Arizona should play a stronger SOS

[lowell]

Losing again to the Badgers in Elite Eight has to be getting old to Wildcat fans.
Even though they got the advantage of playing the game at Mccale Center North it was not enough to stop the Badgers.
This Zona team this year seemed to have all of the pieces to be a final four team.
I think having a 38 th ranked strength of schedule was a big factor in their demise.
Look for Miller to begin to play stronger non conference teams. Playing 19 games versu ASU, Washington, Washington State, USC, Oregon State ,Oregon, Stanford ,Cal, Colorado and even UCLA did not prepare them for a quality team like Wisconsin.
Playing Utah , Gonzaga , a weak Michigan team and SDSU were their toughest games.

 

[jesscolb]

This game had nothing to do with Arizona's SOS....There is no need to overanalyze this game today...Wisconsin was unconscious in the second half hitting 10 out of 12 threes and out scoring Arizona 36 to 6 from the three point line.

 

[lowell]

This game had nothing to do with Arizona's SOS....There is no need to overanalyze this game today...Wisconsin was unconscious in the second half hitting 10 out of 12 threes and out scoring Arizona 36 to 6 from the three point line.

Perhaps if they had played more than 4 ranked teams they would have played better 3 pt defense. You are right in that Decker and Co were lights out but if you take a close look at Wildcat schedule you see weak K State , Missouri, Michigan and UNLV(a loss) teams mixed with Gonzaga ,SDSU and then their conference games. It was a weak schedule with no strong Midwest, Northern, Southern or Eastern teams.
I predict you will see Miller beefing up his schedule in the years to come. A good team gets better playing other good teams.

 

[Shleprock]

Sometimes it just ain't meant to be. Az got badgers to play their tempo, got Wi to commit almost 3 times more fouls than they commit and got a lot of badger players in foul trouble. Badgers also missed free throws late but still win.. Unconscious 3 point shooting.was Az demise plain and simple.

 

[jesscolb]

Arizona could have played the Golden State Warriors in their non conference schedule and it would not have mattered today.....Wisconsin was unconscious today hitting a lot of contested threes.....Just tip your hat to Wisconsin and come back next year.

 

[gjn23]

Yeah. ...playing 1 or 2 better teams 5 months ago would have really helped yesterday!

Arizona had 10 turnovers, shot 50%+, made 29 of 31 fts......and lost.

Wisc would have beaten a few nba teams making 10 threes in the 2nd half and shooting 80%. dekker was unconscious and there wasn't much else Arizona could have done.

As for the schedule. ...get back to me when duke makes any non forced road trips west of north carolina.

In today's basketball all thr top team do the same thing....3-5 neutral court tournament type games 5-7 home games (wit maybe 1 or 2 good teams) and 1 or 2 true road games. The strength of that schedule is based on how good those teams turn out...... az scheduled unlv Utep mich and gonz (typically 4 tourney teams but only 2 were actually good enough) in Maui they got mizzu (usually a tourney team but horrid this year) kst (ssame thing and could have had purdue a tourney team but they lost to kst) and sdsu (another tourney team). The schedule was set up to be some at difficult but turned out not to be. I will agree that the conf getting better will help (but did have a pretty dexent showing in thr toruney this year) but it's not like arizona is bowing out in round 1 getting upset, milller is 11-4 in the tourney but happens to get beat at the buzzer in sweet 16 or elite 8.

 

[lowell]

Duke played 12 ranked teams plus Temple, at St John's, Stanford, Uconn, NC State twice and Syracuse twice. That is 20 pretty good games. As far as going West other than Arizona or Gonzaga who do you suggest they play? Seems like their schedule was pretty tough. I think Arizona may be the second best team in the country even though they lost to the Badgers. I think you probably wish your conference was stronger. If Oregon was second best team in conference and they lose two games to Zona by 30-35 points that does not bode well for conference.