NCAA Basketball Tuesday Mailbag: How good is Arizona basketball really?

For this edition of the NCAA Basketball Tuesday Mailbag, let’s look at the play of Arizona basketball and how good they really are now they are healthy.

There has been plenty of action during the first two months of this NCAA basketball season. There have been several teams that have surprised people in addition to those teams that have struggled to live up to expectations. With this being said, I took to Twitter for our first edition of the Busting Brackets mailbag.

Let’s take a look at the questions asked this week by college basketball fans across the country.

Given that the team finally has all their players together, I think Arizona belongs in the discussion of being a top-10 team in the country. They are currently riding a six-game winning streak and picked up three high-quality wins during that stretch. These wins include a road victory over UNLV as well as wins over Alabama and Texas A&M. Even when healthy, I do not think Arizona is quite good enough to be a top-5 team, but there is a great litmus test approaching.

Pac-12 play is quickly approaching and the Wildcats will be tested by the Arizona State Sun Devils in their very first conference game on Dec. 30. If they are able to come away with that home victory, then they will launch into the discussion of possibly being a top-5 team. Due to the fact that they already have three losses, it is unlikely they will get that high in the rankings without help from the teams ahead of them, but their level of play would look like a top-5 squad.

However, the team might have to deal with yet another injury. In their game against North Dakota State, Allonzo Trier went down with an injury on the play below. How long he will be out will make a huge difference in their future.

https://twitter.com/flinton_william/status/942863336856793091

The possibility of the Crossroads Classic being expanded is certainly enticing but the format as it is now is running extremely well. It currently features the four most prominent schools in the state and fills out a fair amount of Bankers Life Fieldhouse year in and year out. Having attended the event in each of the past two years, the environment is incredible and seeing the split allegiances amongst families is comical. Due to this, I don’t think I would want to mess with a tournament that is already successful.

Still, I think it would good if more of the power schools in the conference were willing to play the mid-majors in the state. In this season alone, we have already seen Indiana fall to both Indiana State and Fort Wayne while Notre Dame took a loss to Ball State. On the flip side, Purdue has two wins over Valparaiso and IUPUI while Butler’s only in-state opponent has been Purdue in the previously mentioned Crossroads Classic.

As far as the scheduling of a home-and-home series between Butler and Valparaiso goes, I don’t think it will happen. I do think it would be an awesome idea due to the history of the rivalry but I am unsure on Butler agreeing to a home-and-home. From a Power 6 perspective, Butler would not want to suffer a loss to Valparaiso (who is consistently talented enough to take a victory, especially at home) and a win over them does not make their resume much better than it would be without beating them.

Although I think Harry Froling is a great mid-season addition, it is far from a sure thing that Marquette makes the tournament at this point. In my opinion, the Big East will only send five or six teams to the Big Dance this year in comparison to the seven that were sent last year. Based on the non-conference play, four of those spots already seem locked up with Villanova, Xavier, Seton Hall, and Creighton.

Then, there is a group of four teams that are fighting for just two spots: Butler, St. John’s, Providence, and Marquette. Through the first two months, Marquette is ranked third in my opinion, just ahead of Providence. Once Big East play gets underway, Marquette will need to pick several high-quality wins for their resume because they don’t have any at this point.

To me, the best win on Marquette’s resume is over Vermont, who is at best a top-100 win and not in the top-50. Thankfully, Marquette has no truly bad losses either and looks to be in decent shape should they add a win or two in conference play over the top group of teams while taking care of business at home. The issue with Marquette so far this season has been the lack of consistency outside of Andrew Rowsey and Markus Howard. Is Froling that guy to fill in when needed? Maybe, but it’s hard to put that much pressure on him right away.

To be honest, the entire MAAC is off to a rough start this season, especially Monmouth. Although the Hawks went out and played tough games against the likes of Kentucky, Seton Hall, and Kentucky, they also have losses to UNC-Asheville and two Ivy League schools (Penn and Princeton). At 3-8, things are looking bleak for Monmouth but they still have the talent to win in a league that has struggled in non-conference play.

Unlike some of the other teams in the MAAC, Monmouth has tested themselves against elite teams this season and that experience will come back to help them later in the season. Monmouth has been unable to get over the hump and win the MAAC Tournament in the last few years, but even though this team is not as talented as those in the past, they still have a chance this season.

In order to actually win the tournament, the No.1 priority has to be their health. It is virtually impossible to take the automatic bid in the conference without having a healthy roster. With many games in just a few days, having fresh legs is vital and that cannot be done if a player or two are sitting on the bench in street clothes.

In addition, they are going to need their freshmen to continue to improve. Three out of the top six scorers on the Hawks are freshmen, including second-leading scorer Deion Hammond (10.7 points). These youngsters are the key for Monmouth, especially when it comes to crunch time in the conference tournament.

Question 1: There are a lot of great choices for what has been the biggest upset of the year. Washington over Kansas, Loyola (Chicago) over Florida, and Rutgers over Seton Hall were incredibly unexpected, but so was Ball State knocking off Notre Dame on a buzzer-beater. At the time, the Fighting Irish were looking like one of the top teams in the nation and they were shocked by the Cardinals. Tayler Persons put himself on the map in that game and he is a must-watch player in the MAC this season.

Question 2: Overall, I think that the most important transfers this year will be Harry Froling (previously mentioned to be at Marquette) and Sam Cunliffe (Kansas). Both of them will provide much-needed scoring for their teams as they have both gotten off to underwhelming starts.

Question 3: Kamar Baldwin is progressing at the point guard position but he still has a long way to go. When Aaron Thompson is on the floor as the primary facilitator, Baldwin is much more effective as he is able to play off the ball. He has a long way to go before he is successful as a point guard, but the potential is there. Even though Baldwin has been struggling with his shot, it is expected that he will start to knock down shots. As for his professional future, the point guard will be his position. He isn’t big enough to play shooting guard later in his career so his ball handling and passing abilities will need to improve.

One of the biggest storylines throughout the first two months of this season has been the play of Arizona. After a rough start to the year with injuries and consequently their play on the court, the Wildcats have seemingly turned the corner and are back to being one of the favorites to win the Pac-12. Can they contend with Arizona State and how good are they really?

To those who submitted questions this week, thank you and I hope you enjoyed the answers. If you are looking to be included in the next edition of our mailbag, be on the lookout for a tweet from me (@hardwiredsports) or the site (@BustingBrackets) regarding the next version.