A purge of thoughts from the Arizona/Cal game

Having the Fox College Sports pack is worth the $6/month for so more many reasons than getting to watch as many Oral Roberts games as you can stand. For starters, you get to watch the commercials only shown on deep cable (hi Mega Insurance and TaxSlayer.com !) Arizona games are a special treat in that the analyst is usually Bob Elliott, who not only in 2009 still looks like Wondermike from the SugarHill Gang, but also whose prose makes Ehlo’s analysis sound like an Obama speech. One of Elliott’s gems this evening was that a team has a better chance of winning if it makes a 3 point shot instead of a 2 point shot. I then spent the next 2 hours lighting myself on fire.

Not much to report here. Arizona is going to be a team that loses by 20 one night and wins by 30 the next. That’s the beauty of the freakshow Russ Pannell is operating in Tuscon. I thought in the first half the Wildcats would run away with this one, but after Nic Wise got into foul trouble (story of the night so far), Arizona’s circus-shots stopped falling and Cal methodically pulled ahead.

And holy shit, the Pac has some shooting guards this year. After watching Wright dominate Oregon earlier today, I didn’t think it could get any better than he and Harden, but then Patrick Christopher inserts himself into the conversation. Mike Montgomery is going to have this team ready to go, and I think they might be a bubble-tourney team.

Arizona? I don’t know a starting 5 in the conference more capable of getting to the rim than them (other than maybe USC), and I think if I were starting a team from scratch, I would entertain the thought of Jordan Hill, but I just don’t see this team having the mentally capacity to put together 10 wins in conference this year. Although they might be just the type of team to go 7-11 in league play and then blow out all three of their Pac-10 tourney games by 30 points to get their bid.

Speaking of freakshows, Cal got to play their 7’3” Chinese transfer, Max Zhang, and man is he awkward! He’s sophomore-year Caleb Forrest to the 10th power.

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So last night I sat down and watched two games featuring Pac-10 teams generally picked ahead of us. After watching Arizona State's zone defense get picked apart over and over again by an inferior San Diego State, I flipped over to watch the end of the Arizona-UAB game. ESPN's recap doesn't do the final 30 seconds of this game NEARLY the justice it deserves in sheer stupidity on the Wildcats' part, so let me see if I can break it down for you:

30 seconds left, Arizona ball, down three. Arizona is fouled and shoots 1-and-1. They call timeout obviously to discuss the necessity to foul after the 2nd shot so UAB doesn't run out the clock. Arizona makes the first FT to pull within two and misses the second, Kyle Fogg of Arizona pulls in the offensive board and makes the layup to tie the game with 20 seconds left. Now you play defense and play for overtime, right? Well, Fogg decided to take it upon himself to immediately foul on the inbound to put UAB on the line with the chance to go up 2 with 15 seconds left.....

Wait, it gets worse.

Pennell calls another timeout, presumably to yell at Fogg in front of his teammates, so as the rest of them don't making as much of a bonehead move again, (and possibly to set up the next play.)

Fortunately for Arizona, UAB misses the front-end of the one and one, sparing Fogg the embarrassment of costing the Wildcats the game. Arizona now has the ball and can hold for the last shot with 20 seconds left and the game tied. Well, Budinger missed a shot with about 3 seconds left and UAB gets the rebound with about a second left, the player dribbles to the corner to run out the clock until overti.....

(I told you it gets worse)

Jamelle Horne of Arizona literally DIVES at the UAB player, most likely to prevent him from making one of those full-court shots he must've been draining in the shootaround, and INTENTIONALLY FOULS HIM.

So to recap: Fogg makes a nearly-unforgiveable stop-clock foul and gets reamed for it. Horne has a full 5 minutes to think about what NOT to do....and then goes out of his way to do it.

YOUR 2008 ARIZONA WILDCATS, ladies and gentlemen!!!

needless to say, I'm not worried about either of these teams. Might want to pencil us in a couple slots higher than 6th.