ARIZONA (13-13) OUTLOOK
Look Ahead and Back: Cats vs. Golden Bears
Compiled by Javier Morales
Arizona 2009-10 schedule
(Full schedule and statistics available at ArizonaWildcats.com)
| LAST TEN GAMES (5-5) Jan. 14: L, Oregon State 67, Arizona 64 Jan. 16: W, Arizona 74, Oregon 60 Jan. 23: W, Arizona 77, ASU 58 Jan. 28: W, Arizona 76, Stanford 68 Jan. 31: W, Arizona 76, California 72 Feb. 4: L, Washington 81, Arizona 75 Feb. 6: L, Washington State 78, Arizona 60 Feb. 11: W, Arizona 70, Oregon 57 Feb. 13: L, Oregon State 63, Arizona 55 Feb. 21: L, Arizona State 73, Arizona 69 NEXT FIVE GAMES (Tucson times) Feb. 25, 8 p.m.: Arizona at California RPI BRACKETOLOGY |
ARIZONA’S RPI AS OF FEB. 24: No. 97. SOS: 29. RECORD VS. RPI TOP 50: 1-5 — Beat No. 23 Cal (home) 76-72. Lost to No. 13 Vanderbilt (neutral) 84-72, No. 17 Wisconsin (neutral) 65-61, No. 21 BYU (home) 99-69, No. 38 San Diego State (road) 63-46, and No. 44 UNLV (home) 74-72. OPPONENTS ARIZONA BEAT (WITH CURRENT RPI): CALIFORNIA (18-9) |
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UA CRAZY VIDEO: |
Brock Brunkhorst almost single-handedly gave UA its lone Pac-10 road win under Ben Lindsey with a late run against Cal that fell short in 1983Feb. 5, 1983: California 59, Arizona 57 – Almost a month before he was fired after one miserable season, Ben Lindsey got as close as he could to his only Pac-10 road win in 1982-83. Arizona guard Brock Brunkhorst hit two jumpers in the final 40 seconds to trim Cal’s lead to two points. He missed a 15-foot shot with four seconds left but grabbed the rebound. His attempted putback was blocked by Cal forward David Butler as the buzzer sounded. Frank Smith led the Cats with 17 points. The loss dropped Arizona to 0-8 in the Pac-10 and 3-15 overall.
Jan. 10, 1985: Arizona 69, California 67 – The three top players on Lute Olson‘s first NCAA tournament team at Arizona — Pete Williams, Eddie Smith and Steve Kerr — each played a significant part in this win at Berkeley against Cal and star guard Kevin Johnson. Smith had 20 points, Williams 12 points and 10 rebounds and Kerr made game-clinching free throws in the waning seconds. Cal trailed by only a point with 23 seconds left when Johnson converted on two free throws. Kerr sealed the win with two free throws afterward.
Reggie Geary backed up his words, frustrating Cal along the way, in Arizona’s win at Cal in 1994
Feb. 13, 1994: Arizona 96, Cal 77 –This game is known as Reggie Geary‘s defining moment as a Wildcat. Geary’s vociferous ways got under the skin of Cal coach Todd Bozeman, who was given a technical foul by referee Charlie Range after he grabbed Range’s arm to protest Geary’s alleged trash talking. Bozeman and Olson also got into a heated exchange near the scorer’s table at Haas Pavilion. The Modesto Bee reported the exchange this way: “What’s your problem?” Olson sniped. “What’s your problem?” Bozeman retorted. “Sit down!” Olson sneered. “You sit down!” Bozeman demanded. The heated game between the 18th-ranked Golden Bears and No. 16 Wildcats was tied at 61 at the time of Bozeman’s technical. Arizona proceeded to score 20 straight points to pull away. “I didn’t feel I deserved the technical foul,” Bozeman said afterward. “All I said was that the guy (Geary) shouldn’t be allowed to taunt like that. He called my kid (Monty Buckley) an MF. He slurred our entire bench and got away with it, right in front of the referee.” Geary, who denied the alleged profanities, had the last laugh with Arizona’s decisive victory. “That was the best psyche job of my life,” he said. “I know what the boundary is. I never crossed the boundary.”
Jan. 4, 1996: California 99, Arizona 76 – This is a game the UA lost big in Berkeley but it counts as a “W” in the record book. The NCAA committee on infractions cracked down on Cal and Bozeman, who was forced to resign in August 2006 because of the serious violation of paying a player’s family $15,000 a year for two years. The NCAA banned the Golden Bears from post-season play in 1997-98 and took away two scholarships for the 1998-99 season and two for 1999-2000. Cal was also forced to forfeit 28 victories in which the player, Jelani Gardner, participated (including this 1996 game against Arizona). The school volunteered to return $54,000 from its share of receipts from the 1996 N.C.A.A. tournament. The 23-point drubbing by the Bears, who were led by Shareef Abdur-Rahim‘s 23 points, was the worst loss in the Olson era at the time. “This, frankly, was a plain old-fashioned tail kicking, and it was a tail kicking because of the way they shot the ball,” Olson said.
