Throughout this episode, Spencer is going to knock our mid-season awards but we’ve got some good nuggets in there. Zack Rosenblatt of the Arizona Daily Star joins us (he’s a friend of the friends). The Tucson-local writer is knee deep in college football recruiting (today is National Signing Day) and so – being the topical fellows that we are – we discuss a touch of that. We also dive into Pac-12 awards because we’re at the conference season’s mid-way point. Makes sense.
Enjoy the pod:
I think saying Arizona is the most disappointing team is unfair. No team has had the injuries Arizona has had. Take another team from the Pac and say if they lose their top recruit before the year to an ACL injury, lose the starting Center for non conference, lose solid bench guy (seriously WTF did Pitts do?), and lose leading scorer for 6 games would they be 5-4? I can’t think of any team that could survive that. Arizona isn’t going to win the conference but I think they finish 2 or 3. Miller should get serious consideration for COY.
It’s easy to say Cal is the most disappointing team but I always thought their preseason hype was insanely way too high and completely undeserved. They were a very bad team last year that added 2 really good players. No way 2 guys make a terrible team the best in the Pac and a final 4 contender. The most disappointing team IMO is UCLA. Look at what you guys said in the podcast. Welsh, Bryce, Hamilton all playing really good this year. Holiday has been solid as well. Yet they are 13-9 (4-5) and not looking likely to make the NCAA tourney. I don’t know if you caught the WSU@UCLA game but Alford said big experiment is done and he benched Tony Parker for Bolden. Parker only played 18 minutes. Parker has been pretty disappointing this year as he still disappears for games at a time.
Thanks for the comment.
You’re right – Arizona isn’t the most disappointing team but I think they can also feel the most disappointed. It’s been a really difficult year. I don’t love to play the “if-this-then-that” game but you’re spot on – most teams can’t endure the injuries AZ has. It’s why Sean Miller not winning Pac-12 POY last year is ridiculous – he builds the roster and he coaches it, too.
If we have to finger a disappointment – I think we would’ve hoped a few teams (namely: UCLA) would’ve shown some marked improvement. But they did lose two NBA-caliber players. You don’t just bounce back from that. It’s a funky year in college basketball.