Top Players<\/strong><\/p>\nSolomon Hill – One of the most underrated players in the country. \u00a0The forward with the athletic game could develop into double-double number.
\nMark Lyons – The transfer is being relied upon to contribute a lot. \u00a0Might be the best guard in the PAC 12, or at least the most productive.
\nGrant Jerrett – Has the talent to be force if he is physically ready and can play within the system.<\/p>\n
Last year they struggled without do everything forward Derrick Williams but still managed a solid record and finished 4th. \u00a0This year they are expected to challenge UCLA for conference supremacy as coach Sean Miller has been able to recruit well and is looking restore the program to former glory.<\/p>\n
Arizona is expected to challenge for the PAC 12 crown and in Solomon Hill may have the conference player of the year too. \u00a0UCLA is likely to be their primary competition due to an influx of frosh talent but it might be smarter to go with the Wildcats experience \u00a0– plus their frosh aren\u2019t too shabby themselves. \u00a0Sean Miller is reviving the program and his teams play more of a physical East Coast style based on defense and efficiency. \u00a0He proved a couple of years ago that if he has talent to work with he can mold it into something special. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
Strengths<\/strong><\/p>\nArizona should once again be a top defensive team – they gave up just 62ppg last year. \u00a0They actually might be even better as their new additions add some serious shot blocking potential on the base line which was completely absent last year. \u00a0I also like that their two best players (Hill and Lyons) are seniors even if one is a transfer.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\nThis team has offensive talent but uncertain floor leadership. \u00a0The assumption is that Lyons will play the point but he never did at Xavier where Tu Holloway reigned. \u00a0He is going to be reunited with the coach that originally recruited him but if he doesn\u2019t work out the Wildcats don\u2019t have great alternatives. \u00a0All of their guards are more shooters than playmakers and they don\u2019t have a lot of depth at the guard position.<\/p>\n
Top Games<\/strong><\/p>\nNov. 19 – Long Beach State will be looking to prove they are still among the threats out West.
\nDec. 15 – The Florida Gators come for a visit in a nice cross regional battle between ranked teams before conference play begins.<\/p>\n
Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\nIt will be a huge disappointment if the Wildcats don\u2019t finish in the top two in the PAC 12. \u00a0With the league being down and their nonconference schedule not all that daunting they should easily exceed last year\u2019s win total; and it would not surprise me to see them finish with the kind of gaudy regular season record that earns them a top 3 seed as a result. \u00a0They probably won\u2019t be in the championship picture because they are missing that super elite talent but they are very good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arizona Wildcats Season Preview \u2013 CBB Handicapping With the PAC 12 Conference down overall on the hardwood many are expecting the Arizona Wildcats to rise again in the desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":25161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[39626,56882,56885,3646,56884,6250,4207,4633,4785,21162,50839,16957,19417],"class_list":["post-56300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-39626","tag-2012-college-basketball-gambling","tag-arizona-season-preview","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-arizona-wildcats-season-preview","tag-cbb-odds","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-picks","tag-ncaa-basketball-futures","tag-ncaa-basketball-predictions","tag-pac-12","tag-wildcats-odds","tag-wildcats-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56300"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56797,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56300\/revisions\/56797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}