Arizona Wildcats Down Missouri, Kansas State Next
By Gabe Encinas
Arizona has left paradise and is now in Hawaii for the 2015 Maui Invitational. They join BYU, Chaminade, Kansas State, Missouri, Pitt, Purdue and San Diego State.
The Arizona Wildcats first matched up against the Missouri Tigers yesterday. Missouri didn’t really take off on the right foot, dropping their home opener to the University of Missouri-Kansas City 61-69, following their embarrassing loss with close wins over Valpo and Oral Roberts.
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Missouri was projected to finish 7th in the ever so mighty SEC conference, behind Georgia, LSU and Arkansas, none of which qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season.
Arizona was pretty much in cruise control once they got things going late in the first half. Just like last year, Arizona has an adjusting period when it plays lesser opponents. This year especially, we might see more of an adjustment period, still learning to play without Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon, and in with Gabe York and Stanley Johnson as their replacements. But a pretty standard win for the Wildcats against Mizzou.
Stanley Johnson needs to continue to learn his role and find his grove, TJ McConnell continues to struggle hitting the open shots, meanwhile Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Brandon Ashley are the two most consistent players. Is this team the #3 team in the country? No. But give this team until March, so that the young bench can develop, and this team will be dangerous.
Arizona Wildcats
The Cats will now play Kansas State today at 5pm on ESPN. Kansas State is projected to finish 5th in the Big XII, quite arguably the best conference in college basketball. Kansas handled Purdue pretty well in the quarterfinal match up, which will be a much better test for Arizona. Leading the way for the Kansas State Wildcats will be sophomore guard Marcus Foster, who finished with 30 points, shooting 9-14.
On the other side of the bracket, San Diego State downed BYU in a double OT thriller, meanwhile square off, meanwhile Pitt handled Chaminade, with the winner advancing to the Maui Invitational Finals.