Not Wild about Arizona

The Wildcats that is.  I would love to be back at Talking Stick Resort this week but let's stay on topic.  As Brian noted earlier, Arizona was trending as a 1-seed just a few weeks ago but have stumbled a bit down the stretch, getting swept this week in la-la land by USC & UCLA.  Arizona now stands at 23-6, 11-4 and 4th in the Pac-12.  The conference is better but this isn't vintage Pac-12.

Arizona has a RPI of 13 owning wins at home over Florida and in Hawaii at over Reggie Johnson-less Miami, beating them by 19.  The Florida win, like any win was a good win, but bigger picture, Florida gave them that game.  This week's loss to USC has been their worse overall, so they don't have a horrible loss on their resume.

In KenPom, their AdjustedO rates 23rd and their AdjustedD rates 41st.  Both solid but not spectacular.  They do some things well on offense.  They shoot 36% from deep, 36th best and have an effective fg% of 51.9%, 52nd best.  They are also good at the charity stripe, shooting 74%. 35th best.  They get to the line a little better than the national clip so they take advantage of their shooting.  They are also good on the offensive glass, getting 35.2% of misses.  Their TO% is average, 19.6%

They're a little less effective on defense.  They don't guard from deep very well.  Teams make 36.4% of their deep shots.  Opponents overall effective fg% is 47%.  They typically don't foul that much either.  As on the offensive end, they are good on the glass giving up only 26.9% of misses to their opponents, 17th best.  Given their work on the glass and overall defending, cleaning up how teams shoot against them would probably make them a top defensive team.  They also force about the national average on turnovers.

SR. Solomon Hill gets 13.6ppg and 5.3rpg.  He also has an effective fg% of 53,6%.  SOPH. G Nick Johnson adds 11.4ppg and 3.1apg.  Arizona's best weapon from long range is Kevin Parrom who shoots 40% from deep.  The Wildcats biggest problem is no onre really is a true PG per se.  Xavier transfer Mark Lyons is the de facto PG but has 81 TOs to go with his 89 dimes.  That's not very good.  Lyons also shoots a lot, taking shots 27.6% of the time he's on the court.  He shoots 33% from deep and has jacked 163 3 pointers.  At times dynamic, far too often, disruptive in the negative.

Arizona has talent and is good enough to win a couple of games.  Like a lot of other teams, though, you won't be shocked to see them get whacked as a 4 or 5.  Can Lyons play under control and within a team dynamic?  That will be the question.