I can not help but think of the symbolic implications of our game this thursday against the Sun Devils. All year long we have heard about how UofA basketball is entering a period of decline and how ASU is ascending to the upper echelon of the Pac-10. Now, as the symbol of Wildcat Basketball glory-- our NCAA tournament streak-- hangs in the balance we must beat the Devils to hold on for one more year. If I were wearing the Navy and Cardinal on Thursday afternoon I would not want to be part of the team responsible for losing to ASU three times and ending the dynasty.
I am not sure that we will be eliminated for consideration if we lost Thursday. Everything I have read says that we could still be in depending on what happens in a bunch of the conference tourneys. We can avoid routing for all of the conference tournament upper seeds if we take care of business and remove all doubt by winning.
We should have beaten the Devils in both games this season but we were undone by bad officiating and poor perimeter defense. Following those games Phil made the excellent observation that the Cats are a similar team to the Devils. We both have a big 3 of skilled players and can beat most anyone in the country when we are playing our game. The style is where we differ. The Cats must get the game into the 80s to win. The Devils will try to keep it in the 60s to match their nauseatingly slow brand of "basketball."
The pace will dictate this game on Thursday. I just hope it is fast because if we lose this game and miss out on the Tourney because of the Devils I think we will miss out on every Arizona recruit for the next decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment