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A Look At Wildcats Basketball Early Top-25 Landing Spot

ByMiguel Gonzalez|

ESPN releases its new “No-Longer-Way-Too-Early Top 25” they released a March bracket also and both interesting outlook on Arizona Wildcats Basketball.

In the ESPN article Wildcats Basketball is ranked number 15 in the updated Top-25; the first ranking released since the NBA Draft. There was also a Bracket released by Joe Lunardi and he has Wildcats Basketball as the 4th seed out West.

First let’s start with analyzing the Top-25 overall where the Wildcats are the third ranked Pac-12 team behind No.12 Califonia and No.13 Utah. It’s interesting to read about their outlook on all three of these Pac-12 teams. Each team lost very key pieces of their team as did the Wildcats, but for some reason there isn’t as much faith in the Wildcats Basketball team to be able rebound from what they lost for some reason.

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Given that we did lose four different starters to the NBA I can understand some of the questions that will have to be answered. Before we get too deep into the Wildcats, let’s talk about Cal and Utah. I believe they both deserve the respect and coverage they are getting, but both also have a lot of questions left unanswered as well.

I understand that Cal has improved a great deal especially with the pick up of Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown, but these players have not played on the collegiate level nor have they had to play at McKale Center against the Wildcats. Not that they can’t turn into a great team but let’s not get ahead of ourselves because as we know not everything that looks good on paper turns into the same results on the hardwood. Remember how Kentucky was supposed to be the best team on paper last year and supposed to win the championship?

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Utah may have a leg up because they do have players that have played at the collegiate level and lived through and taken the tough road playing Pac-12 teams. They also may have one of the best home court advantages in the country, even so, the Wildcats won that battle last season.

Even the great Wildcats teammates from last season said it was one of the toughest places to play (as a fan it may have been the most exciting game of the season.) Let’s not forget that Utah also lost their best player, and that loss was important enough to for Eamonn Brennan start his ESPN article with almost a full paragraph about Delon Wright.

Now we move on to the Wildcats Basketball team who is the reigning Pac-12 Regular Season and Pac-12 tournament Champions. Yes we have lost four great players who will be missed but let’s not forget who is coming back. Arizona starts one of the top big men in the Pac-12, Kaleb Tarczewski, who will be our senior leader and I can’t wait to see how much he has improved. After all he put up some great numbers in The Pan-American Games this summer

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Now we look for our four players from last season who learned under some of the best Wildcats we have seen as fans: Gabe York, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Dusan Ristic and Elliot Pitts.  These athletes will now be playing some big roles most probably in the starting rotation.

Add to the roster Ryan Anderson who didn’t get court time due to NCAA rules last season but did get to be involved with the on court system and practiced with the squad. Lastly, let’s not forget about the newest addition to the team who will probably make a huge impact; Allonzo Trier our five-star Shooting guard. Allonzo has what it takes to help the team score and has a huge presence on the court.

As if that isn’t enough to put some fear in the eyes of opposing coaches, let’s not forget we still have 24/7sports 4th ranked recruiting class. So add Chance Comanche, Justin Simon and Ray Smith as freshman that ranked in top 100 for Espn.com 2015 recruits.

Finally we still have Jacob Hazzard, Trey Mason, Mark Tollefsen, and lastly maybe the biggest sleeper that no one outside of Arizona is talking about are transfers Kadeem Allen. I expect some great things from him especially after hearing T.J. McConnell praise him all last season.

Let’s not forget that we have the best coach in the nation in my opinion, Sean Miller, to add to our arsenal. I mean what can’t this guy do? It’s like every season we are picked to do worse than the last and he continues to step up by battling not only for the Pac-12 title but also being a threat to make a run deep into March.

Wildcats Basketball has distanced itself in the Pac-12 as the best team last season, but did we lose enough ground for everyone else to catch up? Yes, I know we still have a lot to prove and work on, but let’s not forget the other schools still have to earn the title and play us in one of the best home court advantage arenas and in front of the best NCAA fans in the country!

Even though we should be getting ready for Wildcats Football I had to make it a point to make sure we don’t forget about this when Wildcats Basketball starts in a few months. So let’s not forget to BEARDOWN and get ready for another great year in Arizona Wildcats Sports.

Next: 1997 Arizona Wildcats : One of the Top 5 NCAA Championship Team to Earn The Most (in the NBA)

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