Arizona vs. UCLA: 1/3 of the goal completed

I don’t know about you, but I was extremely nervous when we couldn’t get a bigger lead in the first half. We dominated UCLA for the first ten minutes, but failed to grow the lead past ten points. Then in the second half when they took the lead, I wondered how our team would respond. Wow did they stay composed and respond. Some amazing defensive plays by Nick Johnson, and some timely free throw shooting made the difference.

This has got to be a quick grading sheet simply because I have to get up and out of the house. Lets start with some team numbers:

• 34.9% FG shooting. There is no way we win this tournament shooting that number. We must get better.
• 33.3% from behind the arc. Not bad I can live with that, but with our shooters I expect at least around 40%.
• 31-36 from the line for 86.1%. WOW, what a great number. That right there wins you games folks.
• We out rebounded a much taller UCLA team 37-28. That number is impressive.
• only 7 assists is pretty bad, but you could have guessed we would be low by our FG%
• 7 steals is always nice, but not as nice when you realize they had 13
• 6 Blocks. THANK YOU NICK JOHNSON!
• 17 TO’s is way to many to go further

Come join me after the break for some very optimistic grades.

Solomon Hill: GRADE A Solomon did it all today. Lead the team with 25 points and 12 rebound. His only knock today was his 6 TO’s. But I’ll forgive him based on his overall game.

Jesse Perry: GRADE A Jesse battled all day long with much bigger players. He was strong on the boards gathering 12 of them. Plus shooting 12-13 from the line was huge.

Kyle Fogg: GRADE A- He gets the - because of his 4-9 shooting, and some questionable offensive decisions. But he stays at an A because his defense was LIGHTS OUT.

Nick Johnson: GRADE B Nicks offense wasn’t great today. However, his defense was solid and his highlight blocks were amazing. Its shocking how those plays seemed to energize our team every time we were down.

Jordin Mayes: GRADE D Jordin played alright defense, but really didn’t do much as starting PG. He went 0-6 for 0 points 2 turnovers 2 steals 2 assists and 2 rebounds. Apparently he really likes the number 2. We need more out of him though.

Angelo Chol: GRADE B Chol didn’t play much, but he was effective while out there. He only shot the ball once, but it was a 3 point play. Love seeing his development.

Brendon Lavender: GRADE C- Brendon played with more energy then I’ve seen him play with for a while, however for a shooter to go 1-6 from the field and 0-4 from behind the arc is a bad game no matter how you look at it.

Kyryl Natyazhko: GRADE B Kyryl did better today than I have seen him play for a while. Lots of energy, and played strong defense against Josh Smith.


Alright like I said I got to run. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and lets hope tomorrow ends the same way.