Day One: Maui Invitational

Last night was my first look at the 2009-10 team. The Sean Miller coached Arizona
Wildcats mens Basketball team appears to have several play makers .
Judging from the early games, I was most interested in viewing the play of
Solomon Hill and Derek Williams. Naturally i expected Nic Wise to continue his
great free throw shooting and occasional 3 point baskets. One of my favorite
freshmen from last year, Garland Judkins saw limited action. 2 minutes worth.
I was on the computer, winning a game of Scrabble, so the first 5 minutes of the
game is a blur in my memory. After that time, I watched on my 'big screen'
and the energy of the Arizona players was impressive. Especially on defense.
Un fortunatley, Nic had some early foul trouble, and frankly he at times is a sloppy
ball handler. So the trade-offs of his great vision and leadership is offset .
I would not trade him for anyone in the world. Nic wise is a keeper.
The biggest positive i saw in the game, was defensive rebounding by arizona.
Granted, Wisconsin was playing a small line up, due to foul troubles of their own.
Impressive was MoMo Jones slashing to the basket, throu out the game.
Unfortunatley, the shots were not falling for him, he finished 2 out of 10 .
Kyle Fogg seemed to work his tail off on defense. No points, and fouled out.
Derrick Williams was a huge presence for the Cats. No arguments about it.
Kyryl Nat surprised me with his defensive energy and experience.
I was expecting a "George Zydek" type of player; a large and lumbering
presence with no real offensive value(as a freshman).
Kyryl was much better than expected, but still only 2 points. and 4 fouls.
Jamelle Horne was impressive, both rebounding and defending.
a late 3 pointer brought arizona within 1 basket of tying the game. Top notch talent.
Lavender played 19 minutes but missed all his shots. Not much stats to show for the effort.
I was surprised to see Alex Jacobsen play, but his time on court was so brief
that i can;t say anything about his play, yet.
Solomon Hill seems very intelligent, and he grabbed rebounds and scored well.
At least once, his defense was lacking under the basket.

All in all, the young Wildcats played a senior oriented wisconsin team for
the full 40 minutes. the defense was good, the shooting was horrible.
As for an Zona fan, the team rates about like the early teams of
Sean Rooks and Ed Stokes of the early 1990s.
Maybe a middle of the PAC-10 finish this year.
Time to watch the second days action. Ciao!