

I wanted to post this because I saw someone ask what the Quadrant system looked like, so here are the metrics (and Arizona's Resume as of Jan 18).
Quadrant 1: Home 1-30 (Colorado), Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75 (Illinois, ASU), Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
Arizona is 1-4 (Q1); 2-1 (Q2) and 0-3 (Road) with 0 Q4 losses.

Thanks for posting this Pac

[TucsonTruckStop]

Pac 12 Team Sheets (NET) - Updated Jan 19
Net-Team(Record): Road/Q1/Q2/....Q3/Q4Loss
11-Arizona(13-5): 0/1/2....0/0
14-Stanford(15-3): 2/0/2....0/0
16-Oregon(15-4): 3/5/3....1/0
21-Colorado(14-4): 2/3/3....0/0
46-USC(15-3): 4/3/3....1/0
47-UW(12-7): 1/1/2....2/0
62-ASU(11-7): 3/1/3....0/0
67-OSU(12-6): 2/2/0....1/0
80-Utah(10-7): 1/1/4....2/0
100-WSU(12-7): 1/1/1....3/1
138-UCLA(8-9): 1/1/0....2/1
165-Cal(8-10): 0/0/1....3/0

[WiscoAZfan19]

I feel if we were to have played in a tournament with good to great teams in it, then we wouldn't have to worry about Q1 or Q2 wins.  The tournament in the Bahamas or Hawaii always seem to have a few good if not great teams in it.  The tournament in Cali was a joke and that is a big part of the problem with our schedule. Home-Home series are great but if we played in a decent tournament, then we wouldn't have to worry.

[KansasCityCats]

The good thing about the Wooden Tourney is that our team learned to not take the small schools for granted.

Penn and Pepperdine played their asses off...and haven't played that well since.  The Cats learned two valuable lessons without earning an "L". 

The NIT Tipoff in New York will be nice next year.  St. John's (again), Cincy and Texas Tech are all decent opponents that play "tough basketball".