SEATTLE – After a little bit of an up and down start on Friday, Arizona cruised to victory in Seattle with a 93-65 win over the Akron Zips in the 1st Round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats made key adjustments in the second half to take care of the ball, and used a flurry of high-flying dunks and 3-point shooting to advance to Sunday’s 2nd Round against former Pac-12 foe Oregon. Let’s take a look at some key takeaways from the Arizona Wildcats’ win over Akron, and preview Sunday’s contest with Oregon.
Takeaways from Akron
Jaden Bradley’s 3-point shooting:
Jaden Bradley has not been much of a threat from beyond the arc this season for Arizona. Coming into Friday’s game, Bradley was just 20-69, or 29.0 percent, from 3-point range on the season. Against Akron however, it was a bit of a different story. Bradley gave the Zips a taste of their own medicine, shooting 3-5 from the perimeter, on his way to a team-high 19-point performance.
After the game, we asked Tommy Lloyd about Bradley’s shooting, if he is preparing differently at all, and if that can be an added element to Arizona’s game the rest of the tournament:
“Well, obviously, I’ve had conversations with him and KJ a little bit on three-point shooting, but at the end of the day, I really trust those guys, and I want ’em to know that I have confidence in ’em, and I want ’em to shoot threes when they’re comfortable. They don’t feel like they have to shoot ’em all the time.
Yeah, but if they could step up, the combination of those two, and make a few threes here and there, it’s really an added element because what teams are deciding to do is not guard ’em.”
While Bradley is not expected to be a high-volume shooter, if defends are not going to treat him like a perimeter threat, a couple threes per game could be an X factor for the Wildcats on Sunday and into the second weekend.
March Trey Townsend:
It hasn’t exactly been a breezy season for Trey Townsend. After suffering a concussion in Arizona’s game against BYU in Provo, Townsend missed the next two games for the Wildcats, before ultimately falling out of the staring lineup.
But then March rolled around. Since the Wildcats’ regular season finale at Kansas on March 8, Trey Townsend has scored in double-figures in four of his last five games, including 16-point performances against Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament Quarterfinals, and the Zips on Friday.
“Yeah, just seeing the ball go in, that obviously helps confidence. Throughout the struggles, my teammates and coaches never lost confidence in me. They kept putting me in good spots, and I started to convert them,” said Townsend on Friday after Arizona’s win over Akron.
The Wildcats do not have the same size advantage when Trey Townsend is on the floor compared to Henri Veesaar, but if he can continue to give Arizona valuable minutes offensively, it adds another layer of depth to the lineup.
Finding Different Ways to Win:
Chalk it up to first game jitters, but it was an uncharacteristic win for Arizona in a lot of ways on Friday. The Wildcats, which average 11.5 turnovers per game, had 12 in the first half against the Zips. Arizona is also a top 25 free throw shooting team in the country, but went 0-5 from the line in the first half, and finished just 3-10 from the line in the game. Those types of mistakes and unfocused play cannot continue to plague the Wildcats on Sunday and into the second weekend.
That said, if your going to make uncharacteristic mistakes, being able to back it up with uncharacteristic successes is often a good way to find balance. The Wildcats, which shot 32.4 percent from deep heading into the game, shot a staggering 12-25, or 48.0 percent, from 3-point range. And while that success is likely not going to be sustainable for Arizona, Tommy Lloyd was pleased with his team’s shooting on Friday:
“We’re a great free throw shooting team. But if you would have told me we had be 12-25 from three or 3-10 from the line, I might have taken that.”
Previewing the No. 5 Oregon Ducks:
Oregon will be more of a conventional matchup for Arizona when the two former Pac-12 foes meet up on Sunday. Dana Altman’s crew has size, shooters, and the experience of a Power 4 schedule. From a numbers perspective, the Ducks are much more balanced team than Akron, with the No. 22 adjusted defensive efficiency, and No. 36 adjusted offensive efficiency per KenPom. Similar to the Arizona, Oregon shot well above its 3-point average on Friday, finishing 10-21, or 47.6 percent from deep, versus a season average of 33.6 percent heading into the game.
A couple of interesting matchups to watch are KJ Lewis and TJ Bamba, and Nate Bittle against the tandem of Tobe Awaka and Henri Veesaar. Bamba’s physical presence and ability to get downhill is exactly what KJ Lewis and the Wildcats have seen all season in the Big 12. In the front court, Nate Bittle, a one-time Arizona recruit, has size, but will have a challenge when going up against the physicality of Tobe Awaka and Henri Veesaar.
Jackson Shelstad, who had a game-high 17 points on 7-11 shooting, is going to get his, so it will be imperative that Arizona’s backcourt of Jaden Bradley, Caleb Love, and KJ Lewis do what they can to slow him down and disrupt him as much as possible.
And then finally, there’s Dana Altman. While the Ducks finished seventh in the Big 10 this season, and lost in the tournament quarterfinals to Michigan State, Dana Altman is a master at getting his teams prepared for the NCAA Tournament. In his first eight tournament appearances at Oregon, the Ducks advanced to the second weekend in five of those years.
No. 4 Arizona tips off against No. 5 Oregon in the 2nd Round on Sunday, March 23, at 6:40 PM MST/PDT on TBS.