Arizona Basketball: Sean Miller faces off against Lorenzo Romar in the Wooden Legacy
By David Rosen
Former associate head coach for Arizona Basketball Lorenzo Romar faces off against the Wildcats in the opening round of the Wooden Legacy tournament.
On the road. It will be their first time away from McKale Center this season, but don’t be surprised if the Arizona Basketball fan base shows up and makes it feel a home game. They will take on the Pepperdine Waves, coached by the former associate head for the Wildcats Lorenzo Romar, in the opening round of the Wooden Legacy.
The winner will face the winner of UCF/Pennsylvania. As long as the Wildcats continue to play as they have so far, they should have no problem advancing to the second round and all the way to the finals. On paper, they are the favorite to win it all, but as the saying goes they need to focus one game at a time.
3 games in 4 days. That is one aspect of this type of tournament that will force teams to be mentally and physically prepared for each game. The good thing for the Wildcats, as long as they advance, will have the later game each session which will give them a little more time to recover.
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This season the Waves are 3-3 on the season and a solid win over Max Hazzard’s former team UC Irvine. They don’t have a very deep bench compared to the Wildcats, but they do have some shooters. Their leading scorer, junior guard Colbey Ross, is averaging 20.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 7 assists per game.
Their other two top performers are putting up at least 10+ points per game. Senior forward Kameron Edwards is averaging 17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game, while sophomore forward Kessler Edwards has 13.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game.
The Waves are averaging almost 78.5 points per game compared to the Wildcats 87.7 points per game. As they have done before, the Wildcats will need to continue to push the pace and get the ball inside and take advantage of the depth of shooters they have.
The Wildcats have the edge inside with their size and strength. The key will be not to force the ball inside, as they did a few times against Long Beach State, which will then force the Waves to double team. Because of their lack of size, they would not be surprised to see them play a lot of zone against the Wildcats.
Arizona Basketball has struggled in recent years during mid-season tournaments. This time around they have one of Sean Miller’s best teams ever and are in a good position to have a big showing in Anaheim.
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Game Information:
Date: Thursday, November 28th
Time: 9pm MST, 8pm PST
Location: Anaheim, CA
Television: ESPN2
Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network Arizona Wildcats (Try Tunein Radio)
Must Read. Arizona Basketball: Men’s and women’s teams both ranked in AP Top 25. light
Overall, the Wildcats lead the head-to-head matchup 4-0 with the last win being in 2001. 18 years later they look to continue their winnings ways against the Waves. At Zona Zealots, we look forward to the Wildcats taking part in the Wooden Legacy. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!