How Arizona basketball got to No. 1 in NET: By the numbers
Dec 9, 2021, 1:56 PM
University of Arizona Wildcat forward #10 Azuolas Tubelis during a basketball game between the University of Wyoming Cowboys and the University of Arizona Wildcats on December 8, 2021 at the McKale Center in Tucson, AZ. (Photo by Christopher Hook/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Photo by Christopher Hook/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Wyoming’s visit to McKale Center on Wednesday was, on paper, a matchup of two top-11 teams in the NET rankings.
By the end of it, the hosting Arizona Wildcats had handed the Cowboys a blowout defeat, 94-65.
First-year coach Tommy Lloyd’s team now sits at 8-0. There’s still a bit to learn about his team, but we know its identity.
The Pac-12 has faltered behind the top four teams (Arizona, USC, UCLA and Washington State), and good news for the Wildcats is that they’ve done good work in the nonconference schedule to bolster their resume ahead of league play. There is more work to be done with a challenging schedule in the next month leading into a Jan. 9 rivalry game against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
The numbers tell the story of a team that made huge strides this offseason working under Lloyd before getting off 2021-22 on very good footing.
1
After drubbing Wyoming (8-1), the Wildcats opened as the No. 1-ranked team in the NET ratings heading into Thursday’s games. NET, which replaced RPI ratings four years ago, is used to evaluate teams down the stretch and into selection Sunday.
So there’s still tons of time for the numbers to correct themselves.
For example, Arizona has a 2-0 record in Quadrant 1 situations, which includes the win vs. the Cowboys (they are still No. 18 in NET) and a neutral court victory against Michigan (No. 41). The Wildcats could lose that Quadrant 1 victory if Michigan tanks out of the top-50 by the end of the year.
Nevertheless, it’s not a bad place to be for the Wildcats, especially considering they seemingly have four more upcoming Quad 1 win opportunities before the end of the year: a visit to an Illinois team ranked No. 33 on Saturday, a Dec 22. game at No. 12 Tennessee, plus a start to the Pac-12 schedule at No. 30 UCLA and at No. 8 Southern California.
That’ll all be under the belt by the third day of January.
257
Arizona’s point differential through eight games is 257, the best for any Pac-12 team to this point in the year since the 1971-72 UCLA squad that was a +355, per STATS. That team led by Bill Walton went 30-0 and won the NCAA Championship.
3
The Wildcats are tied with reigning champion Baylor for the third-best defensive rating in the nation, allowing 77.8 points per 100 possessions.
Opponents are shooting 34.7% overall against Arizona — that’s third-best in the nation — and 27.7% from three.
With that, Arizona has the second-best effective field goal percentage allowed (39.5%), which accounts for three-pointers being worth more. The team is also No. 2 in true shooting percentage allowed at 42.5%, which accounts for opponents threes-point accuracy and also free-throw efficiency.
Center Christian Koloko and fellow big Azuolas Tubelis have been causing trouble at the rim, with Koloko 10th in the nation averaging 3.2 blocks per game.
Lloyd’s team is locking down opponents with aggressive defense, and then they’re running.
22
Arizona is the No. 22-fastest paced team in college hoops, accumulating 75.3 possessions per 40 minutes.
Lloyd’s squad is No. 8 with 32.9% — that’s almost a third — of its shot attempts coming in transition, according to Hoop-Math.com.
5
The Wildcats are fifth in the nation at finishing at the rim, per Hoop-Math, shooting 73.5% there. The percentage is because of their passing — UA is tops in the nation by assisting on 68.4% of those closeup buckets, more than 4% ahead of the next-best team.
Arizona has the second-best assist rate in the country, assisting on 70.2% of its made shots overall.
2
As it stands, the Wildcats have two NBA Draft prospects catching the eyes of scouts for 2022. Guard Ben Mathurin — No. 16 on Jonathan Givony’s big board for ESPN — has come on lately with two 20-point games in a row against Oregon State and Wyoming.
He’s averaging 17.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game and a clean 48% shooting.
Koloko is 32nd on Givony’s big board while averaging 14.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.2 blocks a night on 65.2% shooting. He’s also popping up as a top-10 player in several advanced metrics like win shares per 40 minutes and box plus-minus, according to College-Sports-Reference.com.
Tubelis deserves his roses as the second-leading scorer (15.8 per game) and second-leading rebounder (6.5). Guard Dalen Terry has been the defense-first glue guy and starting point guard Kerr Kriisa has added defense, passing and three-point gunning.
