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Transcript: Live Q&A with Bruce Pascoe on UA basketball

Bruce Pascoe chatted with readers in a live Q&A chat on UA basketball.

Thanks for joining.
I accidentally deleted a question about whether Solomon Hill or Miles Simon would be a better coach. My thinking is that Simon is already a coach (has been at UA and is during summer travel ball with a very good program in SoCal). Hill has terrific potential to be a coach because of his knowledge and work ethic, and guys respect him. But he may well be playing pro ball for a long time until he gets to that point.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:03:21 PM
is there a good chance nick johnson goes pro this year? had he made any comments?

by jocats 1/28/2013 7:03:31 PM
No he hasn't and rarely does anyone mention that topic during a season. It would seriously disrupt chemistry. I don't expect him to leave this year (though of course you never know) because he still has a lot to prove with what he can do and where he would play at the NBA level . But there's no question he has big potential. Not only with his unusual leaping ability but also with maturity and work ethic.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:05:32 PM
what its the chance that we sign gordon?

by jocats 1/28/2013 7:05:34 PM
Gordon's kept it close to the vest so I don't have a really good feel. But he has said a few things about wanting to make a big impact so if that's a factor, Washington might have a really good chance unless UA loses one or more of its big men. His family also has a strong relationship with Lorenzo Romar.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:07:00 PM
this years team its a ton of fun to watch, they are very successful, and seem to have chemistry. so why do you think the radio talk shows tend to have so many negative callers this year?

by jocats 1/28/2013 7:07:00 PM
There's always negative things to talk about; that's part of what makes sports fun. if everything were perfect there wouldn't be much to discuss. You're right though: Bottom line this team has exceeded expectations so far. I know I picked UCLA to win the Pac-12 and would have figured UA would have lost at least 4 games by now.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:09:35 PM
How many teams from the pac 12 will get in the tournament

by Ted 1/28/2013 7:09:56 PM
They really don't go by how many per conference but if I had to guess I'd think five, with one getting the Pac-12's annual invite to the Dayton "First Four" games. Now it's looking like ASU has a chance. Maybe Colorado. And Stanford, Cal and Washington all still have potential to squeak in if they have a strong second half.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:12:42 PM
I think the team is very fortunate to only drop 2 places. What do you think?

by RT41 1/28/2013 7:12:47 PM
Seems about right to me. Losing to UCLA isn't that big of a sin and Arizona has really three big hang-your-hat -on-em wins over Florida, Miami and SDSU. Plus there's been a lot of other losses elsewhere in the Top 25.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:14:17 PM
Was is u of a SOS and RPI

by P 1/28/2013 7:14:22 PM
RPI is 4. SOS varies depending on source: it's 4 in RPI SOS, 9 in Sagarin and 14 in Kenpom

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:16:50 PM
Thx for chat Bruce, I love the sports chat shows.
To me it seems like the Ariz offensive effort is mostly Lyons, Hill and NJ playing a lot of 1 on 1 basketball. The entire team had 9 assists in the UCLA loss. Also the inside scoring is very weak. What can Sean Miller do to improve ball movement and get consistent post offense from Tarzewski, Ashley and Jerret??

by hot_blonde_chick 1/28/2013 7:17:23 PM
Thanks. There has been some one on one and maybe not as much ball movement as Miller would like, especially against UCLA when everyone was trying to win the game individually, but I don't think it's that big an issue. And the nine assists against UCLA was also related to the fact that guys missed shots that would have been attributed to assists. Freshmen bigs are almost always inconsistent, especially when you have a situation like this where the ball is often not in their hands. there are just so many shots to go around.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:22:02 PM
How much of the minutes distribution among the freshmen and Chol do you think is about player development vs. putting the best players on the floor. Theer has been alot of talk on the boardss about giving Chol and York more PT, with Zeus and others struggling at times, but it seems to me that Miller knows he has to develop the "first three" freshmen for the season to be a success...

