Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Saturday's win over Texas A&M proves that UA basketball is a grind
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Notice anything familiar about Arizona’s four closely contested basketball games this season?
65-63, Michigan State, win.
69-65, Butler, loss.
69-62, Gonzaga, loss.
67-63, Texas A&M, win.
In those four games, none played at McKale Center, Arizona had 68, 67, 65 and 63 possessions. Compare that to UCLA, the flavor of the month in college basketball, which has had as many as 91 possessions in a game this season.
Such is Sean Miller basketball: a slow and purposeful grind that rarely fails to put a knot in your stomach (or his). The Wildcats average 67 possessions per game, which is No. 276 in the NCAA.
Those four games have been so much different yet so much the same, much like Saturday’s victory over Texas A&M when the Wildcats went on a 15-0 run and, in turn, gave up an 18-0 A&M run. The Wildcats trailed Gonzaga 38-24 yet rallied to make it close.
No wonder the coach sweats through his shirt.
If we have learned anything through the season’s first dozen games, it is this:
Arizona is not a good 3-point shooting team in times of crisis. The Wildcats are 7 for 34 (or 21 percent) against the Zags, Butler and A&M. Yet in carefree finishes against Missouri, UC Irvine and Texas Southern, the Wildcats were 29 for 55 on 3-pointers (or 53 percent).
If Arizona is to finish within range of UCLA and Oregon in the Pac-12, it will require Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen to routinely do what they did against Texas A&M: combine for 35 points and make more foul shots than the other guy.
In those games against Michigan State, Gonzaga, Butler and A&M, the Wildcats outscored their opponents 71-46 from the foul line. Had Miller’s get-to-the-line system not worked, Arizona would’ve lost all four games.
It’s impossible to estimate how good (or not) the Wildcats can be until Allonzo Trier and Parker Jackson-Cartwright return. Arizona’s nonconference schedule is ranked 163rd overall by Kenpom.com and there’s no telling how the paper-thin Wildcats will hold up when they open conference play Dec. 30 at Cal.
A seven-man rotation isn’t likely to survive many true road settings even against nonranked teams like Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Arizona State. I suspect that Texas A&M wouldn’t finish in the first division of the Pac-12, and maybe the top eight.
The UA last regularly played a seven-man rotation in 1972-73, the first year McKale Center opened. It has many similarities to the 2016-17 Wildcats.
Arizona lost point guard Jim Rappis after only three starts and was thereafter limited to a lineup in which the three-leading scorers were all freshmen: Coniel Norman, Eric Money and Al Fleming. Sound familiar? Freshmen Markkanen, Rawle Alkins and Kobi Simmons are Arizona’s three-leading scorers today.
That threesome was exceptional; all played in the NBA. But they were worn down as the season progressed and even though the UA finished 16-10, the first Wildcat team to play in McKale was outscored over the year, 81.5 to 81.2 per game.
The big difference was style of play; the first McKale Center team didn’t often play 67-63 games. They had a three-game streak of 110-105, 101-95 and 100-94 games.
Either way, then and now, it still put a knot in your stomach.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Air Force’s 9-3 football team moved up its trip to the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl and now plans to arrive in Tucson on Christmas afternoon.
Maybe that’s because it was 5 degrees in Colorado Springs at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Either way, that’s a good sign for Arizona Bowl founder Ali Farhang, who said the game distributed more than 6,000 tickets in a 24-hour period last week.
“Thanks to the generosity of our community, we are working on providing tickets to over 10,000 active, reserve and retired military, Southern Arizona teachers and local first responders,” he said. “The excitement over this program has overwhelmed us.”
Commanders from all four military bases in Arizona will attend the Dec. 30 game at 3:30 p.m. More? Beer will be sold at Arizona Stadium. A Ferris wheel will be erected in downtown Tucson for a Dec. 29 block party from 3-8 p.m.
Ever optimistic, Farhang believes the Air Force-South Alabama game can draw 30,000 fans, an increase of 10,000 from the 2015 inaugural game. The 3:30 kickoff time on a Friday afternoon is as important as anything.
