WSR Full Court Report

I agree fellas. While I feel that last season came with some legitimate reasons for setback, we're now heading into our 4th season under Miller where excuses are officially off the table. The staff has done a fine job in recruiting and building depth at all five positions so the program should now be able to overcome common setbacks in hoops (i.e. minor injuries, a player struggling, etc) and still win at a clip high enough to make the Dance and be competitive for a league title.

We can't do anything about the schedule this year, it is what it is, we will just have to make the tourney on our own merits...

As for Miller feeling heat, Yes I think he now has to produce at an Arizona good level... I think he relishes the challenge and will make us all proud....

So here are my predictions for 2012-2013...

1. We will be an absolutely killer defensive team, Lyons, NJ, Solo and KP will be able to apply pressure knowing that there are bigs who can defend the paint... Steals will be way up, as we will be able to jump passing lanes without worrying about being beat out front...

2. We will average 10pts more per game than we did last season... We will run more as we won't have to send 5 to the boards... An inside / outside presence will make it hard for any team to try and make us one dimensional, like they all did towards the end of the season we just endured...

3. We will beat UCLA twice next year... At home and in the tournament...

4. We will win the PAC 12 season and the Conference Tournament too...

5. We will be at worst a 3 seed...

6. We will make it to the elite Eight...

Bear Down....

I hear GB is going to petition the NCAA to let us play home games with copper Bballs

PIHIGH AND UASTEVE

Aim higher....Elite 8 and then the FINAL 4
Very good points. this will not be a one dimensional team.
We can go tall, fast, stuff the middle, shot freely from out side...etc...this team should be able to do t all.

If we don't get past the first weekend with this group consider me done with Miller.

I agree 100% Gary. I brought this up in another thread a couple of weeks ago. Miller seems to know how to coach in tourneys. In addition to your references with UA, he also has a couple of sweet 16's and an elite 8 with Xavier. I would consider all of those runs to be over achievements based on the teams he had. Even our team two years ago with WIlliams was an over achievement. No one picked us to be one shot away from the final four only to lose to the eventual national champion.

If next years team is what we think they are, I am pretty confident we will make a little run. Miller doesn't seem to be the kind of coach that will have many first round exits.

Liver, I too think that the time for excuses is now over... But as you must of noted in my previous post, I am a firm believer that we will make a run and get to the Elite Eight...

However the true measure of where Miller is taking us will be in the improvement the team makes from their Bahama trip to our level of play in late February... I am willing to make friendly bets that we will have improved by leaps and bounds by the time the PAC 12 tourney comes around...

As Gary stated, anything can happen in a one and done format (We have proven that more times than I wish to remember) I just don't see this team being an underachiever come tourney time...

We are a MUCH better team now than we were this last year... We were NOT a good team last year... We now have a full roster with multiple pieces at every position... We will have some early growing pains and missteps, but again, February play will be the true barometer....

So if we finish below asu and fail to make the tourney, then I will hand you the torch and we will clean house together...

The problem is the assumption that Arizona was so-called "Arizona Good" when Miller arrived. It wasn't.

Like others, though, I believe this is the year the real test of can Miller lead an Arizona program back to being a perennial winner and contender begins. He has the pieces in place, as well as 7 new players to shape as he sees fit. In short, this is officially his program now top to bottom.

Blake,
I agree with most of what you said, except I'd say that we have three proven players on the team.

Lyons has averaged over 15 points per game and gone to multiple sweet 16's and won multiple conference championships. He's also practiced for a year in CSM's system. Seems like a very known quantity.

Also, I'd add NJ to the proven players category. We know he plays very solid defense. We know he's got a ton of athletecism. We know he's a decent scorer. With just those known traits, he's proven to be a very valuable rotation player. He's not going to get worse. He very well could get even better.

Those two guys, along with Solo are the only known quantities on the team. Everything else is based on projections and wishful thinking. That being said, i still fully expect us to be really good next year.

On a side note, I wonder if Miller is going to play that same pack defense now that we've got a stable of quality bigs manning the painted area. Maybe he could extend it a bit and get a few more steals and transition points. It would be fun to watch our guys average more than 69.8 points per game.

Gary - you must have missed the memo. Please update your calendar from 2010 to 2012!

3 years to land a big man. Every team we played had at least one (and most had multiple) competent big men. We did not. Not sure we even tried to recruit one but I have to believe that guy willing to go to Colorado or Mississippi State or SDSU will come to AZ instead.

3 years to stabilize the PG position.

While I am not assuming that that we were Arizona good when Miller arrived, I think it is reasonable to expect that we should not be starting from scratch at four positions on the floor (whichever four that Hill is not playing) at the beginning of the fourth year. We should not have to scramble to bring in 8 (counting Hazzard, right?) new players and somehow magically hope they will take us to the sweet 16 or beyond. When does it end? When dare we hope that we are on the path back to Arizona good? It is certainly not before we have a proven point guard who stays more than a season or two, not before we have a center who has actually shown he can play NCAA BB, not before we find a 'shooting' guard who can shoot....