March 10, 2001: Arizona 78, California 76 – Jason Gardner‘s three-pointer with 59 seconds to go broke a 74-74 tie and propelled Arizona to the two-point win at Haas Pavilion. A Richard Jefferson free throw with 11 seconds remaining provided the final margin. Loren Woods‘ 22 points and Michael Wright‘s 20 led a balanced attack as the Wildcats won for the sixth straight time. UA shot 50 percent from the floor, outrebounded the Golden Bears, 34-29, and tallied 21 assists. The Cats advanced to the NCAA title game against Duke that season. They swept the Bay area schools to end that season. When the UA won the 1997 NCAA title, the Cats were swept on the road by Stanford and Cal to end the regular season.
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Tags: Brock Brunkhorst, Eddie Smith, Jason Gardner, Lute Olson, Pete Williams, Reggie Geary
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February 25th, 2010 at 12:03 AM
Let me make sure I understand this before I move on…Wise, Horne and Fogg because they are going on their 4th, 3rd and 2nd coach and system in as many years with Miller at the helm should be cut some slack and not be criticized, not even constructively, for their play. Miller because Wise, Horne and Fogg are not his players, and because he is their 4th, 3rd and 2nd coach in as many years, should not bench these guys in the name of motivation for fear of alienating them and the rest of the team. Correct me if I am wrong, Javier, but is that what you are saying?
Lavender is a mere sophomore, as some here would quickly point out (right?), and he as we all know is not a Miller recruit. Miller, however, is Lavender’s 2nd coach in 2 years at UA, and sure enough No. 24 was recruited no not by Miller but rather by Lute. Yet Brendan earlier on was benched and rightfully so in favor of a then improving, deserving Fogg. If we are to follow the logic of some here on this board, this was all a major no-no for Coach to do things this way, no?
February 25th, 2010 at 1:29 AM
According to PointGuardU.com Parrom hasn’t made the NoCal trip. Can’t be good.
February 25th, 2010 at 7:47 AM
You don’t bench a senior who you practically begged to come back. A senior who has been through what nobody else ever has at Arizona. Can anybody on this board honestly say that Wise has tanked it in any game? He’s had subpar performances, for sure, but has his effort merited him to be out of the starting lineup? He can still be an All-Pac-10 player. Can you imagine the negative undertones that will occur from Houston all the way to California that Miller did not start a senior who he basically recruited to stay, a guy in all practicality could be gone by now because of what he’s gone through?
When he is honored during the USC game, I hope the McKale Center crowd stands for about 10 minutes to applaud Wise. The guy deserves our respect, not our shame.
As far as Fogg and Horne is concerned, I’ve already wrote that Miller has been forced to be a psychologist as much as a coach. You figure that one out.
Miller’s coaching with what he’s got, plain and simple.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:09 AM
PC #2: That is a report stemming out of tweets from Twitter from some of the players. The school has yet to confirm anything. If Parrom is not there, it limits Miller even more, but a team must move on through adversity.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:35 AM
I’m glad we are addressing the issue of Nick Wise, another stick in my craw.
After the mass exodus of UA players to the NBA in 2001, The Big “O” traveled to Mexico and made the determination that the only way to keep the Cats competitive the following year would be to keep Gardner from jumping ship with all the rest. For Gardner’s decision to stay, there is a jersey hanging from the rafters.
Fast-forward and a similar situation existed. Now, I’m not saying that Wise is close to Gardner’s caliber, but it took guts to come back to a team that still didn’t have the rest of the USC recruits committed. He had to know that he was walking into a situation that wasn’t optimal. I know his stated motivation was to be the best PG in the Pac-Ten, but I wonder if he didn’t also come back to help rebuild and assist with the transition. This is how I would prefer to see it and I hope the community does as well. It is a very noble.
So why not hang Nick Wise’s jersey in the rafters?
What I’ve noticed from N.Wise is that he actively involves his teammates. I think this is great from a long-term perspective for future player development. I really thought Wise would be padding his stats for NBA entrance this year and I think everyone else did as well. Wise isn’t the go-to guy because he always was and is a pass-first point guard.
However, with that said, now would be the time for Nick to pad his stats…banged up lower-half and all.
AzGood, we’ve bantered a bit in the past and I’ll agree that we shouldn’t read too much into four coaches in as many years as it begins to come off as an excuse. When this team is back and humming along at the top of the conference, I hope this community doesn’t forget Nick Wise’s contribution to the transition.
Some other quick thoughts as my post becomes AZT’esque.
