• Universities often brag about how much their graduates contribute to society, and there's no more concrete way in judging that than by counting the dollars. So if the Arizona Wildcats basketball team was one school within the UA, they'd certainly be helping the university out. The Wall Street Journal (hat tip to Bruce Pascoe) broke down NBA players' total earnings by college, and the Wildcats finished No. 3 on that list. Since 1985, when the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, Arizona alumni have earned a total of $737,802,141 in the league, just behind North Carolina and Duke in that order. There's a fairly steep drop-off as Pac-12 rival and No. 10 school UCLA brought in just below $500,000,000.
• Jack Macgruder of FSAZ writes that finishing in the top four of the Pac-12 is huge, big and important when talking Pac-12 Tournament chances.

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The obvious three former Arizona Wildcat football players were on the list to attend the NFL Scouting Combine that will take place from Feb. 23-26, and all three can surely use the combine to improve their stock after the UA struggled during their senior campaigns.

Quarterback Nick Foles, wide receiver Juron Criner and cornerback Trevin Wade didn't get the added benefit of team success, something that goes a long way in helping showcase their stock heading into the NFL Draft. No other Wildcats were invited, and that in itself is an indication that a 4-8 year for Arizona hurt players at an individual level as well.

While Foles may be the most coveted of the three and though Wade's the least-well known, it's Criner who could bump his stock up the most with a strong showing at the combine.

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The numbers don't put the Arizona Wildcats out of the chase for the NCAA tournament. Bruce Pascoe did a nice job of breaking down the various rankings -- a much-improved 62nd in RPI, 42nd in Sagarin and 38th in KenPom -- following a Bay Area sweep last weekend.

Nothing's guaranteed, and with a roster decimated by injuries and poor performance that took it from a 10-man rotation to seven, the luck isn't on coach Sean Miller's side.

But the poor run of luck just might have forced Miller and company into finding a sense of urgency. In doing so, it's forced Kyle Fogg to step up enough to earn the Pac-12 Player of the Week award after averaging 18.5 points and 4 assists in two huge victories.

More importantly, it's forced Arizona no other choice but to give Angelo Chol a look-see at the center spot.

And at the team's most lacking position, the move might've found a cure to all of the Wildcats' biggest problems.

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It’s fair to say our young wildcats are finally starting to find their groove. Not only are our upper classmen beginning to learn how to be leaders, but our under classmen are really starting to develop into some scary good talents. We only went 7 players deep today, and with some magical subbing from Miller, he managed to keep anyone from fouling out.

As a team there was plenty of fight and desire to go around, but at the same time there were some obvious negatives we will need to fix if we are going to make a legitimate run for the tournament. I will say right now though, if this team manages to go on a run and get into the tournament, nobody is going to want to play us. Our biggest weakness to start the year was the lack of size in the middle. With Chol’s development we are now able to compete far better with those teams who have big men inside.

As for team stats here are a few thoughts:

• 38.3% FG shooting for the game. That is not good enough. I understand Stanford has a very good defense, especially at home, but we need to be aiming around 45% to be at our most dangerous.
• 31.3% Three point shooting. I can live with that number, but I think with our shooters we should be consistently around 40%.
• 60% FT shooting. 15-25 They only had 12 FT attempts for the game. When you get that many more chances from the line and fail to take advantage of that, it usually spells disaster. There is no excuse for this. I expect Miller to really hit on this all week.
• As always I am impressed we are able to out rebound a much bigger team 35-34.
• Only 8 assists for the game isn’t nearly what we need as a team.
• 7 Blocks today. CHOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• 11 turnovers. I always aim for under 10, but they weren’t glaring turnovers that immediately turned into points, so I can live with the 11 today.

Come join me after the jump for some well earned grades

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. After watching the Arizona Wildcats pull off a 56-43 win against the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto on Saturday, all the mid-game cringing from Wildcat nation was probably well worth it.

Sean Miller's team shot 38.3 percent from the field and held the Cardinal to 24.6 percent shooting. Improving to 16-8 (7-4 Pac-12) on the season, Arizona used a late game push to out-execute Stanford despite dealing with obvious adversity and poor shooting.

With Kevin Parrom out for the season and Jordin Mayes dealing with his own foot injury, Miller only went seven deep in the rotation. Worsening the troubles was Solomon Hill finding himself in foul trouble. Going seven players deep and playing the offense-defense substitution game for much of the second half, Miller's coaching came through. By that, I mean both in his Xs and Os, and in his motivational tactics.

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Time: 1 p.m. MST

TV: FSAZ

The Arizona Wildcats operate in spurts. Whether it was finding themselves down by 13 in less than 10 minutes of play to begin a contest against Cal, or a 30-8 spurt to end the half up by 11, Sean Miller's team doesn't do much by the book.

You don't know which team will show up or for how long, but of course it'd be a positive sign for the Wildcats should the latter face make an appearance for 40 minutes against the Stanford Cardinal today.

Sitting at 16-6 overall and 6-4 in the Pac-12, the Cardinal are tied with the 15-8 Wildcats in the standing. Both are two games back of the sole Pac-12 leader, Washington, and the games against the teams tied with them and above them become all the more monumental.

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