...would look pretty damn good coming off the bench at Arizona. 
Settle down, I'm kidding. Pretty nice looking player.
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Has a Shane Battier, Gordon Heyward game to him. Is getting better every game.
You only wish Arizona had any players as good as Sam Dekker. By the way Arizona is down by 3 at the half. Settle down, remain calm.
#6 Kansas loses too. Badgers moving on up a couple more Monday.
Yes. If we had Dekker on the roster we'd probably be #1 in the country...
All BS aside, rankings are nice to look at but don't mean much. Being #1 is nice to say, but there isn't much difference between the top team in the country and some of the unranked teams. UNLV gave Arizona all they could handle and then some.
As for Dekker, I'd love to have him in Arizona. Great player.
Arizona is a well deserved #1. And I have ties to U of A...my brother is an Arizona grad and my parents live about 45 minutes from campus. But.....
While Arizona is more talented that Wisconsin, Bo beats them 6 or 7 times out of 10. Wisconsin, even ranked #4, is still the most underrated TEAM in college hoops.
It's hard to say how many times UW would beat Arizona because there's not a whole lot of history of matchups to draw many conclusions.
Arizona consistently finishes well in their conference and typically gets top 10 type recruiting classes every year. They aren't in the same category as a Kansas or Kentucky or Duke, but they aren't far behind either.
I think what's more interesting is how the conferences stack up. The Pac Ten isn't as good as the Big Ten and MSU, Ohio State, and Wisconsin all look to have really good teams this year.
There may not be a lot of history, but let us never forget the 2000 Badger team (ok, Michigan State did spank them hard in the Final 4).
Arizona was the #1 seed in the West region. Wisconsin #8.
2nd round
Wisconsin 66
Arizona 59
Arizona never saw a defense like that!
I was unable to watch the game, but I do recall the espn highlights.
Arizona has that "deer in the headlights" look. They were shell-shocked!
Nice to recall Michael Kelley. Fine defensive player.
I seem to remember Sean Miller's team at Butler(?) beating UW in the tourney. He's a good coach.
Originally Posted by Tschmack:
It's hard to say how many times UW would beat Arizona because there's not a whole lot of history of matchups to draw many conclusions.
Arizona consistently finishes well in their conference and typically gets top 10 type recruiting classes every year. They aren't in the same category as a Kansas or Kentucky or Duke, but they aren't far behind either.
I think what's more interesting is how the conferences stack up. The Pac Ten isn't as good as the Big Ten and MSU, Ohio State, and Wisconsin all look to have really good teams this year.
History of matchups, especially non conference ones where teams don't meet often, doesnt matter here. Graduation/leaving school is the main reason why.
That said, I just think this is one of Bo's best, most talented teams and I think he has enough talent to beat anyone. I am not saying national championship for sure, but this may be their best shot. I think Wisconsin has always had smarter players than their opposition, but when add an upgrade in talent, I just think they would beat now #1 Arizona more times than not.
One thing I think may hurt Wisconsin this season is their depth of bigs. Uthoff would have helped them there.
Who would beat who is fun to talk about. There's several teams this season that have the chance to win the title. Arizona and Wisconsin are in that conversation so far. As always, tournament seeding and match ups will play a role in the outcome.
I love college basketball. Any team can lose on any given night. I have no visions of Arizona going undefeated... but this is going to be a fun season to watch unfold. Next up is a super tough road game at Michigan.
That's a badass dunk by Hollis-Jefferson, eh?
Originally Posted by TwinRig:
I seem to remember Sean Miller's team at Butler(?) beating UW in the tourney. He's a good coach.
Xavier. He's a fantastic coach and recruiter.
Originally Posted by Pakrz:
That's a badass dunk by Hollis-Jefferson, eh?
Sam Dekker would have blocked it. 
Sam Dekker was on fire again today.
LeBron James is back playing pickup basketball at his camp in Vegas pic.twitter.com/BqFOnSUJM0
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 10, 2014This guys feed identified quite a few people as "best in camp"
Sam Dekker has consistently been the best player here through two days.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) July 10, 2014
Was reading about this tonight. Dekker's grown 2 inches since the end of last season? He's 6'9" now??? Holy scnikes... This will be his last year in Madison.
thanks for the link, EKB!
As far as rankings go, we should expect this:
1. Duke
2. North Carolina (unless they finally get around to penalizing Roy "dad-gum" Williams for handing out passing grades to his players.)
3. any other east coast program
Don't worry Michigan State will graduate their entire starting lineup and still be ranked ahead of UW this year
Aren't you fellas forgetting a few programs?
UA. UK.
yes. UK
not so much UA. Yes, a great storied program...but they are too "west-coast-ish" for the eastern writers.
Most those other schools could have a down year, graduate their entire starting line up (except UK because they just leave for the NBA after 1 year) and still be rated in the top 10.
no offense to UA. however, UA will be ranked high next season for sure.
There are some incoming Freshmen, including Arizona and SMU, that may have a big impact when it's said and done.
They need to play like they're angry about losing in the FF last year. all indications are that they are. It's should be a great ride...
They need to play like they're angry about losing in the FF last year. all indications are that they are. It's should be a great ride...
It sure is interesting to see how completely overlooked Koenig is at this point. If he continues to get better, he'll have that offense cranked up to say the least.
He'll definitely add some swagger and ball handling to the offense. He should be able to replace the majority of Brust's 3 point shooting.
I'd like to see him be so good as to replace the majority of ball handling at point, but he won't ... Bo is committed.
Originally Posted by Music City:
There are some incoming Freshmen, including Arizona and SMU, that may have a big impact when it's said and done.
They need to play like they're angry about losing in the FF last year. all indications are that they are. It's should be a great ride...
They need to play like they're angry about losing in the FF last year. all indications are that they are. It's should be a great ride...
Yea, Arizona has a nice class coming in with the superstar being Stanley Johnson out of California. They should be better this year than last, even with losing Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon.
Mudiay going to SMU was a big surprise to me.
Originally Posted by JJSD:
It sure is interesting to see how completely overlooked Koenig is at this point. If he continues to get better, he'll have that offense cranked up to say the least.
Agree. Koenig looks to be a very good player that's just going to get better and better.
I am preparing to be a big Nigel Hayes fan. Looks like he has great upside.
They get Vito Brown any where near challenging for time, kind of a sick team as it looks on paper. Me likely.
Larry Brown is the SMU COACH- not a surprise.
I'm familiar with who their coach is. Still a surprise to me.
Looks like Mudiay has chosen to play ball overseas and bypass the college game all together anyhow.
Arizona should be ranked pretty high simply because they recruit very well and they pretty much own the Pac Ten
No reason why the Badgers should not be ranked very high with who they havE coming back and the way they ended the year. My only concern is that historically the Badgers have fared much better when they aren't in the spotlight or given high expectations.
That's generally what I am concerned about. Last year they were top 5 and they Lost a bunch of games and were out of the top 25. They cannot do that if they want to be a championship team. Of course, peaking at the right time is essential, so if they're going to struggle, they need to do it early.