Pac-12 Basketball: Arizona State Wildcats, UCLA Bruins and Washington Huskies
Why are the Arizona Wildcats, UCLA Bruins and Washington Huskies struggling in the watered down Pac-12?
Have you ever been on one of those rollercoaster’s that goes up, down, side to side and then takes you upside down for a while—until you finally freak out and realize you’re going in too many directions that there’s no clear cut way?
Yeah, that’s what the Pac-12 basketball conference is like this year.
As a former player when the conference was the Pac-10, it was safe to say we were getting at least five teams in the NCAA tournament every year. We can certainly kiss that goodbye.
A conference that was once dubbed as a “super six conference”, along with the likes of the Big East and the ACC—it is now more of a: “Boy, I wonder what team will show up this week” conference.
People call me crazy of course, but I can’t help but think that traditional basketball powerhouses such as: UCLA and Arizona could be left out of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.
Sure, Arizona had a mulligan year during the 2009-10 season when current Coach Sean Miller brought stability back to the program by taking over the reins for Hall of Fame Coach Lute Olson (which was understandable seeing as how Miller had to implement a new system). He also brought in new recruits and has weeded out the troubled players that had plagued the program during Olson’s final days.
Arizona wowed us last season by making a surprise run to the Elite Eight by piling on the shoulders of Derrick Williams (now with the Minnesota Timberwolves). Expectations were once again set high heading into the 2011-12 basketball season in Tucson.
The way it’s looking, Arizona will most likely receive an NIT bid and play the likes of Maryland or some other team that won’t deserve to be in the NCAA tournament either. The Wildcats lost to the Washington Huskies Saturday in Tucson on a last second block—only this time it was the huskies that won the game on the blocked shot.
Their guard-play has been struggling as of late. The Wildcats lack a true center and don’t have a go-to-player to take the last shot in crunch time of basketball games. Junior forward Solomon Hill has been superb, but needs some help from guys like Nick Johnson, Josiah Turner and Jordin Mayes.
Speaking of those Huskies, they’re 14-7 and 7-2 in Pac-12 play. Looks like Lorenzo Romar has lit a fire underneath his squad as of late—but will it last?
Hard to tell what team we’re going to see in the final nine games of conference play. We could see the team that almost beat Duke at Madison Square Garden or we could see the team that lost to South Dakota State (What, you didn’t know about the real SDSU?) by 19 points on their own home court.
Washington is a scary team—they could be scary good or scary bad. For the Pac-12’s sake, let’s hope they become scary good so the conference can at least get two-solid teams into the dance. The Huskies play UCLA Thursday in Seattle—it could honestly go either way.
Washington is by far the most talented team in this watered down Pac-12, but clearly hasn’t played up to their potential—something Coach Romar has been harping on all season long.
Early on it looked as if the Huskies were headed for a long season with bad losses to the likes of Nevada and South Dakota State at home. But, it looks like the talented Huskies are starting to turn things around with Terrence Ross, Tony Wroten Jr and company.
UCLA is a whole different story, a season that started with such promise from Coach Ben Howland saying earlier this year that: “This will be a deep, talented team”.
The Bruins have gone from deep and talented to deep in trouble. Last season they had guards that were capable of playmaking with the likes of current NBA-ers Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee.
If they had come back to Westwood, this might be a different UCLA team. Throw their departure in with the enigma that was junior forward Reeves Nelson. How bad was it?
Head coach Ben Howland kicked Nelson off of the team and Nelson signed with a professional team in Lithuania. Just five weeks into his professional career, the associated press has reported that the Lithuanian team has sent Nelson back home to our continent.
The sad part is, UCLA has the talent like Washington—and they just can’t put it together. From an interior standpoint, UCLA has one of the biggest frontlines in the country with David and Travis Wear (transfers from North Carolina) and Josh Smith (6 11, 305 lbs.), but outside of the Wear twins—they haven’t received much production. Smith continues to get in foul trouble and has come into this season out of shape.
