The Arizona Wildcats Basketball teams seniors can accumulate enough stats to make all-time school record lists this season and they are on their way.
What happens when your school has fourth-year seniors on the basketball team? They have the opportunity to add enough stats to make record lists.
Arizona’s seniors on this season’s’ roster have the chance to break a couple of school records, or, at least, climb all-time school stats lists.
Former Wildcats have set a high bar with regards to success. Currently, there are 18 former Arizona Wildcats in the NBA according to the Arizona Wildcats vs. UCLA game notes.
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Wildcats in the NBA
Here are some fun facts:
- In each of the last 16 seasons, at least, eight former Wildcats have played in the NBA.
- Former Wildcats collectively reached the $1 billion mark in career earnings in 2014.
- Collectively, the Wildcat players who have been drafted since 1988 have won 14 NBA championships and made six All-Star appearances.
Current ‘A Players Program.’
This season’s’ Cats are ranked No. 5 in winning percentage at .929, and with wins come impressive stats. Arizona, as a team, ranks No. 4 in total wins nationally (160) since 2010-11 behind No. 1 Kentucky (166), No. 2 Kansas (163), No. 3 Duke (162) as of Jan. 5 2016.
Rankings and trends:
The program, in the Sean Miller era, has produced seven NBA Draft picks. Arizona is one of just five programs in the nation to have three top-10 NBA Draft picks since 2011.
The Wildcats own the nation’s longest active home winning streak at 47 consecutive games.
The Wildcats have been ranked in 68-consecutive AP polls and 71-straight coaches polls.
Wildcats working on school records:
In his junior year, Zeus was the most winningest active junior in the country; he played in 92 games in three seasons where the Wildcats have won. Thus far through his senior year, he has played in 98 games and counting where the Cats have won. The top five players he is looking to surpass are as follows:
- Matt Muehlebach (1988-91) 109
- Jason Gardner (2000-03) 107
- Matt Othick (1989-92) 106
- Anthony Cook (1986-89) 105
- Sean Elliott (1986-89) 105, Jud Buechler (1987-90) 105 and Jordin Mayes (2011-14) 105
Tarczewski needs 11 wins to tie, and 12 wins to surpass Muehlebach to be ranked No. 1 on the all-time list. There are sixteen regular season games left to play, so if Zeus plays in all the remaining games, and they win 12 of those games, he will graduate at the top of this illustrious list. If you take into account post-season opportunities, it seems we will be singing his praises in March.
What about total career points? Before the UCLA game, Zeus needed just eight points to his total to make the ‘1,000 career points club.’ Kaleb scored 12 points against the Bruins.
Welcome to the club Zeus! You now have 1,004 total career points and are one of five Wildcats to achieve this stat under Coach Miller and one of 50 of all-time.
Kaleb Tarczewski has become the 50th Wildcat to score 1,000 points in a career. #APlayersProgram pic.twitter.com/FcTW8tVheJ
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) January 8, 2016
Gabe York
Kaleb’s fellow Wildcats senior teammate, Gabe York, is also racking up the wins. Gabe has 93 career victories playing for the Wildcats, so he will most likely make the top 10 list as well.
York is also already made the top-10 all-time three-point shots made in Wildcats history at No. 10 with 167. He is chasing No. 7 Chase Budinger (2006-09) with 190, No. 8 Khalid Reeves (1991-94) with 186 and No. 9 Miles Simon (1994-98) with 176. So Gabe needs nine more made 3-point shots to tie Simon for No. 9, 20 to surpass Reeves and 24 to rise to No. 7 over Budinger.
Last season York shot and made 66 3-pointers. If he meets that total this season, he will have made 197 three’s and anything over 193 total will move him into the No. 3 spot on the Wildcats all-time list over Jason Terry (1996-99) and Kyle Fogg (2008-12) with 193.
Yorks stats to-date:
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CBB: View Original Table
Generated 1/8/2016.
More wildcats: Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Valiant comeback falls short Against UCLA
Let’s Go Cats!