Wildcats Basketball: On the Road to Utah Pregame thoughts
Arizona Wildcats Basketball: On Thursday, Arizona beat Colorado by 28 points and Utah beat Arizona State by 41 points, this game is going to be much closer, prediction Arizona 52-Utah 49
Keys to beating the Utes:
The key to winning this game in Salt Lake City on Saturday against the Utah Utes is to “Make Utah play individual clamp down offense because that’s not their game because their game is passing.” So said ESPN’s Bill Walton, one of the most coherent things he said during the entire Colorado game. Maybe also keep up this rapid substitution from the last game, throwing different offenses at Utah would work as well.
What happened in Utah’s last game against Arizona State?
While Arizona was playing Colorado, the No. 2 team in the Pac-12 Utah was playing Arizona State. I don’t know if you would have called it playing actually, they were being played. They were being out blocked, out scored, out finessed, and lost by 42 points (41-83.) ASU trailed Utah 41-9 at the half and shot 28% for the game versus Utah’s 68%. It was a total inhalation.
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Eleven out of thirteen Utes scored, starting guard
(12) and backup guard
(11) were the only two who scored in double digits. Wright was recently named to the midseason list of finalists for the John Wooden, Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy and James Naismith Awards. Utah is being talked about as a possible No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Upshot:
Of all the Pac-12 teams, Utah seems the most similar to Arizona with a deep bench, lots of men who can score, and exciting fast pace play. One thing though, Utah is better against the zone, so if the Wildcats can play man to man and disrupt their passing game, and keep their confidence high against a very highly confident team of Utes, they have a shot. They will also need to make sure they get most of the rebounds, sounds simple, but sometimes they have fallen short.
Feb 26, 2015; Boulder, CO, USA; Arizona Wildcats forward Brandon Ashley (21) reacts after scoring in the first half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the Coors Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
According to the Utah Utes office website, Larry Krystkowiak had a simple diagnosis for what ailed No. 9 Utah against Oregon: His Utes suffered from a lack of an inside presence, subpar 3-point shooting and a dearth of second-half rebounds in their 69-58 loss to Oregon. If that is truly the case, the Wildcats should get the ball into the Zues and the other Arizona big men.
Looking at the starter performance comparison from the teams last game in the chart below, you will see a startling difference; Arizona’s starters scored 35 more points against Colorado (5-10) in total than Utah did against ASU (7-8).
Now that might be because Colorado may not be as good as ASU, but hey they have only won two less games than ASU. Another interesting stat to note is that Arizona’s starters rebounded 11 more times in the last game they played than Utah, nine of those being defensive rebounds.
Arizona also seemed to pass more in their game with six more assists. If you watched the highlights of the Utah vs. ASU game, you would see there was a ton of showboating, dunking, and just crazy fast breaks. So, if Arizona can slow them down, I think they have a great chance to sweep the Utes and possibly gain some traction towards a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but that may be a long shot.
BEARDOWN ARIZONA!
Next Game: Arizona vs. Utah, Saturday February 28th, 6 PM PST, 7 PM MST, ESPN