by Frank Rizzo 1/28/2013 7:24:46 PM
I think at this point of the season it's about winning games more than anything and there's just been too many close games for Miller to turn to Chol and York. He just seems to believe the three freshmen bigs are that much better than Chol. And while you can say maybe Tarczewski struggles at times offensively, he gives them a look and presence that Miller loves to have, especially after he was forced to play Jesse Perry there last season. He's mentioned that many, many times.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:26:40 PM
Do you think Johnson did enough vs USC to take the PAC-12 player of the week?

by ranman 1/28/2013 7:27:37 PM
No. I think Carrick Felix or even Evan Gordon (not sure who ASU nominated) has a better chance, based on the fact they also put up good numbers and ASU won both games.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:28:29 PM
Are you happy with the starting five, if not who would you switch around?

by Fredrick V. 1/28/2013 7:28:36 PM
I can't see any other way it's better except maybe, in some cases, Jerrett is a better matchup as the starting four and, in some drastic cases, you could go really small with Hill and Parrom both starting but that leaves both Ashley and Jerrett on the bench and puts Hill at power forward, where neither he nor Hill want Hill to play except in short spurts. Parrom is already basically a starter as far as minutes played and he has the mentality you need for sixth man; he does not seem to "need" to be a starter as some guys do to be happy.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:32:38 PM
how do you think the national opinion of the ua differs from the local opinion? (fan and media)

by jocats 1/28/2013 7:32:40 PM
Not much, I don't think. The new media rights deal is giving UA better national exposure and because they are ranked there is more awareness of what is going on here. From the national media I've talked to, the opinion seems to be that Colorado was robbed and that Arizona has a successful if unconventional point guard in Mark Lyons -- but that UA a pretty good team overall. Somebody who was just in Telluride told me that the Denver TV stations still refer to the UA-CU game as the "Crime in the Desert." ...

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:35:25 PM
Do you expect a sweep of the Washington schools this week?

by Bobby B 1/28/2013 7:35:28 PM
Actually, I think it's very possible. Neither team there is that good this season and Arizona is playing arguably better on the road this season than it is at home. Plus UA has never beaten UW in Seattle under Miller and you can bet that will be a point of emphasis.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:36:31 PM
Give Chol more minutes.

by Cold Spring Pete 1/28/2013 7:36:35 PM
well, just discussed this sort of. but i will note that miller's basic answer to this question is this: "Who do I take minutes away from?" Is your answer Tarczewski? if so the issue there is that Miller wants that presence, defensively and on the boards, that Tarczewski gives them. Jerrett and Ashley are likely NBA-bound talents, too. Not an easy thing to do.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:39:10 PM
In the halfcourt, Arizona seems to only score in four ways: (1) Lyons dribble penetration and score, (2) Lyons dribble penetration and dish for a three, (3) Hill late shot clock improvisation, or (4) offensive rebound and score. Lyons is a great scorer, but it feels like options a and b are totally reliant on his ability. When he has an off game, we struggle (3/14 FG against Utah) or lose (UCLA). I hear people say our team is balanced. That may be true on the stat sheet, but it looks like as Lyons goes, so goes Arizona. That worries me, especially because I believe we have other options that don't get exploited when Lyons is off his A game. Have you seen the same things? Have you seen Miller expanding our offense to mix in more options than just drive and dish?

by This Guy 1/28/2013 7:39:57 PM
I agree that a lot does go with Lyons but I still think this team loses a lot more games overall without him. Consider what would UA do if he wasn't available suddenly last spring? Besides, the offensive problems vs UCLA were a bit of an aberration. Lyons played well at Oregon. Hard to see other options being a whole lot better at this point -- Ashley certainly has the potential to become a big go-to guy but not sure when that might happen. Jerrett is a nice inside-outside option that maybe you could use more but again, there's only so many shots to go around, and Hill is pretty efficient overall.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:46:46 PM
From what you know, will we soon get a settlement with DirectTV over the PAC12 Network broadcast rights. Businesses are being hurt by the outage of the PAC12 games and plenty of fans are upset that they can't watch PAC12 sports. I believe it has hurt the UofA and other schools that are impacted.

