GAME THREAD: No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 3 Purdue

GAME INFO
Who:
No. 1 Arizona (8-0) vs. No. 3 Purdue (9-1, 1-1 Big Ten)
When: 2:30 p.m. (MST)
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse | Indianapolis, Indiana
TV: Peacock
Odds: Arizona (-1-5) O/U 159.5
All-time series: Purdue leads 7-5 all-time

Hey everyone, I am getting the game thread up with about three hours until the 2:30 (MST) tip off between No. 1 Arizona and No. 3 Purdue. This is the first regular season top-3 matchup for the Wildcats since 1997. The last time the UA faced the Boilermakers in Indianapolis, it was Purdue that edged it out 72-69 in 2000.

Bay Area tackle Kalolo Ta'aga has Arizona in top 4 ahead of commitment announcement

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Three-star offensive tackle prospect Kalolo Ta'aga has made a couple visits to Arizona this fall, and now the Wildcats find themselves among his final four ahead of his commitment decision this Sunday. The 6-foot-7, 265-pound senior from Archbishop Riordan in San Francisco visited UA for the Oregon State game and was back for the Utah game a couple weeks later. The Wildcats offered him in September and have been active in their pursuit. Brennan Carroll recently held an in-home visit with Ta'aga, and UA is hoping to make him part of its 2024 class.

"It's good, it's been great with them," Ta'aga said of his relationship with the Wildcats. "Coach Brennan Carroll is my guy. He's a great coach, funny dude. I mean he came over twice in one day (school and home), so that shows a lot of how much interest they have in me. They want it (commitment) bad."

USC recently offered Ta'aga and he is fresh off an official visit with the Trojans, who head into the announcement as the favorite. Utah and Cal are also part of his final group. He took official visits to all four schools this fall. Ta'aga had not played football before this season, so he is looking strongly at development in his decision and academics are a big deal to him as well.

He previously committed to San Jose State before ever playing a snap of football. Riordan has some talented young prospects, so landing a pledge from Ta'aga could give Arizona an edge in landing some of the other players from that school.

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Speedy

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As Jedd Fisch said after the game on Saturday and reiterated again today, Speedy Luke suffered a high-ankle sprain against North Dakota State that required surgery to repair. I've never heard of that myself but I'm also not a doctor. Either way, the Arizona freshman running back is out for 4-6 weeks (from the time of the surgery last week) while he goes through rehab.

2024 DE/OLB Jaedon Langley backs off his commitment

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Not really an unexpected move as the Wildcats try and fit this class together. Utah and Texas Tech were the other top schools in pursuit of Langley prior to his commitment. There are a lot of moving parts for Arizona right now and not a ton of room to fit everyone. Feel pretty confident you'll see a strong replacement here for UA. It's going to be a busy stretch for Jedd Fisch and Co. bringing this thing all together.

Arizona makes the top 8 for 2025 WR Jadyn Robinson

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Jadyn Robinson (formerly at Long Beach Poly, now at San Juan Hills in Orange County) trimmed his list to eight schools today and Arizona is part of the list. I spoke with him about the options remaining in the picture and you can read the full update at the link above. The Wildcats have certainly grabbed his attention so far. A commitment to one of the schools could end up happening in short order. I'd say Utah and Texas are out front at the moment but there's time for others to make a move.

"They're bringing that new swag up there, California swag, and I really love it. Bringing the energy. They're doing well competitively, too, and I like what they're doing over there."

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UofA Financial Troubles

Not sure if anyone has read the recent AZ Daily Star piece about the UofA budget crises, but it isn’t good at all!! Basically the university overshot its spending significantly and only has 97 days of strategic cash on hand which is way too low. The University initially projected they would have 156 days worth, but were apparently off by a whopping 240 MILLION DOLLARS somehow?!?!? Athletics is also a part of the problem as it is a financial drain on the University. So BIG cuts are coming for the university and athletics department. Unfortunately it sounds like cutting sports is a real option among other things I’m sure. Athletics department needs to get REALLY serious about finding other avenues to creat revenue, like naming rights deals and other things, it HAS to happen. They should have been doing it a long time ago IMO.

