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WHAT IS PRODUCTIVITY RATING?:
PP: Productivity Points (Points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocked shots, FGs made, FTs made added together and then subtracted by missed FGs, missed FTs, personal fouls and turnovers)
MIN: Minutes played overall
PR: Productivity rating per minute played (Productivity points divided by minutes played)
ARIZONA 87, CALIFORNIA 59
PRODUCTIVITY RATING
* — STARTERS
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For only the ninth time in Sean Miller’s five years at Arizona have the Wildcats registered back-to-back victories scoring 80 points or more last night.
The Wildcats followed Saturday’s 88-61 drubbing of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., with an 87-59 dismantling of California at McKale Center. It’s only the second time in Miller’s tenure that back-to-back 80-point games have been accomplished against Pac-12 opponents. Arizona beat UCLA (85-74) and USC (82-73) in successive games in the 2010-11 season.
Arizona, which thrives off a disciplined style under Miller in which defense and rebounding are paramount, have reached 80 points in three consecutive games only twice since he took over the program. The Wildcats will try to reach that mark Sunday when they host Stanford.
Book published by Bob Elliott & Eric Money details forgotten successful era of #ArizonaWildcats basketball in 1970s http://t.co/zh20EjMMn8
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) February 26, 2014
Arizona will actually try to take care of its business on defense, rebounding and team-centric stuff such as distributing the ball and staying in motion and keeping the proper spacing on offense.
The third-ranked Wildcats (26-2 overall, 13-2 in the Pac-12) aim to follow their process against the Cardinal. A victory is their goal. If another 80-point output is a result of that, fine, but it’s not something circled on a greaseboard in the locker room.
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Arizona has received criticism this season because of its offensive capability especially with Brandon Ashley going down with a season-ending foot injury Feb. 1 at Cal.
What T.J. McConnell, Nick Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Kaleb Tarczewski and Co. have shown over the last two games is that Arizona can be capable of a scoring surge come March Madness. Their transition scoring against Cal, especially in the first half, brought back memories of Lute Olson’s signature knockout runs in a short period of time.
Arizona built a 15-point lead against Cal by going on a 10-0 run in only a span of 2:32. A couple of those baskets were of the fast-break dunk variety by Gordon and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson that make ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10 highlight plays.
“Anytime we get a dunk, we get energized and the crowd gets loud,” said McConnell, a bonafide Bob Cousy Award candidate with 33 points, 22 assists, 10 steals and only one turnover in his last three games. “You can tell by how much we pick up our defensive intensity. We just need to keep running the floor.”
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TOP FIVE ARIZONA REBOUNDING TEAMS
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PAC-12 STANDINGS
MN-Magic number to win regular-season title
z-Eliminated from regular-season title contention
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PAC-12 RPI (ESPN.com)
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ARIZONA OVERALL PRODUCTIVITY RATING
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ARIZONA PAC-10/12
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR:
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NICK JOHNSON CAREER POINTS RANKING
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ARIZONA SCHEDULE/PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS
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WILDABOUTAZCATS.net publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
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