Preview: Arizona Basketball returns to exhibition action on Sunday
Arizona Basketball will finish up its exhibition slate of games as they take on visiting the Chaminade Silverswords inside McKale on Sunday.
We’re officially in November, which means that the official start of Arizona Basketball is around corner. We’ve already played one exhibition game, but as always, the Wildcats will play their second one before the start of the regular season.
On Tuesday, the Wildcats came out with a dominant performance, absolutely taking it the visiting Western New Mexico Mustangs, winning by 51. Despite Chase Jeter being out and the Wildcats shooting an abysmal 10 of 19 from the charity stripe, they still showed great potential in the lopsided win.
Arizona Wildcats
Plus, sophomore wing Brandon Randolph had a great game versus the Mustangs, leading all scorers with 20 points on 5/5 shooting from beyond the arc. It will be interesting to see if he can duplicate that kind of performance this season!
Also, it’ll be interesting to see if Jeter is good to go by Sunday to be able to play. It’s possible Sean Miller and the Wildcats hold out their big man with the nagging ankle injury, in order to get him rested by their opening game versus Houston Baptist next week.
Arizona’s biggest concern in 2018-19 will be their play down low, as the Wildcats don’t quite have the size or depth they’ve had the past few season.
For now, Arizona returns to action on Sunday night to get prepared for the official start of the 2018-19 season. Chaminade (a Division II opponent from Hawaii) will be the next opponent up, as they come to town, having just played San Diego State tough a few nights prior.
With that said, here’s our preview of Chaminade:
Keys to the Game:
Stay focused, look to get better- 2018-19 will be an interesting one for the Wildcats. Not many are expecting Arizona to compete for a third, consecutive Pac-12 regular season championship, plus, some are considering this team to be a fringe tournament team.
They still have some talent, but most of it is unproven, plus they mix in a few guys who will have to continue to build chemistry as the season goes along and learn how to play with each other.
This game is a great opportunity at perfecting those things, and get ready for a grueling start to the season. Arizona will have three regular season games before heading to a loaded Maui Tournament, and then play a few solid teams in their non-conference slate.
Come out focused, play hard and work on those small things that’ll help get this team better down the road.
Get more guys involved- If Arizona is going to be successful this year, it’s going to come from everywhere. This team unlike last year, is devoid of any clear superstar(s), but that could be a good thing!
Less stars could mean more teamwork and more guys buying into Millers’ system, rather than allowing an ego or two to take over and make things a little dysfunctional. I think Arizona has talent, but some of it is young and just needs reps.
So to me, it’s simple, get more guys involved, get them minutes and experience, that more that pays off towards the end of the year.
Gain confidence- I don’t necessarily think this is a huge problem for this group, but confidence helps immensely. When you feel confident, you play better and that equals better results and ideally more wins.
This group certainly feels a bit slighted, but at the end of the day, they still have to prove themselves. Go out with confidence, poise, build it and put it towards the 2018-19 season and prove to everyone who doubted you, that they were wrong.
This game against Chaminade provides that opportunity, and could give the Wildcats a little swagger heading into the regular season!
Game Information:
Date: Sunday, November 4th, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm MST/ 6:00 pm PST
Location: Tucson, AZ- McKale Center (14,545)
Line: Unknown since it is just an exhibition game
Television: Pac-12 Network
Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network Arizona Wildcats (Try TuneIn Radio) or 107.5 KHYT (Tucson)
Team Records:
Arizona Wildcats (0-0, 0-0): The Wildcats haven’t notched an official win in the 2018 season as of yet, but won earlier in the week 95-44 over Western New Mexico.
This will be their final exhibition match before kicking off the official start to the 2018-19 basketball season.
Chaminade Silverswords (0-0, 0-0): Like the Wildcats, the Silverswords haven’t had an official win or loss in the 2018 season as of yet. However, in their first exhibition game, they lost in a close battler earlier in the week to San Diego State by a 68-63 final.
Their season official starts on Friday of next week against the University of Alaska.
All-Time Record: As far as I’m aware, neither of these schools have played in an officially registered and counted game.
Listen to head coach Sean Miller following his teams win on Tuesday evening:
More. On Arizona Basketball. light
At Zona Zealots we are excited to see the return of Arizona Basketball, and hope the Wildcats can continue to improve just ahead of the 2018-19 season! Bear Down, Arizona!