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Live chat at noon: Q&A with Patrick Finley on Pac-12 basketball
Join the Star's Pac-12 Pundit blogger, Patrick Finley, at noon MST for a live question-and-answer chat on basketball around the conference. You can join the chat live or submit a question ahead of time; Pat will answer as many as he can in the hour-long live chat.
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Hello, sports fans, and welcome to today's live chat. Patrick Finley will join the chat at noon.
If you've already put a question in queue, you don't need to post it again. Questions will be revealed when Pat is ready to give the answer.
Don't forget to join us Thursday and Saturday during the UA basketball games for a live fan chat. -
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By its nature, selling the Pac-12 Networks to Direct TV is an ala carte deal. I do know the league was surprised the Lakers were interested to note the Lakers cut a deal with Direct TV for their own network. Don't see much movement toward a Pac-12 agreement yet, which is sad. There are A TON of hoops games on that network, this week and for the rest of the year.
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ADS had a great story on the replay system and how the refs used it in the Colo game, but I have not seen any photo/video evidence released by Pac-12 that supports the refs. Pac-12 should release this evidence to combat the near universal impression that their refs are incompetent!
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Well, the league's officiating coordinator, Ed Rush, said that the officials were correct in their evaluation. The angles they saw might have varied a bit from what TV had, but the TV shot fans saw at home was probably as good a look as anyone could expect to have. (And if you were watching at home, on a 50-inch TV, probably better). My dispute about the call is this: if they couldn't tell, without a shadow a doubt, that the ball was still in his hand, by rule, they had to let the call on the floor stand. And I've yet to see a clip that, to me, is conclusive
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As a diehard Wildcat fan, I am elated that we are 14-0 and ranked 4th in the nation. I do think that we are probably very over rated based on our game play and overall level of opponents and should be ranked lower. Do you feel the same and if so, where should we be ranked?
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"Very overrated?" Probably not. Overrated? I'll buy that. I'd probably put the UA somewhere between No. 8 and 10, but that's a matter of picking nits. Fact is, rankings this early in the year don't mean a whole lot. The point is to win games (which the UA is doing) to position yourself for a good NCAA seed — but, most importantly, to be playing your best ball in March. To me, the most exciting and intriguing part about the Wildcats is that they can play MUCH better and their freshmen can grow
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Does anyone ever ask Miller the following? We do not have good passing players on this team, so why is the offense predicated around the ability to pass the ball accurately? Why are so against using more ball screens after we have seen it used against us so effectively? Why do we have such trouble feeding the post guys? We make simple passes look really difficult.
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Miller's main beef, now, is that the UA is taking a quick shot rather than working for a good shot. Miller spoke a lot at the beginning of the season about the guards' inabilities to feed the post, and said it might have to do with the fact the UA rarely did that last season. (Jesse Perry was no Shaq). You're right: Lyons isn't your traditional drive-and-dish guy. (I'd argue Solomon Hill is as good a passer as any small forward in the league).
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I loved watching Angelo Chol play last season and am wondering why he seems to be having a rough go of things this year? Do you think it is his overall lack of basketball experience and possible confidence issues with fighting for time with our three Freshman bigs?
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I think that has something to do with it, though if you look up the road, Jordan Bachynski is playing well despite missing a lot of basketball time while on a Mormon mission. Miller said yesterday the Wildcats "believe in Angelo," and I buy that. But when they go small, playing Parrom and Hill together, other bigs make more sense at the 5. You can read Bruce Pascoe's story from today here, btw: azstarnet.com
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Pat, you say on that Colorado replay that the refs should have let the call stand. But guess what!? They never made a call. The one official signaled for a three point shot when it went up and confirmed the three when it went through the goal. But no official actually signaled to count the basket or wave it off as they are required to do in an end of clock situation at the end of a half. They simply went straight to the monitor. We have no idea if the crew determined to count the basket or not live. And as for a conclusion regarding the review, there is not a single replay or photo frame that shows the ball clearly out of his hand with 0.1 seconds. The only shots with the ball clearly out of his hand show 0.0 on the clock. They got the call right.
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An official raised both hands in the air to indicate a made basket. I understand officials are trained to go straight to the video tape, though. You and I agree on the same point, though: there's nothing conclusive about the replay, one way or the other. It's the closest replay I've ever seen.
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Lunardi's got Arizona, UCLA, Colorado and Oregon in the tournament. I think Cal is EASILY No. 5, and might end the season better than a few of the aforementioned teams. Allen Crabbe might be the best player in the league. Fellow guard Justin Cobbs is a very nice player, too; if Cal can figure out how to get offense from its bigs, it'll be in business. (And the Golden Bears have already won one league road game, which is a big plus).
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I'm all for the big line-up that Coach Miller is dedicated to deploying as it does create a lot of match-up problems, but at the end of close games will we see a quicker line-up of players who can hit their FTs, because every coach in the Pac-12 isn't afraid of fouling Kaleb 'Zeus' Tarczewski!
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Yes, Pat, the raised arms signaled a made basket. But was that basket made before or after time expired? The refs never made the ruling as a crew. They are supposed to get together and either "count" the basket or wave it off with another signal at the end of the game clock. It's a simple protocol even high school refs are trained on. I'm surprised the director of officials did not point this out in his remarks. Yes they got the call right, but their mechanics were not right in regards to the situation. To me, that is what has contributed to the controversy as much as anything and it's a shame proper officiating techniques have not been criticized more in this process. but in the end, they got the actual call right based on the reviews.
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Big question: what color unis do the Cats wear this weekend? They have worn red on the road all season, no blues, right? They better stick with red. If not, I bet Miller is trying to find a way/excuse for the team to lose since he knows a loss will be good for them eventually!
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Ha. In the past, in league play, the UA reserves their reds for teams that blue, like Cal or UCLA. I think red at Oregon makes sense, especially because, as you said, they've yet to lose in them. I think the odds of them sweeping on the road aren't good, so one of the road jerseys could come back unlucky.
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I was on the conference call in which Miller complained. He was half-teasing the Pac-12's media relations guy, asking who was on the committee. It's a handful of Pac-12 office workers, who vote for Players of the Week in every sport every week. (In my opinion, the league tries to spread the love from school to school. Whether that's the correct move or not, I dunno)
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