From: gln@cs.arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: ASU/UA report anyone?
Date: 22 Jan 93 19:31:26 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson

In article <C19Mrt.2J4@hfglobe.intel.com>, gregt@hfglobe.intel.com (Greg Tollefson) writes:
> Did anyone (Gary) manage to catch the ASU UA game last Wed?

Sure nough did.

> I understand that UA came back from 13 down to win by 4.

Yup - they were 13 down with just over 16 minutes left in the game and came back
to take as much as a 7 point lead I believe before winning by 4 points.

> ASU took 31 three point attempts and are on a pace to
> break UK's season record.  

 Yup - if memory serves, they are averaging about 30.5 and I think UK averaged
28.5.

> Can anyone beat UA in tha PAC-10
> this year????

 Yup. 


ASU/Azirona rept (unofficial report of course)

 ASU is a lot of fun to watch play. They pressure constantly and do it with
some level of intelligence. That is, they just don't go after the ball and hope
that they have the passing lanes covered, they actually switch up their
press from time to time and alter the players and style of the press to create
turnovers. They caused 16 Arizona turnovers in the first half and scored
17 points off of those turnovers. They made about 11 or so 3's in the
first half as well and as one of the local reporters put it, "these were not
wimpy threes - some of these were from East Tennessee or Providence (yuk yuk).
Things looked really bad in the first half for the cats. Stokes had only 4 
points, Owes (who really sucked in this game) had 5 turnovers, Stoudamire had
4 and Mills had already missed two threes and two easy lay-ups. IN short
ASU was driving UA nuts. Headake (that *is* the way it is spelled) Smith
got hot for a bit in the first half and popped 3 or 4 3-point
attempts and the Devils were up by 7 at the half.

 The second half started even worse. Owes continued to suck, Mills continued
to play poorly and ASU ran up a 13 point lead in the first 3 and a half
minutes. Then Arizona extended their defense big time. They were all over
Smith with Geary (who had one of the best games of his short career) and 
Mills and he never really was a factor from that point on. Stokes got into
it a little bit with Neal and took his new "I'm big, I'm strong and I'll
kick your ass" attitude on to score 14 second half points and grab well into
double figure rebounds. Since the West Virginia game Ed is averaging over
16 points and 11 rebounds a game and is simply playing the best bball
of his career. The cats "only" had 6 turnovers in the second half and thus
were able to cut ASU's second chances down to nil as they also dominated
thge boards with Mills and Stokes both in double figures for rebounds and
scoring. 6 Cats had double figure scoring (MaClean, Stoudamire, Mills,
Stokes, Reeves, Geary). Another really key factor for Ed Stokes and
Arizona is that Ed hit 8-8 from the free throw line and is now something
like 22 of his last 28 attempts. This can be a huge factor in close games
for the cats. He has also cut way down on his fouls and has not really been in
foul trouble as he seemed to be all the time in the past.

 It really is amazing what ASU's style can do to keep a game close. I can't
help but wonder if this is the offense of the future. Think about it - if
ASU can hang tough with most teams and beat many others with the talent
level and total lack of height that they have now, what could a team
with deep talent do playing a style where you can miss 60% of your shots and
still be up by 7 at the half against a team that is shooting close to
60% ? Even though the Devils get outrebounded a lot they rarely get
out-shot due to the turnovers (their opponents are averaging close to
30 turnovers a game for God's sake). These extra shots make up for
some easy 2-point baskets if you shoot 35-40% from 3-point land. The one
area that they seemed weak on was endurance. I've been noticing that a lot with
Pac-10 teams this season. PErhaps it is Arizona's bench depth and strength,
but the Cats seem to be in better physical shape and run the court better
for the full 20 minutes than most teams we've played in conference play. I
think one could argue that UW, ASU and USC looked tired in the final portions
of the UA games and UCLA looked pathetic against ASU earlier this season
at Pauley. I suspect that this advantage will slowly disappear as the 
season wears on - it is unclear what the result for ASU will be - will they
improve in conditioning to the point where they do not tire out on defense
and continue to cause the turnovers or will other teams be in good enough
shape to handle ASU for a full 40 minutes and thus not allow them their
3-6 minute streaks where they pick up 20 points (geez they are a streaky
team - red hot for 5 minutes then ice cold for 5 - I guess that's the
price you pay for this style).


			gln