Sweet 16 Thread

gbl97

All-American
Mar 12, 2002
3,526
5,182
113
Cal was through the handshake line and in the locker room before the game was over. Coaches box violation!
 

MidseasonTweak

Heisman
Mar 1, 2020
9,179
14,210
113
He will either be the next Dusty May or the next Hubert Davis lol.
No chance he is a Davis. McCollum is a proven winner all through his career. From winning championships in D2, to turning Drake around in a year, to now leading freaking Iowa to the E8.
 

hotelblue.0

Redshirt
Sep 18, 2025
19
24
3
lol wut?

Arizona has lost a grand total of 2 games all year.

I dont see them losing at all or until the finals.
you missed the point. i didn’t down play arizona. i said cal gave them a signature program win. not just a tourney win. cal could have done anything different and lost by less. but no one will talk about it, and he won’t apologize for it.
 
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hotelblue.0

Redshirt
Sep 18, 2025
19
24
3
his way of coaching is so consistent i can be acute about analyzing this. arkansas in terms of talent is not that much worse than arizona. it’s relative to his recruiting nba sized players, and losing on quickness, which beats you in basketball. and even with no advantages, we know he can’t coach. in other words, as good as arizona is, this is an inflated win. they lost this badly only because of cal.
 

Dward13

All-Conference
Feb 5, 2008
10,171
1,505
72
Just saying. We've had our own "savants" go south. Nothing is guaranteed.

It’s true. Cal should have been our version of Roy Williams. Retired here with multiple titles. Never would have thought he would have fallen off like that after that 10 year run from 2006-2015.

5 final fours. 8 E8’s. 7 30 win seasons. 2 more with 29 wins. 1 national title. another runner up. Like a dozen conference and conference tourney championships. 10 years is a long time on top.

But it happened to Bobby Knight and Denny Crum as well.
 

20MRoster

All-Conference
Nov 16, 2018
663
1,214
88
his way of coaching is so consistent i can be acute about analyzing this. arkansas in terms of talent is not that much worse than arizona. it’s relative to his recruiting nba sized players, and losing on quickness, which beats you in basketball. and even with no advantages, we know he can’t coach. in other words, as good as arizona is, this is an inflated win. they lost this badly only because of cal.
They had no depth to speak of, once Knox went down it limited their lineup options and put a strain on the guards. The front court was awful when fully healthy, and one of them was only 80% after getting injured last week.

They really had no chance from the jump against AZ and their bruisers. Their guards could probably overcome a big, slow team, but AZ has elite perimeter talent as well -- not as good as Ark's but don't need to be.

Brazile also settled for way too many 3s. He was probably the only mismatch and should be been driving / in motion more. This is probably the one area -- exploiting Brazile against their bruisers -- that a good coach would've helped. I still don't think a good coach wins this -- AZ's strengths just "hard counter" ARK's weaknesses.
 
Jul 6, 2025
2,140
6,462
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Isn’t that what Cignetti did when he left for Indiana?

He did take alot of guys and that certainly factored into his year 1 success. Year 2 he lost alot of those guys but took them to another level.

Same thing here. Especially in basketball where only five guys can play at once, that level of continuity provides a massive advantage. Year 2 will tell much more.
 
Jul 6, 2025
2,140
6,462
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Watching this level of talent is a bitter reminder of how far Pope has to go in recruiting. This is why I can't understand people on this board wanting some of our guys back (Dioubate, Jelavic, etc.). Not on the same planet.

This. Watching these games is depressing. Way early in the season, after watching Duke and Arkansas I posted it was like watching a different sport compared to what we're playing.

We have so far to go its hard to imagine a world where we get there under Pope. This off season absolutely must be massive. No more mid major mindset.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,709
80,490
113
Arkansas has scored a mess of points. Still got smoked.

I guess we'll see senior DJ Wagner next year. Never thought we'd see that.
He peaked early, he’s not quite big enough, doesn’t shoot it well enough, isn’t quite fast enough to break D1 guards down consistently. He’s a solid college player. He’s not the number one guy everyone thought he would be.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,709
80,490
113
John Calipari hasn't made a FF In 11 years.
Hasn't made an E8 in 7 years.
That’s crazy to think about after 2015. He was on a tear. Granted one team got screwed out of one, two choked, and another potential one got canceled.
 
Jun 30, 2025
449
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his way of coaching is so consistent i can be acute about analyzing this. arkansas in terms of talent is not that much worse than arizona. it’s relative to his recruiting nba sized players, and losing on quickness, which beats you in basketball. and even with no advantages, we know he can’t coach. in other words, as good as arizona is, this is an inflated win. they lost this badly only because of cal.
Arkansas execution against us in the last 8 minutes this season felt like a familiar script.
 

Drogon

All-Conference
Mar 14, 2017
1,663
2,167
113
Prey is an apt name. He's being eaten alive by whomever he is guarding.
 

Zuma75

All-Conference
Mar 19, 2017
863
1,194
93
I don’t watch Puke if I can help it - has Boozer been called for a foul yet this year?

Kidding - kind of. Dude just plows people.