Here’s the article:

GAME THREAD: No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 23 Wisconsin

GAME INFO
Who:
No. 1 Arizona (7-0) vs. No. 23 Wisconsin (7-2)
When: 1:15 p.m. (MST)
Where: McKale Center | Tucson, Arizona
TV: ESPN
Odds: Arizona (-9.5) O/U 143.5
All-time series: Wisconsin leads 5-2 all-time

Hey everyone, I am getting the game thread up with about two hours until the 1:15 tipoff between No. 1 Arizona and No. 23 Wisconsin at McKale Center. The top-ranked Wildcats look to get redemption against the Badgers after they lost to UW in the Elite Eight in 2014 and 2015.

Pac-12 All-Conference awards: QB Noah Fifita takes home Offensive Freshman Player of the Year


In all, 13 Arizona players earned conference honors Tuesday led by quarterback Noah Fifita who became just the second Wildcats' player to earn the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman Player of the Year award. Offensive tackle Jordan Morgan and linebacker Jacob Manu represent UA on the first team while Tetairoa McMillan and Tyler Loop earned second-team distinctions. Eight other players were named honorable mention selections for the all-conference teams.

Transfers to USC

Honestly, it is a shame what happened at USC to Singer, Roland-Wallace and Barrs at USC.

Singer only ended up with 23 catches for 276 yards and 3 TD and didn't play in 1 game.
Barrs ended up with a total of 4 solo tackles and 9 assisted after limited action.
Roland-Wallace probably had the best season at 27 solo tackes. 10 assisted, 2 picks and 9 passes defended.

They missed out on the success Arizona is having this year and had to participate in the dumpster fire USC became.

Arizona women's basketball: Observations

Hey guys, upon hmuir's request, I wanted to jump in and share my takeaways from the Wildcats' first seven games of the season.

Takeaways:

- Offense is going to be a problem this season for Arizona. The Wildcats are shooting 44% from the field, which seems like a solid number but the team has played lower-level teams and has struggled like yesterday where UA had 9 points at the end of the first quarter against South Dakota.

- Turnovers is a major problem with Arizona turning over the ball around 19 times per game. Helena Pueyo is playing well with around four assists per game to just 1.1 turnovers per game. However, Jada Williams is young and learning how hard the college level can be and right now she is turning thr ball over at a high rate.

- Arizona lives and dies by the play of Esmery Martinez. Martinez has been great but living through a low-post player is a challenging task, especially when that player needs people to feed her the ball.

- I like Aida Barnes as a person. However, it is clear to me that she need major help on the offensive side of the court. Barnes isn't creative when it comes to drawing up plays to get buckets and is very limited on offense. She needs an offensive coach that can help her with those downfalls. However, Barnes is very stubborn and in my opinion won't change.

- Arizona has a young talented roster that will take its lumps along the way. I think this is a tournament team but finishing above .500 in conference play is highly unlikely. With Colorado, UCLA, Stanford, Utah and USC all being Top 10 teams, Arizona will see a lot of learning experiences this season.


Those are some of my takes from the first seven games this season.
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GAME THREAD: No. 2 Arizona vs. Colgate

GAME INFO

Who:
No. 2 Arizona vs. Colgate
When: 1 p.m. (MST)
Where: Tucson, Arizona
TV: Pac-12 Network
All-time series: First meeting
Odds: Arizona (-23.5) O/U 152.5

Hey everyone, I am getting the game thread up with about three and a half hours until the 1 p.m. tipoff between No. 2 Arizona and Colgate. With a win today, the Wildcats can climb to the No. 1 seed in the country following No. 1 Purdue getting upset by Northwestern last night.

Arizona on the recruiting trail

Hey guys, with coaches in new places there are opportunities for Arizona to cash in on already committed recruits.

The Wildcats are hot on the trail and have offered 6-foot-5, 265-pound OT Rustin Young out of Honolulu, who is committed to OSU (Oregon State)

Young is a three-star recruit that is out of St. Louis (HS), which was the school that produced star offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea.


This would be a big get for Arizona as it tries to round out the 2024 recruiting class.
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