“While there is always room for improvement,” said Farhang, “I am not sure what else we can do for a bowl game in its second year of existence.”
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Tucsonan Penny Taylor, a 1948 USA Olympic swimmer, is retiring after 20 years as Chef de Mission for USA Swimming. She has been at the site of every conceivable major swimming meet in the world since 1988. Taylor was also inducted into the Arizona Swimming Hall of Fame last month, along with gold medalists Gary Hall Jr. and Misty Hyman. Not only that, Taylor was named one of 16 key contributors to swimming in America — a “Splashmaker” — at swimming’s annual awards banquet in Los Angeles. Also on the list of 16: Sabino High and UA grad Dan Hicks, who has been the Voice of Olympic swimming on NBC since 1996.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
It’s not likely that Sean Miller will be able to bring in T.J. McConnell’s younger brother as a two-year transfer to help at point guard. Matty McConnell, who was a high school star in his brother’s mold at Chartiers Valley (Pa.) High School, is now a sophomore at Robert Morris. But Matty is shooting just 26 percent from the field and averaging 3.7 points at RMU, unlike T.J., who was a standout in his two seasons at Duquesne.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The firing of Jeff Fisher as head coach of the Los Angeles Rams puts the job security of Rams running backs coach Skip Peete and senior defensive coach Chuck Cecil (UA) in doubt. Cecil worked for Fisher exclusively the last 11 years, at Tennessee, St. Louis and Los Angeles.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pima College’s men’s basketball team broke into the NJCAA rankings last week, listed at No. 15. It is the highest ranking for the Aztecs in Brian Peabody’s years at the school. The Aztecs are off until the first week of January when they play at Jerry Carrillo’s perennially tough Cochise College. The Apaches lead the ACCAC (what’s new?) with a 9-1 record. … Former UA assistant basketball coach Mike Dunlap, now head coach at Loyola Marymount, was at PCC last week to evaluate Aztecs sophomore forward Deion James. James, a Cienega product, leads the ACCAC in scoring at 20.8 per game.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pusch Ridge Christian sophomore Lucas Elliott, nephew of Sean Elliott, made his first notable impact as a high school basketball regular on Friday. He scored 15 points, had 17 rebounds and blocked eight shots in an overtime loss to Catalina. Elliott, who is 6 feet 8 inches and has an offer from Portland State, is averaging 8.4 points and 12.5 rebounds for coach Dave Thomas’ Lions.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Former UA and Cleveland Browns receiver Syndric Steptoe and ex-UA football standouts Jake Fischer and Glenn Howell are among those who will be instructors at the Holiday Football Skills Camp Dec. 27-28 at Crossroads Park near the intersection of Cortaro and Silverbell roads. The camp is for boys K-12. Information: coachtoby16@gmail.com. “Coach Toby” is Toby Bourguet, an assistant coach at Marana High School; last week he coached the Tucson 14-U flag football team to the regional championship, led by Salpointe Catholic freshman Bijan Robinson, who gained 767 all-purpose yards in his first year of high school football. It is the fourth straight year Bourguet’s 14-U team has reached the national Elite Eight of flag football. The two survivors will play on ESPN during the NFL’s Pro Bowl weekend.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The market for departing UA quarterback Anu Solomon might not be as robust as some think. Utah State is strongly interested, but Solomon’s history of injuries is likely to prevent a Power 5 conference school from recruiting him. My lasting image of Solomon was the night in 2014 when he threw a Hail Mary touchdown pass to beat Cal 49-45. Rather than meet with the media, he dressed quickly and left the Lowell-Stevens facility with three of his siblings, searching for a younger brother who had gotten lost in the post-game crowd. He was not a football-over-everything player.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Sunnyside High School and Pima College grad Stefen Romero has left the Seattle Mariners organization. He signed a guaranteed contract of at least $1 million per year to play outfield for the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s pro baseball league. At 28, Romero hit just .195 in three part-time seasons with Seattle. Going to Japan to finish a baseball career proved to be a good financial move for ex-Pima College and UA standouts Jack Howell and George Arias, who became stars in Japan.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
In Dallas Brown’s last college football game, for South Dakota State, the Jackrabbits lost to five-time defending national champion North Dakota State in the FCS playoffs. Brown, a Sabino High School grad, completed his career with 174 tackles and 17 tackles-for-loss as a three-year starter at defensive back.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Arizona’s recent loss of five players from its football recruiting Class of 2017 doesn’t just look bad, it is potentially as damaging as losing a regular-season game or two.
