Arizona vs. Bucknell: quick recap and grades

Arizona vs. Bucknell: quick recap and grades

I was so excited today to watch our Arizona Wildcats play and write up a positive review. Then after hearing about bucknell and seeing their line up I sent a text to my friend "Worst case situation, Bucknell is a bad match up for us". Just like all year teams with a quality inside man give us huge problems.

We got down big early, but we fought back to take a 1 point lead in the second half. During that run Angelo Chol came in and really gave some big time minutes for us. However, it felt like we just lost to much steam in that come back. Every time it felt like we would go on a run to distance ourselves, Bucknell came back with a flurry of buckets and tight defense.

In the end it is disappointing that we weren’t able to use our home court advantage to help propel us to a win. It is a sad way to end a season. We had so many high hopes, but this just wasn’t our year.

That being said I am going to try to focus on some of the positives from tonight. Like we have all season we never gave up, and kept fighting. It is clear we needed that true starting PG to lead us today. It was also interesting to see Josiah Turner on the bench with the team. I am curious if he plans on working and staying part of this team heading forward. He will have plenty of targets to play with next year if he stays. Speaking of big targets its good to see Angelo Chol end on a strong note for the season.

Lets look at some team stats for the night:

• 35.4% FG shooting. Just like all year, that is way too low.
• 6-20 from behind the arc.
• 77.8% from the line is a fairly good number.
• We were out rebounded 34-28. That hasn’t happened much to us this year.
• The rest of the numbers were pretty comparable to theirs.

Now for some individual grades:

Solomon Hill: GRADE B- Solomon had a pretty solid stat line with 17 points and 10 boards. However, he took some questionable shots and only made 5-13 from the floor.

Jesse Perry: GRADE B Jesse did well in getting the other team in foul trouble, but he was out-matched because of the other teams size down low.

Nick Johnson: GRADE D Man, anytime you go 1-7 in a must win you are going to get a bad grade. Nick has tried hard to be a true PG, but the fact is hes not a true PG. As of right now hes not even a great outside shooter, but lets hope he spends some quality time in the gym like Fogg did last summer to improve that area of his game.

Jordin Mayes: GRADE D Jordin didn’t have bad stats, but when we needed him to have a strong game, he just wilted. I mean really what happened to Jordin this year? He came in so promising after last years post season run, and then he lost all his confidence.

Kyle Fogg: GRADE D In a game where we needed our seniors to take charge Kyle just disappeared. He only went 2-5 from the floor. Really Kyle? Only 5 shots in your last game?

Brendon Lavender: GRADE F you are a shooter Brendon and you went 0-5 from the floor. Therefore you flunk. Epic fail.

Angelo Chol: GRADE B+ Chol showed some growth out there, and really worked hard. He had some of his "freshman" moments, but you can see how much he has grown. If he can spend time over the off season putting on a little weight, and continue on his offensive gave, then he could be a real quality piece for us next year.

Sorry for the short grades, but I am as frustrated as everyone. I want to thank you for reading, and I’ll try to do some post throughout the NCAA tournament. As always feel free to give me some feedback.