All he had to do was lose 25-30 pounds after last season, and he would’ve easily been one of the most dominant big men in college basketball. At his weight right now (325 lbs, and I’m being generous when I say that), he’s still a game changing post player. Any Pac-12 coach will tell you that. But if he trimmed up his weight and worked hard, then he would be in the upper-tier of big men across college basketball.
Senior guard Jerime Anderson has been a bust his whole college career. With his arrival at Westwood, expectations were through the roof. He hasn’t lived up to them. In fact, the most he’s shown us has been glimpses—if that. Lazeric Jones is a serviceable guard at best, but he’s not a starting guard in the Pac-12. Fortunately for Jones, this year he is a starting guard because the conference is so watered down.
Jones is not on the same level as past point guards like Jordan Farmar, Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday. He gives his team a solid effort, but he’s still missing a few elements that make him an elite point guard. Tyler lamb is another guard that’s serviceable, but he hasn’t made a true impact this year for UCLA.
The bruins are 12-9 and they head up to play the Washington schools this weekend. This could be trouble because Washington State plays hard at home and Washington is on the rise. With that being said, it looks like the Bruins will miss the tournament for the second time in the last three seasons—sad considering the history and tradition that goes with UCLA.
There’s no way to say why these three teams: Arizona, Washington and UCLA are struggling right now. They have the tradition, talent, and coaches to be better than they are. Despite these teams’ recent struggles, there is still half the league left to play.
It’s unfortunate that all three of these teams could potentially miss the NCAA Tournament, but in the recent words of UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland: “It is what it is.”
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Washington vs. Arizona Basketball: Wildcats Lose More Than Game Against Huskies
An afternoon that should’ve just ended with a loss to Washington ended with a much more crushing blow. Arizona lost to Washington 69-67 in Tucson Saturday night but the big loss came after the game when the school announced that junior guard/forward Kevin Parrom broke a bone in his foot and would be sidelined for the rest of the season.
Parrom, who was coming on strong as of late with the previous games against Colorado and Utah, was shot in his right leg during the preseason in September while making a trip home to New York to visit his ailing mother. A redshirt seemed to be the only solution so he would be healthy for the following season but Parrom was adamant about rehabbing and coming back this year.
There were times out on the court when Parrom was still feeling the affects of the gunshot wound but started to find his footing as the season progressed. After news broke that he would be out for the year, Arizona head coach Sean Miller reflected on what Parrom means to the team.
“We missed him, no question about it,” Miller said Saturday, before UA announced the full extent of the injury.
“It’s a shame because Kevin right now is (effectively) a starter. He is. He would have probably been a starter from the first day of the season until now, but on the Colorado-Utah swing was probably the first time we saw him running and playing and confident. He almost had his full strength back.
He played an excellent half against Washington today. Not having him available for the second half was kind of the same look we’ve had prior to him coming back and our margin for error is razor-thin without him, that’s for sure.”
When the news was dealt to the junior guard that he would miss the remainder of the season, Arizona head coach Sean Miller summed it all up by saying this. “Life’s not fair sometimes,” Miller said. “You want to win every game and that’s the job that I have. But from (Parrom’s) perspective it would be nice if he could just catch a break.”
Now the Wildcats will be without one of their defensive stoppers for the remainder of the season. This is a team that already is lacking interior depth with no true center and now that the Wildcats have lost Parrom, other players will have to step up for Miller and his young group of Wildcats.
Freshman star guard Nick Johnson has been struggling of late for Arizona and had another difficult shooting night for the Wildcats. Johnson scored two points and only took four attempts in 27 minutes of playing time against the Huskies, a team that had been underachieving at the beginning of the year but now finds themselves atop the Pac-12 standings with the California Golden Bears.
Despite the loss, the Wildcats could still win the Pac-12 regular-season conference title. In a watered-down conference, Arizona finds themselves with two crucial road games coming up as they visit the Bay Area this week to take on Cal and Stanford, two teams that are also very capable of not only winning the conference but making a run into the NCAA tournament in a month-and-a-half.
Losing Parrom hurts Arizona, from a defensive standpoint, a team chemistry standpoint and an emotional standpoint because not only was Parrom a great weapon for this team but he was turning into a solid leader for Arizona. If the Wildcats want a chance at winning the Pac-12, Coach Miller may have to start using his backup centers Alex Jacobson and Kyryl Natyazhko.
If anything, Jacobson and Natyazhko can eat up space in the middle and grab rebounds, an area that the Wildcats have been lacking all season. Both Natyazhko and Jacobson stand at 7’0″ and if Miller were to insert them into the rotation they would definitely help on some level because Jesse Perry is only 6’7″ and is more of a swingman-type player than an interior post player.
I’m not taking anything away from Perry, because he does rebound and play at an extremely high level, but there has to be something that changes in order for Arizona to have a chance at winning the Pac-12.
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UConn Huskies: NCAA Continuing to Make Life Miserable for Boatright and Team
The Connecticut Huskies have lost five times this season. Each time, the loss has come from a team they were supposed to beat.
Three times they lost without a player, that in only a few games in his freshman season has been compared by his Hall of Fame coach to the player whose footsteps he follows in—Kemba Walker.
That player is Ryan Boatright, a freshman from Aurora, Illinois and the son of a single mother raising four kids outside of Chicago. Boatright was Mr. Basketball in Illinois during his senior year of high school. He was also one of the most exciting players in the Class of 2011.
When he’s on the court, his energy motivates his teammates and gets the crowd fired up. His feisty demeanor and ability have been responded to with incredible love from the UConn faithful.
Following his home debut, Boatright had been the player chosen to be interviewed by UConn sideline reporter Emily Noonan, who normally speaks to the star of the game. Throughout the interview, his responses were drowned out by the sound of the students yelling: “Ryan Boatright!”
The praise is well earned. Shooting 48 percent from the field, 47 percent from three-point range and averaging 10 points and 3.5 assists per game in a three-guard lineup will normally make you pretty popular.
The problem is Boatright has only played 10 of UConn’s 19 games.
Why is this?
Boatright is the target of an NCAA investigation—one many thought had been done and dusted several months ago.
Boatright missed the first six games of the 2011-12 season. At first UConn, coming off of a season where punishments were handed out for the infamous recruiting scandal revolving around Nate Miles, was simply being compliant with the NCAA—while they investigated the claims.
In the end, Boatright had been suspended for a total of six games because his mother had accepted a handout from long-time friend Reggie Rose (who has had run-ins with the NCAA before) in order to be able to afford an expensive plane ticket. So that she could fly to Connecticut to see the school her son would be furthering his education and basketball career at.
What a horrible thing right?
It’s one thing if a UConn booster or an agent is providing the money for this sort of thing, then I would understand where the NCAA is coming from. But this was a friend that Boatright’s mother had known for a long time who was just trying to be a human being. Humans are compassionate and are willing to help their friends. It is interesting that being human is a crime in the eyes of the NCAA.
Another thing to consider is that the allegations were coming from a jealous ex-boyfriend of Boatright’s mother. This man, a convicted felon, saw Boatright take the money for the ticket. When the relationship went south, he vowed to make things miserable for the family.
But that situation seemed to be in the past. Boatright came back for the Battle Four Atlantis Consolation Game, following the loss to Central Florida. He was a big part of UConn overtaking Florida State.
After that, UConn was much better with Boatright on the floor. Numbers provided by the UConn blog make a strong argument for UConn being better with Boatright eligible and on the floor. Despite a bad week in New Jersey, which has been a mean place to all UConn sports this year, the Huskies have looked better with Boatright.
But then came the trip to Notre Dame. Boatright had reason to be excited. South Bend was the closest to home he would play all season and he had 400—yes 400—family and friends making the nearly three-hour trip.
The night before the game, Calhoun calls Boatright in to talk to him. It turned out that more allegations had been made against him and UConn. With the requirement to comply with the NCAA, he needed to sit him out until further notice. The young freshman cried in his coach’s arms before a tearful phone call to his mother to break the news.
Boatright has now missed three more games. The first, UConn were able to find some energy in the second half and hang on to beat the Irish. This was followed by a three-point loss to Cincinnati. I had the pleasure of speaking directly to ESPN’s Andy Katz after the game and he agreed that with Boatright in the lineup—UConn is a completely different team. Anyone would agree with that.
Calhoun was forced to ask the likes of Andre Drummond, Alex Oriakhi and Tyler Olander to defend the perimeter—taking them away from the hoop and leaving UConn vulnerable.
Tennessee was an ugly game, but again, UConn struggled to defend the perimeter with big men and they were extremely vulnerable. The offense could get nothing going, but they were clearly missing a spark.
So UConn clearly has struggled without Boatright, a player that could have easily been considered for Big East Rookie of the Year and who could have gotten UConn a bit closer to the top of the Big East, all because the NCAA are investigating the finances of his family.
They don’t believe that family friends wanted to make sure that the Boatright’s were able to have a good Christmas and thus donated some money to the family. The NCAA thinks that agents are pouring money into the Boatright’s account for a future star.
Let’s rewind the clocks a bit though. Everyone remembers the 2010 college football season. Like Tim Tebow was the story of the NFL in 2011, Cam Newton was the talk of college football in 2010. The Auburn quarterback ran and passed his way to a Heisman Trophy and a national championship.
However, during the entire season there was a bit of scandal around him as Mississippi State boosters revealed that during their recruitment of the former Florida quarterback (no longer at Florida because of an arrest for stealing a laptop), his father Cecil had said that it would take between $100,000-$180,000 to recruit his son. Cecil Newton was “pimping” his son to schools.
Newton was declared ineligible on November 30, 2010, but Auburn argued that the booster from MSU in question could not be considered an agent. The NCAA agreed and reinstated him.
So Reggie Rose, a man just trying to be a friend to a long-time friend, is an agent just because he’s trying to help a friend?
Yet there’s nothing wrong with Newton’s father shopping him around?
That seems a bit ridiculous.
Should I remind everyone again that the NCAA is also going on the word of a convicted felon and are unable to believe that friends are just trying to help a struggling family get by?
The mood around the UConn basketball team has been plagued since the second wave of the Boatright scandal. Tweets from students and fans, even players at times, have called for the freedom of Ryan Boatright. Now the movement is taking to Facebook, as a group was created on Wednesday to show support for UConn’s star freshman.
The ridiculousness of the NCAA’s antics is showing once again. This issue, which shouldn’t really have been an issue in the first place, had been taken care of months ago. Now, the NCAA sees the Boatright family as crooked and living off of money from agents.
This second investigation hasn’t even garnered a decision yet. According to Katz, Boatright has even met with the NCAA. But UConn is forced to keep him out.
It is on the verge of obnoxious. No, it exceeds obnoxious.
Follow Tim on Twitter @TimFontenault
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UConn Basketball: 4 Underperforming Huskies Who Need to Step Up
Connecticut has lost three of their five games since New Year’s Day, including last night’s three-point loss to Cincinnati.
The Huskies are currently 4-3 in the Big East, good for eighth place in league play.
While they have enough size, talent and athleticism to return to the Final Four, several of Jim Calhoun‘s key players are underperforming.
Here are four UConn players who need to step up if Connecticut is going to make a run anywhere close to the one they pulled off last year.
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UConn Basketball: 5 Keys to the Huskies’ 2 Losses
Talent is not UConn’s problem.
Depth is not an issue for the Huskies.
But Connecticut (12-2) proved again that, on any given night, they can be beaten.
This time, it was by Seton Hall (13-2), who won a game in this series for the first time since 2001.
It is not a surprise that UConn would possibly lose a few games this year. What is unexpected is that they have lost to Central Florida and, last night, to the Pirates.
While these may not create a blue-print for taking down the defending champs, they do shed some light on what happens when they don’t come out on top.
Here are five keys to these two losses.
