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gbruin's avatar

Great work as always, DD. It was a bit of a frustrating game in the second half, but it wasn't really surprising. AZ has a lot of size and talent in the low post that the Bruins, even with Riley and Myles, just can't match up with. We beat AZ in our first meeting when they were cold shooting from the outside while we shot really well, and that negated their inside advantage. Tonight we didn't shoot well enough from 3 and their outside game was enough to keep pace with ours, and so their inside advantage proved to be the difference. Whether it was lobs inside, the bigs moving out high to open up the backdoor cuts, their efficiency with putbacks, and above all, their blocks and defense of the rim, that inside presence is their ace in the hole that we can't match straight up. But few if any teams will have a reliable answer to the AZ bigs anyway. That is an area Cronin will have to address in recruiting going forward, but that help isn't coming now. On the good side, we pushed them right to the end and we know we can beat them if we play really well (which basically applies to any opponent we'll meet), and I like our guys' tourney experience, so I think we have as good a shot as almost anyone over the next 3 weekends. Go Bruins!

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Andrew's avatar

The way they played in the first half is encouraging but I still see them losing in the second round, depending on the matchups obviously. I haven't seen much basketball outside the Pac-12 this year but with teams like Kentucky, Duke, Gonzaga who seem so much more athletic and talented it's going to take a lot of luck (more than last year) to get back to a Final Four.

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paulieg896's avatar

I disagree. I feel like there is no overly dominant teams this year (everyone has 3+ losses) and with the right matchups we can win it all. Go Bruins!

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paulieg896's avatar

There are only 2 elite teams this year and we've played both of them already. And even they can be beat - Gonzaga lost to St. Mary's (and Alabama) and Arizona lost to Colorado and us

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ArmyBruin's avatar

Tennessee just beat Kentucky and they’ve also beaten Arizona. Duke was just hammered by Virginia Tech. Plenty of teams look to be more athletic and yet Mick has our group competing with all of them.

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