Arizona Pre-Game Thread

[IUFLA]

When: Saturday, December 10th 7:30 pm EST 

Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada

TV: Fox

Former Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd brings 10th ranked 7-1 Arizona into a neutral court game against IU. Lloyd is 40-5 in his 2 years with the Wildcats.

I have not watched Arizona play yet this year. Their 2 leading scorers are 6'11 Azuolas Tubelis and 7'0 Oumar Ballo so they have great size on us. Tubelis can hit the 3 (44% on 4-9) as well. They have a very international flavor, as 4 of their top 5 scorers are from outside of the US. Looks like they go about 7 deep, but the starting 5 all average over 26 MPG and their 6th man Cedric Henderson, averages 23 MPG. They lost a lot from their Sweet Sixteen team of last year, but appear to have another strong club. Look to be pretty strong on both ends, but particularly on the offensive end. 

It'll be interesting to see how we do here. Excellent road test. Love to see JHS back, but if he's not 100% keep him out until he is. Conference games are much more important...

 

 

[Between2Halls]

Watched Arizona once this year. I was impressed by their overall play. This game has me antsy. I’m interested to see how much energy and focus IU brings. This is a good early season test to see where we are nationally. I know things can and will change often during this year as we have already seen. But a W here would go a long way in building confidence and character in our squad. 

[Reacher]

I saw a portion of their loss to Utah. Utahs active defense really bothered them. I think that is where we will have an advantage. Will be a good test of their bigs vs ours. they do have 2 7 footers coming off the bench (both freshman). I think rebounding and active D will be key allowing us to get some easy baskets in transition. I don't think we will do as well in a half court slowed down type game. They do like to play faster so hopefully are athletes shine and X bounces back. 

[IU Scott]

Well some on here was upset we only heat Neb. by 16 points at home but Arizona only beat 0-9 Cal by 13 at home.

[IUFLA]

16 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Well some on here was upset we only heat Neb. by 16 points at home but Arizona only beat 0-9 Cal by 13 at home.

Historical footnote: Cal has more Mens' basketball National Championships than Purdue and Illinois combined  

Edited December 8, 2022 by IUFLA

[btownqb]

Sincerely hope we use P12 officials. 

[Hoosier987]

Will be interesting to see the fan ratio. Obviously Arizona is close to Vegas. 

[ArizonaHoosier]

I will be in attendance!

 

[IUFLA]

3 hours ago, btownqb said:

Sincerely hope we use P12 officials. 

Why?

I think the PAC 12 historically hasn't been as physical as the Big 10...

And not to stereotype, but European players, of which Arizona has a few, are more finesse guys as a general rule than American born players...

PAC 12 refs might be quick on the whistle with physical play, and we don't really want that I don't think... 

 

[btownqb]

Just now, IUFLA said:

Why?

I think the PAC 12 historically hasn't been as physical as the Big 10...

And not to stereotype, but European players, of which Arizona has a few, are more finesse guys as a general rule than American born players...

PAC 12 refs might be quick on the whistle with physical play, and we don't really want that I don't think... 

 

I want the game officiated correctly.  

[HoosierDom]

Seems like some not great opponents have been scoring a fair number of points on them. If Rutgers like teams prove to be our kryptonite, then these guys seem like the opposite. 

 

[IUFLA]

6 minutes ago, btownqb said:

I want the game officiated correctly.  

If that actually happened each team would have 40 turnovers and everybody would foul out in the first 10 minutes of the game 🙂

 

[btownqb]

1 minute ago, IUFLA said:

If that actually happened each team would have 40 turnovers and everybody would foul out in the first 10 minutes of the game 🙂

 

No.  It would just look like every other conferences' games. 

[IUFLA]

4 minutes ago, btownqb said:

No.  It would just look like every other conferences' games. 

I watch some out of conference games, and some where Big 10 teams play with another conferences officials...

There's really not much difference other than we know the names of the Big 10s worst... 

 

 

 

[5fouls]

Be honest.  Before this thread, how many of you knew there was a D1 school called 'Utah Tech'?

 

[13th&Jackson]

3 hours ago, 5fouls said:

Be honest.  Before this thread, how many of you knew there was a D1 school called 'Utah Tech'?

 

I didn’t, but then I saw they are the former Dixie St., who I had heard of. Changed their name this year. 

[IUFLA]

9 minutes ago, 13th&Jackson said:

I didn’t, but then I saw they are the former Dixie St., who I had heard of. Changed their name this year. 

Dixie State? In Utah?

Even in the twilight of my life, I learn something new every day 🙂

[13th&Jackson]

9 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

Dixie State? In Utah?

Even in the twilight of my life, I learn something new every day 🙂

Yes, very odd. School was started by the Mormons but became independent. From 1952-2007, they were the Rebels with a Confederate soldier mascot. 

[mrflynn03]

Because I just had to know...

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/dixie/about-forest/?cid=fswdev3_006710#:~:text=In 1851 Brigham Young sent,calling it Utah's "Dixie".

In 1851 Brigham Young sent Mormon Settlers to the St George area. Many of these settlers were from the deep south (southeastern United States). Since the St. George area was warm like the deep south, they started calling it Utah's "Dixie". The name stuck because of the heat and all the southerners that settled there to grow cotton for the Mormon church.

[Madison22]

[Inequality]

 

[Purdue7]

6 hours ago, IUFLA said:

Dixie State? In Utah?

Even in the twilight of my life, I learn something new every day 🙂

I need a 20…Dixie in Utah 😳

That might have been my last guess 

I love the game of watch week 1 scores go by and see how many teams you’ve never heard of….

[Purdue7]

The starting bigs are more like Purdue centers….skilled but not overly athletic 

Utah really took them out of their offense with less pressure than you guys put on most guards 

Hopefully JHS plays and TG & Bates keep rolling 

[Inequality]

 

[tdhoosier]

20 hours ago, Hoosier987 said:

Will be interesting to see the fan ratio. Obviously Arizona is close to Vegas. 

I’m here now. Up at 6:00 because my body is still on central time. 

I can tell you that I saw a LOT of IU representation at MDW airport in Chicago and there’s a whole lot more here in Vegas.

It’s only Friday morning.

There’s also a rodeo in town so I’m basically walking amongst cowboys, cowboy wanna be’s, IU fans, old people and ho’s. 

I have not seen one AZ fan. Somebody on the plane said that Washington St gave up a section or two to IU due to a lack of sales to their fan base. Not sure how true that is though.