Twenty years ago, and especially in the 1980s, no one would’ve known about the five players who jumped Arizona’s ship and will play elsewhere. But with the proliferation of recruiting websites, every move is tracked. It works both ways; the social media exclamations when a player commits draw premature cries of joy.
It’s possible that the top recruit left on Rich Rodriguez’s board is Sabino High School receiver-slash-all purpose player Drew Dixon. The Rivals.com recruiting service lists Dixon as a four-star (out of five) prospect.
Most would say La Jolla Country Day School quarterback Braxton Burmeister is Arizona’s top recruit, but there uncertainties remain there.
His team is ranked No. 2,208 nationally by Maxpreps. It played in small-school 5A in the San Diego section, with opponents such as Francis Parker and Maranatha Christian. By comparison, Catalina Foothills was ranked No. 519 nationally this season; Cienega was No. 409.
Arizona freshman QB Khalil Tate played for Gardena Serra in California, which was ranked No. 92 nationally in his 2015 senior season. UA redshirt sophomore Brandon Dawkins played at Los Angeles’ Oaks Christian, which was ranked No. 63 nationally in his 2013 senior season.
Washington’s star quarterback, Jake Browning, who played at Folsom High in Northern California and started as a true freshman for the Huskies, played on a team ranked No. 4 nationally as a high school senior.
Burmeister is expected to enroll at Arizona in mid-January and be available for spring practice and perhaps challenge Tate and Dawkins for playing time in 2017.
But he might not be as game-ready as former Arizona QBs who played against the heavyweights of high school football.
- Greg Hansen
Notice anything familiar about Arizona’s four closely contested basketball games this season?
65-63, Michigan State, win.
69-65, Butler, loss.
69-62, Gonzaga, loss.
67-63, Texas A&M, win.
In those four games, none played at McKale Center, Arizona had 68, 67, 65 and 63 possessions. Compare that to UCLA, the flavor of the month in college basketball, which has had as many as 91 possessions in a game this season.
Such is Sean Miller basketball: a slow and purposeful grind that rarely fails to put a knot in your stomach (or his). The Wildcats average 67 possessions per game, which is No. 276 in the NCAA.
Those four games have been so much different yet so much the same, much like Saturday’s victory over Texas A&M when the Wildcats went on a 15-0 run and, in turn, gave up an 18-0 A&M run. The Wildcats trailed Gonzaga 38-24 yet rallied to make it close.
No wonder the coach sweats through his shirt.
If we have learned anything through the season’s first dozen games, it is this:
Arizona is not a good 3-point shooting team in times of crisis. The Wildcats are 7 for 34 (or 21 percent) against the Zags, Butler and A&M. Yet in carefree finishes against Missouri, UC Irvine and Texas Southern, the Wildcats were 29 for 55 on 3-pointers (or 53 percent).
If Arizona is to finish within range of UCLA and Oregon in the Pac-12, it will require Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen to routinely do what they did against Texas A&M: combine for 35 points and make more foul shots than the other guy.
In those games against Michigan State, Gonzaga, Butler and A&M, the Wildcats outscored their opponents 71-46 from the foul line. Had Miller’s get-to-the-line system not worked, Arizona would’ve lost all four games.
It’s impossible to estimate how good (or not) the Wildcats can be until Allonzo Trier and Parker Jackson-Cartwright return. Arizona’s nonconference schedule is ranked 163rd overall by Kenpom.com and there’s no telling how the paper-thin Wildcats will hold up when they open conference play Dec. 30 at Cal.
A seven-man rotation isn’t likely to survive many true road settings even against nonranked teams like Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Arizona State. I suspect that Texas A&M wouldn’t finish in the first division of the Pac-12, and maybe the top eight.