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Oregon State Beavers: Fall Short After Comeback to Huskies 95-80
University of Washington Husky fans had a lot to cheer for tonight as their football and basketball teams both played in big games. However, one team didn’t do as well as the other did, but at least their basketball team gave them some dramatic entertainment as the Huskies beat the Oregon State Beavers 95-80.
With Alamo Bowl clips running on the video board flashing Huskies football updates against Heisman trophy recipient, Robert Griffin III and Baylor, the Alaska Airline crowd had a lot to cheer for and a good dose of added drama.
Oregon State looked to turn the Washington crowd’s attention to them as Tony Wroten played the game of his young career. Jared Cunningham did his high-flying acrobatics, Joe Burton flipped balls in the hoop like a kid playing with a ball of yarn and the Beavers succeeded as the attention quickly turned to the hardwood.
Just like their football team the Huskies lost a 20-point lead and found themselves in what the Beavers like the most: fast-paced, back-and-forth battles. In the Pac-12 opener for both teams, the Beavers (10-3, 0-1) got the score to 83-80 with three minutes left before Washington found a way to get back ahead and hand the Beavers their ninth straight loss in Seattle.
Robnson’s Beavers got off to their best start in 22 years, winning 10 of 12 games where eight of them came with a margin of 20 points or more. But OSU had to prove itself on the road and have not faced a team with the length and quickness that Washington has this season. Especially freshman Tony Wroten.
Wroten scored a game-high 26 points to help his Huskies to what seemed like an easy victory.
The Beavers did not start well as the team was down 12-4, missing seven of their first nine shots looking extremely out of sync. Angus Brandt, who is the Pac-12’s field goal percentage leader, missed three of his first four shots.
Washington was able to take a 6-0 lead after Wroten grabbed an inbounds pass and put it in. Bunningham did his best to keep the Beavers in it early, scoring nine of the Beavers’ first 13 points, but then slowed down as the Huskies started to push the temp into their favor.
Within a heartbeat the Huskies were up 40-20 and running for more, but the Beavers weren’t done as they went on a 13-4 run. All while Cunningham was on the bench.
In the second half Oregon State came out with the energy they were lacking in the first 20 minutes. Burton scored on a hook shot and Cunningham was all over as the Beavers were throwing down buckets just as much as the Huskies.
With a three point shot by Roberto Nelson the score was cut to 66-60 with just 12 minutes left. Then Wroten took over, hitting three pointers to give the Huskies a nine-point lead and gave him his first points of the half. He finished with 14 points in the final 12 minutes.
Every team needs to hit free throws and tonight that wasn’t the case for either team as the Huskies hit 17 of 20; the Beavers only 9 of 17. Turnovers were also a big factor of this game but the Beavers did not force that many, even with the pace of the game.
Oregon State will look to rebound and find their way back to the dominant team they have become in the Pac-12 this season as they get set for Washington State on Saturday, Dec. 31st in Pullman. Tip off is 3:00 pm.
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Women’s College Basketball: Baylor Bears Slip Past UConn Huskies in a Doozy
Please, basketball gods, give us the Baylor Lady Bears vs. the UConn Lady Huskies one more time, maybe April 3 in Denver. If it’s half as good as No.1 Baylor’s 66-61 triumph over the nation’s second-ranked team Sunday night at the sold-out Ferrell Center in Waco, we’ll be in for a treat.
All-American Brittney Griner contributed 25 points, nine rebounds and nine blocked shots for Kim Mulkey’s undefeated (11-0) Lady Bears while floor general Odyssey Sims pitched in with 7-11 field goal shooting and 23 points. UConn (9-1) was paced by Bria Hartley’s 25 points and freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis’s 15.
The two teams offer fascinating contrasts in both personnel and style of play. A deep Baylor squad utilizes not only the 6’8” Griner, but a pair of rugged power forwards in Brooklyn Pope and Destiny Williams to complement a three-guard attack. UConn’s Geno Auriemma these days favors a four-guard lineup combined with heady post Stefanie Dolson.
