Streak stymied, Cats victorious 77-58 over ASU
by piratedan7 on Jan 24, 2010 1:39 AM PST
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It was another step forward and in my humble opinion Sean Miller is showing he's worth every penny of his contract so far as the Wildcats downed the Sun Devils 77-58 in Tempe. Granted, he's not the one hitting the jumpers but it's obvious that he is having a tremendous impact on how these kids play as a unit and refuses to get down on them. The game was immensely important for quite a few reasons. One, has ASU truly established itself as having pulled ahead of U of A in hoops, were they on an even level in regards to coaching, personnel and competitive fire. Also, the winner of this game grabs momentum into the latter half of the Pac 10 season. Plus you had the history background concerning the coaching staffs and the fact that the fanbases of each school have an amplified moronic effect on each other with catcalls, flames and hyperbole being thrown around as if it was loan refinancing before the financial crash.
The defining moment, it could have been one of two items in my opinion. Was it the pivotal defensive stop in the first half when the Cats battled back from a 20-10 deficit and willed themselves back into the game? Perhaps it was the hard foul committed by Kevin Parrom, which served notice that no cheapies were not allowed in tonight's game?
There were a lot of hidden items that got lost in the box score that I feel need to be drawn out a bit....
The boards....UA won 33 to 32, despite ASU having an Offensive board advantage of 10-2
The game was supposed to be a test, the defense mattered and the common thinking was that since ASU has the best defense (statistically) in the country, that they would throttle the fledgeling Arizona offense and control the game. The problem was that the Cats played better D than the Devils and it showed at both the 3pt and FG%'s both were tilted in the Cats favor.
Granted the Devils were without McMillan and I think that his absence was telling for the Devils. Simply because this was a rough game, the refs let the kids play and there was bumping and reaching, but for the most part, the players settled this on the court.
Arizona shot 85% at the free throw line and the turnover stat was held to a very reasonable 11. The one unspoken key was how unselfish the team played, with 20 assists to ASU's 14.
I can't really say which was more important, the closing of the 10 point SunDevil lead in the first half or the hard foul, but I tend to lean to the first half grit that was shown by the team. The Cats were having problems handling the backdoor cuts at first but the rotation of players in their man-to-man was adjusted. The r may have b first inside basket in the first half, they had seen enpe and film to breakdown the zone and found a way to make the inside-out game work again.
The second half was a revellatnhe rekindling of the beast within Jamene must have been rekindelled as he had no impact in the first half, in the second, he managed to make threes and began to assist Derrick Williams in handling the shut down of any inside ASU game tat the Devils hoped to create. So it was the outside game for the devils and they died by that process as well. Shooters were contested, looks were obscured in what may have been the best defensive effort to date.
Now the focus is on whether these 'Cats can string a few wins together in a row.
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Great win for a young team on the road against what most fans thought was their biggest test of the year.
People need to realize a few things with this team:
1. Miller is one of the best young Defensive minds in the game today.
2. Miller at Xavier ranked only 2nd behind Kansas (ahead of Memphis) racking up winning percentage.
3. Senior leader NIc Wise has had 4 coaches in 4 years & Sean Miller is the first actual true point guard he has had coaching him. Olson who built this program from dust, had this program on auto-pilot when Nic landed.
4. All of the kids are focused, not on where they are going to get get picked in the NBA at the end of the season, like Arizona teams of the past 6yrs, but learning Miller’s system and winning like hungry Olson teams prior to that.
5. This young team is getting real close to playing a complete game.
6. The Pac 10 is not dominated by a great team this year.
What does this all add up to? The team, regardless of trips & falls & learning experiences during the Pac 10 season due to youth, learning offensive & defensive sets in game environments…that pulls it together at the end has a shot at winning the PAC 10 tourney.
Regardless of record, that team hits the NCAA tourney. I like those odds on this version of Arizona under Sean Miller continuing the streak. I posted the same type of comments in other places the minute he touched down in Tucson.
Olson built a Cadillac that cruised through the PAC 10 and dominated for years. Won a National title. Then we became fascinated even though it began to fall apart, as long as he kept slapping shiny hubcaps on it even though it only got to the end of the road and died. I remember fans wanting a coach to come and keep the old caddy running and slapping shiny hubcaps on just to make it to the end of the road…just to die again.
We lucked into a mechanic who couldn’t find shiny hubcaps, so he decided to pull the engine, and do a rebuild his way, and even though it may or not get us to the end of the road this year and die. We know the thing is going to hum next time it gets there and hitting the Mountains peaks are back in Arizona’s future…and we are back to developing and polishing the shiny hubcaps again instead of slapping them on only to watch them fall off after a year or two and have the entire car break down at the end of road.
In 3 or 4 years win Arizona is back to winning PAC 10 titles year after year and Miller and company are pulling in East Coast kids that play in your face man to man defense…and ASU become the equivalent of a WAC game again…and Sendek bolts Arizona State, like he did North Carolina State for some other State school…you’ll understand what it means to have built an established basketball program that destroyed UCLA basketball for how many years? Only Duke compares to Arizona in Conference wins and automatic bids since 1985.
ASU needs to actually accomplish something before it ever mentions its program in the same breath as Arizona. Even in our down period, when they ran a streak on us…they made it to the NCAA once…we still ran 25 straight. Living for the upset off the big guys does not a basketball program make.
Sendek should have learned that lesson from Roy Williams.
As it concerns this season...
Arizona is probably looking at needing to win the conference outright (or the tournament bid) to feel comfortable. We have played a brutal schedule, which helps the RPI, but have no truly signature wins.
Still, to echo your comments about Miller, it’s hard not to like where he has the program headed—especially when you consider that the league has no dominant program right now.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
Thoughts on the 2nd half (which is all I saw)
Great point about the boards. I didn’t see the first half, so I am surprised UA only had a 1 board advantage for the game. They looked DOMINANT on the glass in the second half.
What I love about the way the team seems to be developing is that the athleticism isn’t just guys going one-on-one. It’s showing up on the defensive end and on the glass. That is an indicator of a great coaching staff.
You mentioned the assists. The ball movement was crisp, featuring both nice passing and dribble penetration. A team that can pass and drive is very difficult for a defense to handle.
Overall, you can see the basketball IQ of this team just getting better and better. You really didn’t see the loss of focus that has at times plagued the team when they get a big lead. They stayed locked in defensively. I especially want to highlight Kyle Fogg. I love his development into a “glue guy” extraordinaire.
One minor disagreement — I didn’t think the Parrom foul really mattered much other than to ramp up the already-high intensity in the game. The officials handled it correctly. Arizona went on a run afterwards, but it was embedded in an already dominant second half. We were already starting to pull away. They couldn’t score.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
well I wrote it late last night but...
it was a moment that ASU could have used to rally around. Teams making a run or a comeback usually do, it’s free throws and the ball and a chance to really cut into the lead. Cats were up by 9 at the time (I think, but the lead hadn’t been extended into double digits just yet) and Abbott had to make the freebies and ASU to drop in another three and the game could have shifted. This time, Abbott misses a FT and the Devils had one of their few turnovers on the next possesion and the Cats stepped on the throttle and never looked back.
I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused....
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