I was in Madison, WI this weekend and took in Wisconsin’s very solid win over Arizona on Friday night from some very good seats, so with the Wildcats being next up I thought I’d offer a scout on them.
First of all the game I saw was way way over-officiated with both teams piling up more than 30 personal fouls. No flow. But nevertheless, Wisconsin played smarter and better, hit almost all their free throws, and it was a decisive win. Wisconsin scoring 103 points? Unheard of.
So of course the Wildcats have Caleb Love. He’s the exact same player he has always been, albeit with shorter hair. He needs to jack shots even if they’re not in the offense or badly timed. He can shoot his team into a game our out of one. He went 2-13 on Friday night and also picked up a T when he lost his temper and took a swat at a guy. He is what he is.
Two players on Arizona stood out to me. Jaden Bradley, in his second year in Tucson after transferring from Alabama, is a solid bodied, smooth ballhandler and shooter. He likes to drive it, so having Sion available to body him up is important. The third guy on the wing is KJ Lewis. He is a similar type of player to Bradley but just not quite as good as Bradley in any category. But he’s still pretty solid and athletic. Tyrese and Caleb need to be on their games defensively on him too.
But the other guy that impressed me was Trey Townsend, the 4-man who transferred in after starring at Oakland. He is clearly a high major player, and an impact one at that. Strong and aggressive on the interior and can either back you down and shoot over you or use a couple of nifty moves he has under the basket too. I expect Cooper to be on him, and he needs to not get in foul trouble, as several of Wisconsin’s guys did.
Zona has the giant Lithuanian Krivas coming off the bench. I had heard that he was so good he caused Omar Ballo to transfer out cuz Krivas was gonna get all the big man minutes. I didn’t see it on Friday. He has some skills but he’s not strong and his game is not varied. Obviously Khaman will be on him but it’s not like Krivas is gonna play 30 minutes. He got 18 the other night. The other guy who did nothing was Henry Veesaar who is long and wiry but again not physically strong and can be bodied off his spots pretty easily.
One other guy to mention is 6’6” shooter Anthony Dell’Orso, a transfer in from Campbell. Kid has a nice looking stroke and is ready to shoot when he receives kickouts from the driving Bradley and Lewis.
The team has some pretty nice pieces but a lot of them are new to Arizona. They’re a work in progress. I think Tommy Lloyd is an excellent coach despite not much tournament success thus far in his career. His teams are always well prepared, and he certainly had the Cats ready and the Blue Devils well scouted when he brought them into Cameron last year and beat us. They don’t lose often at home and pinning a second straight overall loss on them will not be easy. We better come ready to play, to anticipate physicality from their guards and from Townsend, and I think use a lot of guys. Wisconsin did and that helped mitigate Arizona’s athletic advantages. We are more athletic than Wisconsin, but still, mixing up the looks against these guys is likely to benefit us as it did the Badgers.
First of all the game I saw was way way over-officiated with both teams piling up more than 30 personal fouls. No flow. But nevertheless, Wisconsin played smarter and better, hit almost all their free throws, and it was a decisive win. Wisconsin scoring 103 points? Unheard of.
So of course the Wildcats have Caleb Love. He’s the exact same player he has always been, albeit with shorter hair. He needs to jack shots even if they’re not in the offense or badly timed. He can shoot his team into a game our out of one. He went 2-13 on Friday night and also picked up a T when he lost his temper and took a swat at a guy. He is what he is.
Two players on Arizona stood out to me. Jaden Bradley, in his second year in Tucson after transferring from Alabama, is a solid bodied, smooth ballhandler and shooter. He likes to drive it, so having Sion available to body him up is important. The third guy on the wing is KJ Lewis. He is a similar type of player to Bradley but just not quite as good as Bradley in any category. But he’s still pretty solid and athletic. Tyrese and Caleb need to be on their games defensively on him too.
But the other guy that impressed me was Trey Townsend, the 4-man who transferred in after starring at Oakland. He is clearly a high major player, and an impact one at that. Strong and aggressive on the interior and can either back you down and shoot over you or use a couple of nifty moves he has under the basket too. I expect Cooper to be on him, and he needs to not get in foul trouble, as several of Wisconsin’s guys did.
Zona has the giant Lithuanian Krivas coming off the bench. I had heard that he was so good he caused Omar Ballo to transfer out cuz Krivas was gonna get all the big man minutes. I didn’t see it on Friday. He has some skills but he’s not strong and his game is not varied. Obviously Khaman will be on him but it’s not like Krivas is gonna play 30 minutes. He got 18 the other night. The other guy who did nothing was Henry Veesaar who is long and wiry but again not physically strong and can be bodied off his spots pretty easily.
One other guy to mention is 6’6” shooter Anthony Dell’Orso, a transfer in from Campbell. Kid has a nice looking stroke and is ready to shoot when he receives kickouts from the driving Bradley and Lewis.
The team has some pretty nice pieces but a lot of them are new to Arizona. They’re a work in progress. I think Tommy Lloyd is an excellent coach despite not much tournament success thus far in his career. His teams are always well prepared, and he certainly had the Cats ready and the Blue Devils well scouted when he brought them into Cameron last year and beat us. They don’t lose often at home and pinning a second straight overall loss on them will not be easy. We better come ready to play, to anticipate physicality from their guards and from Townsend, and I think use a lot of guys. Wisconsin did and that helped mitigate Arizona’s athletic advantages. We are more athletic than Wisconsin, but still, mixing up the looks against these guys is likely to benefit us as it did the Badgers.