Lavender should be inserted at those moments we go up by seven and receive instructions to shot the ball after three or four passes. His issue is confidence and if he can get the rock with some padding on the score, he could be the dagger we need to put some distance on the score. He needs more touches/shots but not in situations where the game is on the line. The opposite holds true to insert when the game is out of reach…which really hasn’t happened that often.
Fogg – What Miller doesn’t have the advantage of knowing is that Fogg hit a wall about this time last year too. I don’t have a good answer for that except to give Momo more time and put up with the occasional foot on the baseline, etc.
Horne – …..
So, Bruce Pascoe on the local daily here seems to think that the possibility exists to win out and win the next two in the tourney might give us tourney consideration.
Personally, I just want UA to deliver a good ol’fashioned whoppin to Cal on ESPN. I hope Parrom is there for his friends and family to see him play back in the East – but where there is smoke…
Bear Down.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Just to follow up on the tweets…
Parrom just said “You never really know why people stick around”, “Can’t trust no females out here, seriously” and “Missing my teammates”.
Something is up and I am sure it will be out in the next few hours…
February 25th, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Ashton,
If I remember correctly, to have a Jersey hanging, the player will have needed to win a player of the year award. Javier will know this answer. I think the exception is Polk.
Azgood,
Benching Wise would be a disaster as Javier pointed out. Not only for the team, but for future recruting as well. Benching Horne I agree with full force. Fogg, as Ashton prointed out, needs to break through the wall. Wise deserves to start and should be respected by all of us. My opinion is that Wise has never become the player I hoped he would. MY all time Cat is Gardiner. I hoped Wise would be the second coming. Fact is he’s not. However, he is a good player and would start at most other programs. Probably not most top 25 teams, but most others. Wise would be a lot better this year with more scoring options. How may people were picking on Wise last year or the year before? Not many, because of his supporting cast. IMO
I am worried about Parrom? Any new news reguarding his status?
February 25th, 2010 at 10:30 AM
My guess is that Parrom did not make the trip due to the incident with Glasser after the ASU game. Miller is probably punishing him for that. I don’t have a problem with it.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Ashton, I support the love for Gardner, but I’d submit that he would have jumped ship to the NBA if given the chance. After the ’01 season, when Wright, Jefferson, and Arenas declared, Gardner also put his name in the draft and went to a lot of NBA scouting activities. I think he knew that the next year would be a mini-rebuild and wanted to leave at the same time as his fellow starters. However, the NBA talking heads told him that it would be in his best interest to go back to school. I loved watching him and am glad we had 4 years of his leadership, but I think if he were a legit NBA prospect, then 2001 would have been is last year. I also agree with you and JM that Wise deserves absolute adulation from UA fans on Senior Day for all he has given to the program during its most turbulent time. From an overweight freshmen, to a sophomore revelation, to a junior floor leader, and a senior “please come back and save us from a 4 win season” guy.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:54 AM
@ Ian – If I remember correctly, to have a Jersey hanging, the player will have needed to win a player of the year award.
Tongue-and-cheek, of course.
I deleted the part about “right next to the Pennel Jersey”.
@AzT – This would have been a four-win team ten months ago. That was my exact statement after the drubbing against Louisville. “Settle in and get your popcorn – next year it is four wins – at best”. So glad to see I was proved wrong.
Just out of curiosity, with Louisville at 18-10 and facing a pretty tough three remaining games against UCONN, Marquette, and Syracuse, is there a chance we could maybe avenge that beat-down in the NIT?
Something to think about if we don’t make it 26.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:11 PM
Look, Wise is a son of a successful, prominent high school coach in the basketball hot bed that is Houston, and Nic was hailed as one of Pastner’s prized recruits from that fertile area. Wise himself tested the NBA waters and then tried out for the US entry into the World University Games. Doing the math, to me it looks like Nic himself thought enough of his talents to ask for, what, at leats 8 more coaches just last summer alone? When he and others, me included, moaned because we thought Nic wasn’t treated fairly by US Coaches Bo Ryan and Jim Boeheim as he was cut from the team prematurely, or so we at the time believed that to be the case (not any more!), we also knew we had something very special in No. 13, and there was no way anyone was going to tell us otherwise.
I get that. But where was Nic going to go if not Arizona for the ’09-’10 season? Yes we should be forever grateful that No. 13 decided to stay and, well, win…Tucson’s version of Survivor: The Coaching Carousel, that is. Wise arguably is UA’s worst PG since Shakur, and I don’t recall too many people in town willing to give Mustafa any kind of break. Me included. But it’s interesting because Staf like NW took the ‘Cats to a game or two of the Elite 8 in their final go at the NCAAs. Shakur in his senior year and Nic in his junior year. How’s that for odd? Win and advance…the beauty of the Big Dance. Remember when?