The UA last regularly played a seven-man rotation in 1972-73, the first year McKale Center opened. It has many similarities to the 2016-17 Wildcats.
Arizona lost point guard Jim Rappis after only three starts and was thereafter limited to a lineup in which the three-leading scorers were all freshmen: Coniel Norman, Eric Money and Al Fleming. Sound familiar? Freshmen Markkanen, Rawle Alkins and Kobi Simmons are Arizona’s three-leading scorers today.
That threesome was exceptional; all played in the NBA. But they were worn down as the season progressed and even though the UA finished 16-10, the first Wildcat team to play in McKale was outscored over the year, 81.5 to 81.2 per game.
The big difference was style of play; the first McKale Center team didn’t often play 67-63 games. They had a three-game streak of 110-105, 101-95 and 100-94 games.
Either way, then and now, it still put a knot in your stomach.
- Greg Hansen
Air Force’s 9-3 football team moved up its trip to the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl and now plans to arrive in Tucson on Christmas afternoon.
Maybe that’s because it was 5 degrees in Colorado Springs at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Either way, that’s a good sign for Arizona Bowl founder Ali Farhang, who said the game distributed more than 6,000 tickets in a 24-hour period last week.
“Thanks to the generosity of our community, we are working on providing tickets to over 10,000 active, reserve and retired military, Southern Arizona teachers and local first responders,” he said. “The excitement over this program has overwhelmed us.”
Commanders from all four military bases in Arizona will attend the Dec. 30 game at 3:30 p.m. More? Beer will be sold at Arizona Stadium. A Ferris wheel will be erected in downtown Tucson for a Dec. 29 block party from 3-8 p.m.
Ever optimistic, Farhang believes the Air Force-South Alabama game can draw 30,000 fans, an increase of 10,000 from the 2015 inaugural game. The 3:30 kickoff time on a Friday afternoon is as important as anything.
“While there is always room for improvement,” said Farhang, “I am not sure what else we can do for a bowl game in its second year of existence.”
- Greg Hansen
Tucsonan Penny Taylor, a 1948 USA Olympic swimmer, is retiring after 20 years as Chef de Mission for USA Swimming. She has been at the site of every conceivable major swimming meet in the world since 1988. Taylor was also inducted into the Arizona Swimming Hall of Fame last month, along with gold medalists Gary Hall Jr. and Misty Hyman. Not only that, Taylor was named one of 16 key contributors to swimming in America — a “Splashmaker” — at swimming’s annual awards banquet in Los Angeles. Also on the list of 16: Sabino High and UA grad Dan Hicks, who has been the Voice of Olympic swimming on NBC since 1996.
- Greg Hansen
It’s not likely that Sean Miller will be able to bring in T.J. McConnell’s younger brother as a two-year transfer to help at point guard. Matty McConnell, who was a high school star in his brother’s mold at Chartiers Valley (Pa.) High School, is now a sophomore at Robert Morris. But Matty is shooting just 26 percent from the field and averaging 3.7 points at RMU, unlike T.J., who was a standout in his two seasons at Duquesne.
- Greg Hansen
The firing of Jeff Fisher as head coach of the Los Angeles Rams puts the job security of Rams running backs coach Skip Peete and senior defensive coach Chuck Cecil (UA) in doubt. Cecil worked for Fisher exclusively the last 11 years, at Tennessee, St. Louis and Los Angeles.
- Greg Hansen
Pima College’s men’s basketball team broke into the NJCAA rankings last week, listed at No. 15. It is the highest ranking for the Aztecs in Brian Peabody’s years at the school. The Aztecs are off until the first week of January when they play at Jerry Carrillo’s perennially tough Cochise College. The Apaches lead the ACCAC (what’s new?) with a 9-1 record. … Former UA assistant basketball coach Mike Dunlap, now head coach at Loyola Marymount, was at PCC last week to evaluate Aztecs sophomore forward Deion James. James, a Cienega product, leads the ACCAC in scoring at 20.8 per game.
