Arizona Tuesday Twitterbag: Ranking the Wildcats’ non-conference games, Allonzo Trier, and tight ends

What are the best non-Pac-12 games for basketball this year?

We are now just one week away from the Arizona Wildcats playing other basketball teams, and it’s also Homecoming in Tucson, so there’s plenty of stuff on the docket.

We’ve got plenty of different topics on this week’s Tuesday Twitterbag to touch on. If you want your questions in next week’s edition, be sure to follow us @azdesertswarm and tweet your questions in on Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Let’s go!

@azdesertswarm can you rank our non conference games (basketball) in order of difficulty.

— Dave Farley (@DaveFarley1986) October 25, 2016

Sure can:

1. vs. Michigan State (Honolulu)
2. vs. Gonzaga (Los Angeles)
3. vs. Texas A&M (Houston)
4. vs. Vanderbilt or Butler (Las Vegas)
5. vs. New Mexico
6. vs. Grand Canyon
7. vs. Cal State Bakersfield
8. vs. Texas Southern
9. vs. Santa Clara (Las Vegas)
10. at Missouri
11. vs. Northern Colorado
12. vs. UC-Irvine
13. vs. Sacred Heart

Once I got below Grand Canyon I had a hard time. At least Bakersfield made the NCAA Tournament last year, and Texas Southern is picked to win the SWAC. Santa Clara is more interesting than Mizzou because of past history stuff there, and it’s on Thanksgiving.

@azdesertswarm trier. rumors. facts. rumblings.

— Stuart Kratz (@StuartKratz) October 25, 2016

All of the above?

@azdesertswarm any word on the status of Alonzo Trier? Sooner or later they going to have to say something right?

— leopride (@SantaCruz1326) October 25, 2016

I haven’t heard anything new in the last week or so. The process has to play out, and they will announce something when they can. I do feel like they pulled him from Pac-12 Media Day just to avoid the inevitable barrage of questions he would have gotten, which is fair, but also looks bad at the same time.

@azdesertswarm wildcats most potent lineup this season and why.

— Ivan iii (@Ivan14bro) October 25, 2016

1. Lauri Markkanen
2. Lauri Markkanen
3. Lauri Markkanen
4. Lauri Markkanen
5. Lauri Markkanen

I guess in all seriousness though, I’d take Parker Jackson-Cartwright at the one, Allonzo Trier at the two, Rawle Alkins at the three, Ray Smith at the four, and Markkanen at the five. Seems potent to me.

@azdesertswarm after all the camp talk, & our OL issues, why aren't we using the TE more?

— ImUA (@MPShrike) October 25, 2016

So last year, in 13 games, tight ends/fullbacks had 11 catches (Josh Kern - 8, Jamardre Cobb - 2, Darrell Cloy Jr. - 1). This year, through seven games, tight ends have nine catches (Kern - 4, Trevor Wood - 5). If you count what Matt Morin did against USC, they also have eight pass attempts and five rushes.

I actually believe Cobb’s knee injury has been more important than most people seem to give credit. He actually started this year on offense, and was in the mix right from the get-go at fullback. Tight ends aren’t being used because the quarterbacks being used are inexperienced and have a greater ability to run the ball.

Arizona is using the tight end more, and runs more packages with them in the game than last year. It’s just the offense hasn’t been running smoothly enough to elevate the reception numbers a ton.

@azdesertswarm where did fired coaches at UA in football? End up?

— Pink (@meanlittleboy2) October 25, 2016

I know Jeff Casteel was rumored to be UTEP’s next defensive coordinator, but that never panned out. Bill Kirelawich doesn’t appear to be coaching anywhere either, nor does David Lockwood, although his Twitter profile pic is all West Virginia stuff. Matt Caponi is the safeties coach at West Virginia. Kirelawich’s son Billy is still the Director of Football Operations at Arizona.

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