by hot_blonde_chick 1/28/2013 7:46:51 PM
did you see zeus in high school. is his offensive game what you expected to see this year?

by jocats 1/28/2013 7:48:29 PM
I think it's hurting both sides: DirecTV is losing some Pac-12 fans and the Pac-12 is losing exposure it could get if the games were carried on DirecTV. But outside of UA fans, there really isn't much pressure on either side during basketball season so I don't think this deal gets done until next summer.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:48:29 PM
Only saw him in the Jordan game in HS. He was terrific in that, though really struggled in the Nike Hoop Classc. He is doing about what I expected though considering the crowded nature of UA's frontcourt. You just never know with 7-footers how long their development will take and offensively, UA doesn't need him to score as much as almost any other team would. Tellingly, he mentioned after the USC game that it was nice to get the ball so he could work on what he needs to work on. there are some games he's only getting a handful of shots, even if he doesn't have many turnovers.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:52:20 PM
Bruce with chol and york quickeness maybe they could be considered in a end of half press package and maybe take Mark lyons and kaleb out to save fouls 3 min end of half situations

by Jreed 1/28/2013 7:52:22 PM
Not sure York's defense can be trusted yet in that situation, though it certainly will be in the future. Miller is only going to press in very short bursts though.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:53:37 PM
Pac12 overstated the value of their REGIONAL network. Directv is calling their bluff. Im w directv on this one. Luckily ua bball gets pikd up on the real national networks.

by Donnie 1/28/2013 7:53:40 PM
It is a big game of posturing for sure. You're right: DirecTV subscribers aren't suffering too badly because there are so many ESPN family games. Not the case for most other Pac-12 schools.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:54:38 PM
I think the team became over-confident in Lyons early in the season and were exploited because of it in the UCLA game where they relied on Lyons too much. USC game, albeit not the same competition, was a better example of balance - I think the team goes and Nick Johnson goes, moreso than Lyons.

by Frank Rizzo's Mom 1/28/2013 7:54:42 PM
Who does UA have left on its recruiting radar for 2013-14?

by Shane 1/28/2013 7:56:30 PM
The main time I think they really rely on Lyons is at the end of games, where he's been very good. UCLA was just basically everybody's fault. They were probably overly anxious, including Lyons, who I'm sure wanted to make a big splash, then missed a lot of easy ones and it snowballed from there.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 7:56:30 PM
Don't think whole lot has changed lately with class of 2014 if that's what you mean. UA did get Emmanual Mudiay on campus for the UCLA game, which was a good sign, and of course it is still after Justise Winslow, Stanley Johnson, Parker Jackson-Cartwright. There's other guys that they have a more distant chance with such as Jahil Okafor, Payton Dastrup and Shaqquan Aaron, too.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 8:02:33 PM
I am concerned with Miller's track record on developing big men, I think he got lucky with DWill. Was he successful at Xavier in developing front court players?

by catfan 1/28/2013 8:02:34 PM
He never had big guys as talented out of HS as he has now, so too early in some ways to answer that. He did help turn Derrick Brown from a lowly rated, skinny kid at Xavier into an NBA player though.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 8:04:39 PM
What's your assessment on Tarczewski's abilities. He seems to struggle at times in catching the ball and finishing.

by Carl 1/28/2013 8:04:42 PM
Yes he does but it's very rare for a 7-footer not to have that issue. The speed of the game is a huge adjustment for big men. Remember how highly regarded Kyryl Natyazhko was coming in? Overall, I'm sure they'd like to have a bit more from him both offensively and on the boards but don't think he's been disappointing, either.

by Bruce Pascoe 1/28/2013 8:06:31 PM

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