- Greg Hansen
Pusch Ridge Christian sophomore Lucas Elliott, nephew of Sean Elliott, made his first notable impact as a high school basketball regular on Friday. He scored 15 points, had 17 rebounds and blocked eight shots in an overtime loss to Catalina. Elliott, who is 6 feet 8 inches and has an offer from Portland State, is averaging 8.4 points and 12.5 rebounds for coach Dave Thomas’ Lions.
- Greg Hansen
Former UA and Cleveland Browns receiver Syndric Steptoe and ex-UA football standouts Jake Fischer and Glenn Howell are among those who will be instructors at the Holiday Football Skills Camp Dec. 27-28 at Crossroads Park near the intersection of Cortaro and Silverbell roads. The camp is for boys K-12. Information: coachtoby16@gmail.com. “Coach Toby” is Toby Bourguet, an assistant coach at Marana High School; last week he coached the Tucson 14-U flag football team to the regional championship, led by Salpointe Catholic freshman Bijan Robinson, who gained 767 all-purpose yards in his first year of high school football. It is the fourth straight year Bourguet’s 14-U team has reached the national Elite Eight of flag football. The two survivors will play on ESPN during the NFL’s Pro Bowl weekend.
- Greg Hansen
The market for departing UA quarterback Anu Solomon might not be as robust as some think. Utah State is strongly interested, but Solomon’s history of injuries is likely to prevent a Power 5 conference school from recruiting him. My lasting image of Solomon was the night in 2014 when he threw a Hail Mary touchdown pass to beat Cal 49-45. Rather than meet with the media, he dressed quickly and left the Lowell-Stevens facility with three of his siblings, searching for a younger brother who had gotten lost in the post-game crowd. He was not a football-over-everything player.
- Greg Hansen
Sunnyside High School and Pima College grad Stefen Romero has left the Seattle Mariners organization. He signed a guaranteed contract of at least $1 million per year to play outfield for the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s pro baseball league. At 28, Romero hit just .195 in three part-time seasons with Seattle. Going to Japan to finish a baseball career proved to be a good financial move for ex-Pima College and UA standouts Jack Howell and George Arias, who became stars in Japan.
- Greg Hansen
In Dallas Brown’s last college football game, for South Dakota State, the Jackrabbits lost to five-time defending national champion North Dakota State in the FCS playoffs. Brown, a Sabino High School grad, completed his career with 174 tackles and 17 tackles-for-loss as a three-year starter at defensive back.
- Greg Hansen
Arizona’s recent loss of five players from its football recruiting Class of 2017 doesn’t just look bad, it is potentially as damaging as losing a regular-season game or two.
Twenty years ago, and especially in the 1980s, no one would’ve known about the five players who jumped Arizona’s ship and will play elsewhere. But with the proliferation of recruiting websites, every move is tracked. It works both ways; the social media exclamations when a player commits draw premature cries of joy.
It’s possible that the top recruit left on Rich Rodriguez’s board is Sabino High School receiver-slash-all purpose player Drew Dixon. The Rivals.com recruiting service lists Dixon as a four-star (out of five) prospect.
Most would say La Jolla Country Day School quarterback Braxton Burmeister is Arizona’s top recruit, but there uncertainties remain there.
His team is ranked No. 2,208 nationally by Maxpreps. It played in small-school 5A in the San Diego section, with opponents such as Francis Parker and Maranatha Christian. By comparison, Catalina Foothills was ranked No. 519 nationally this season; Cienega was No. 409.
Arizona freshman QB Khalil Tate played for Gardena Serra in California, which was ranked No. 92 nationally in his 2015 senior season. UA redshirt sophomore Brandon Dawkins played at Los Angeles’ Oaks Christian, which was ranked No. 63 nationally in his 2013 senior season.
Washington’s star quarterback, Jake Browning, who played at Folsom High in Northern California and started as a true freshman for the Huskies, played on a team ranked No. 4 nationally as a high school senior.
Burmeister is expected to enroll at Arizona in mid-January and be available for spring practice and perhaps challenge Tate and Dawkins for playing time in 2017.
But he might not be as game-ready as former Arizona QBs who played against the heavyweights of high school football.
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