This season has been about rankings; the Arizona Wildcats basketball team finds itself in familiar territory again looking to stay on course to get a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Arizona Wildcats Basketball team is closing in on getting themselves back in the top 10 ranking. The Wildcats are currently No. 12 on ESPN Top 25 Rankings (up from No. 18 last week), and No. 11 on USA Today Sports. Another Pac-12 school finally made it into the rankings this week, USC is now ranked No. 25. The Trojans have given us a memorable game; they beat the Wildcats 104-103 in quadruple overtime in Los Angeles last weekend.
This season has been like driving up Sentinel Peak on a rainy day. The competition was pretty hard to deal with on the road. When your player comes back from a foot injury like the Cats did with Kaleb Tarczewski, it makes your team depth stronger.
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Between the Providence game and the Washington game, Arizona had problems defending their opponent. Teams used the trap defense, the help defense, and sometimes full court and half court pressure. When those options didn’t work, they tried various zone defenses to slow down the Arizona attack. A couple of times, Arizona had been out-rebounded, like UCLA for example.
The recent release of the rankings tell a story, Arizona has firepower at its disposal, and no one should count them out. Arizona can go almost nine men deep, and that should be pleasing to Arizona Basketball coach Sean Miller although he has said he will use a mix of zone going forward due to lack of depth. After running away in both games against the Washington schools, the Wildcats, and Coach Miller thankfully found themselves beating down the door to get back to the Top 10 rankings.
This Thursday night, the Stanford Cardinal will be waiting to give us a run for our money. The Cardinal have always played the Cats close at Maples Pavilion. Take the 2008 game at Maples for example. Nic Wise missed two free-throws with 46.6 seconds left, then Jarryd Bayless missed a lay-up and the Cardinal, with their twin brothers Brook, and Robin Lopez won 56-52. Granted that was six years ago.
Thursday’s game is set for 9:00 p.m. MST/8:00 p.m. PST in Palo Alto. The Cats are looking to get their fourth conference win of the season. Arizona is still without freshman star Allonzo Trier, who is expected to be back soon, and guard Elliott Pitts, whose is still dealing with personal issues.
As for the game on Thursday at Maples Pavilion, Arizona looks to get a win over the Cardinal on the road. If Arizona’s rebound margin is bigger than their opponent, then this team is going to win big. The way things are setting up, Arizona is poised to make a run at the Final Four.
Next: Arizona Wildcats Basketball: The Battle with Stanford
For a little walk down memory lane and a reminder of how sweet it can be to win the NCAA Championship, we have included the video below where our Cats beat those other Wildcats (University of Kentucky) and won it all in 1997. Lute Olson and his team beat three No. 1 seeds to win the first title in the basketball program’s history.
Note: Kentucky is currently ranked No. 22, and last year’s champs, the Duke Blue Devils are ranked No. 20. This year’s tournament is going to be a wild ride.
The Arizona Wildcats Basketball team is seeking their second basketball Championship in as many as 19 years. That 1997 team won it all, and this year’s team can win it all. This team will Bear Down for the rest of the season.