I bet Georgia was preparing for Houston
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was more mentioning getting their players accustomed to the trap… like i wrote in the write up he has lloyd and the arizona staff (20yr 2nd in command for few), who can give him a drastically better scouting report than his assistant could come up with in short notice…
I meant that “telling people” we trap and actually experiencing it are different things … tommy lloyd said it himself after we upset them in 2022
zags will have 1 day to figure it out (players)
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Lloyd can spill the tea all he wants but it doesn’t change the fact that the zags haven’t seen our defense themselves and the zags haven’t really made a concerted effort to get more physical like Arizona did after their losses in ‘22 and ‘23
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Great stuff, as always, pesik! Don’t know where you find the time, but you’re probably contributing to the wrong platform – unless you have other INs within the industry. All the same, this board is lucky to have you.
The only thing that worries me about this game (if there is a REAL worry) is if we get into any sort of foul trouble against Gonzaga, that could spell doom, as I have alluded to many times as our true kryptonite in this tournament.
The Zags sit fourth in the country in FT accuracy, and depending how the game is called, if the fouls mount up on our side, it could lead to a lot of opportunities at the line, and given their accuracy there, it could open up a lot of alternative scoring and keep the game closer than it needs to be. Definitely an alert to consider!
Gonzaga for its part is still only somewhat middle of the pack in terms of trips to the line. So, it probably doesn’t make teams pay from there as much as it should. But a tightly called game, and things could change in a hurry. Coogs have never been one to draw a ton of fouls, either (way into the bottom half nationally), so there could be a chance at an upset if the discrepancy gets a little one-sided.
A little more even on the whistles, though, and the chances from there swing back in our favor if we were to start attacking the depth on their bench.
Overall, I don’t see any other advantages we couldn’t counter, and ultimately, feel the tone of this game is gonna be set imnediately within the first 10 minutes…think last week vs. BYU…that’s kinda how I see it going Saturday.
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They don’t have good depth. They can bring some bench help for the interior or a spot up shooter but mostly minutes eaters.
I won’t be surprised if Nem at PG plays all 40.
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Wasn’t Battle with West Virginia last year?
I think we handled him pretty well if I recall correctly.
Battle was at Arkansas last year
Last time we played Battle (on Temple) he put up 24 in a loss to the coogs
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battle is like all of them, a good defender but not shut down…
they might put him on lj because he is taller as LJ is likely seen as the bigger threat… nolan hickman might be put on sharp…
i think theyll start with man but will switch to zone if they feel overmatched
and like you noted out offense is key, i think we can slow down their offense, gonzga is the most efficent offense in the nation. even slowing them down might still mean some points. and worse defenses than te zags have slowed us down, they do have decent team defense
but i will say if we can force turnovers and score on them, we’ll kill them… im just not sure how that will play out
lol i think you mixed him up with RaeQuan Battle (different high volume scorer)…
and khalif battle is jeykll and hyde… he had a dominant game vs us in 2022 (the video above 24 on 60% fg%)…but 1 week prior had a horrendous game vs us and went 1-9 . not saying we cant guard him… but that its a mixed bag with him
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That’s exactly what I did.
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How is everyone so high on the fact that Gonzaga hasn’t played us before? Neither had Duke, Miami, or Villanova…
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Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face
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Lol they have 7 players that average double figures.
We have 4.
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It’s cope. They don’t get it. It’s the tournament. The desire of hoisting a trophy is enough to make any team beat us, and vice versa.
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UH wins by double digits
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Okay if that’s all the info you need
Villanova didn’t exploit our weaknesses. We beat ourselves with a super cold 3 point shooting game. It wasn’t like Nova figured out how to score against us and defended the perimeter well.
Miami beat us badly. They had a career night shooting and we had no answer for Omier underneath. Yes, that can happen and you are out of the tourney. Miami was on fire and the Zags. But I want to point out that our defensive rating was 90.4 (6th in the nation). We are 87.4 this season. Jojo Tugler is super elite in the paint. We didn’t have that against Miami.
And you’re seriously bringing up Duke? We dominated that game until Jamal got hurt.
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That is incorrect. We have actually played Nova 7 times. If you want to see all time records here you go.
All Time Records
And by the way they have FOUR double digit scorers.