Understandably, Baylor prefers to run its offense through Griner in the low post, while the more perimeter approach of UConn normally finds Dolson as a high post entertaining a plethora of cutters and spot-up shooters.
Griner and company jumped out quickly, building a 21-14 lead 11 minutes into the game behind eight Griner points. But the Lady Huskies settled into their game, Mosqueda-Lewis brought her scoring touch off the bench to the tune of 11 points and UConn took a 34-28 halftime lead.
Dolson’s two quick fouls induced Auriemma to mix in an old-fashioned 2-3 zone defense which seemed to disrupt the flow of the Baylor offense.
Connecticut had taken the lead 27-26 with just over four minutes remaining in the half, a lead that peaked at 50-39 11 minutes later. They would not surrender this advantage until two Griner free throws gave the Lady Bears a 55-54 edge with 5:30 to go.
UConn managed one more brief lead, but Mulkey’s troops converted on six-of-seven possessions to gain a firm grasp on the proceedings.
On a night that began with a classy north Texas crowd giving Auriemma a standing ovation as he entered the arena, the country’s top two women’s college basketball teams delivered a gem.
What about it, ladies, wanna run it back?
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Duke Blue Devils Escape MSG with Win over Washington Huskies
Madison Square Garden is often called the Cameron Indoor Stadium of the north. The Duke Blue Devils love the place and it typically shows on the scoreboard. This time around the Washington Huskies hoped their athleticism and momentum could springboard them into a December upset.
At first glance, the 86-80 final score makes it appear like a closely-contested matchup. However, it was poor play and inexcusable free-throw shooting which allowed the Huskies to make a late run, but they were never really in a position to steal a win.
Ryan Kelly started slow, going 2-7 from the floor in the first half, but improved as the game went on, using his size to finish with 16 points and eight rebounds. Austin Rivers led the Devils in scoring with 18 and is starting to show signs of growth and maturity.
Once again using Tyler Thornton as a starter, the Blue Devils often looked strong. Benefiting most from the move appeared to be sharp-shooter Andre Dawkins. Although he came off of the bench, he led all Duke player in playing time and scored 17.
The point total was nice for the Virginia native, but it didn’t help his field goal percentage, however, as he was only 5-13 from the floor, but it was enough against an average Washington team.
On a day where the top two teams in the nation losing is second-tier to an on-court brawl, it is certainly nice for Duke fans to enjoy a classy win in one of the best, and most historic, basketball venues in the world.
In Coach K’s history at Duke he has an impressive 22-7 record at the Garden, and the Devils once again proved how much they enjoy playing at MSG.
Up next for Duke is UNC Greensboro, as the Spartans will visit the unfriendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium. On the season the Spartans haven’t found too many comfortable courts, as they have only won two games and are dead last in the Southern Conference’s North Division.
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UConn Basketball: 5 Keys to Jeremy Lamb, Huskies Avoiding a Harvard Upset
UConn hosts Harvard tonight in the Crimson’s first game as a Top 25 team, and the Huskies will have to fend off a vigorous upset bid.
While Jim Calhoun coaches the reigning champions, Tommy Amaker‘s squad is focused and hungry—look no further than senior Keith Wright’s tweet, which he sent after this week’s polls were released.
Harvard is a talented team—better than last year’s Princeton team that took Kentucky to the wire in March—so UConn could have its hands full. The Huskies have already lost to one non-BCS team and need a convincing win over a Top 25 team—a narrow two-point escape over Florida State doesn’t count.
Here are five keys to UConn denying Harvard’s upset bid.
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Washington Basketball: Grading the Huskies in Near-Upset of No. 11 Marquette
Washington gave the No. 11 Marquette Golden Eagles a run for their money on Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden as part of the Jimmy V Classic.
The Huskies battled all game against Marquette and intermittently controlled the game’s tempo against the undefeated team.
Although Washington emerged with a loss, which sinks their record to 4-3, there were many positive notes in the Huskies’ near-upset of Marquette.
Here is an assessment of Washington’s performance Tuesday night.
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