Fansided

College basketball takeaways: Alabama has to play a little undermanned

By Joseph Nardone

EUGENE, OR - DECEMBER 11: Head coach Avery Johnson of the Alabama Crimson Tide signals to his bench during the first half of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Matthew Knight Arena on December 11, 2016 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
EUGENE, OR - DECEMBER 11: Head coach Avery Johnson of the Alabama Crimson Tide signals to his bench during the first half of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Matthew Knight Arena on December 11, 2016 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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TUCSON, AZ – NOVEMBER 12: Head coach Sean Miller of the Arizona Wildcats gestures during the second half of the college basketball game against the UMBC Retrievers at McKale Center on November 12, 2017 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images)
TUCSON, AZ – NOVEMBER 12: Head coach Sean Miller of the Arizona Wildcats gestures during the second half of the college basketball game against the UMBC Retrievers at McKale Center on November 12, 2017 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images) /

No. End slide

The Arizona Wildcats fell to Purdue recently, making it the third straight loss for Sean Miller and company. In turn, people have lost their collective minds in regard to how good Zona is in actuality.

As we noted in the “data” portion of this piece, it is November. Everyone take a deep breath, sip on some Mr. Pibb, and relax.

This is clearly an issue of heightened preseason expectations failing to meet early-season reality. It was only last week that the Wildcats were the AP No. 2 team in the country.

Here is what we do know:

Arizona lost to SMU, North Carolina State and Purdue. While not exactly a murderer’s row grouping of games, the Wildcats weren’t exactly playing some iffy directional school from Nebraska. They have nothing to be ashamed about.

Only 3-3 on the season, Arizona still has a relatively tough non-conference schedule ahead of it. Following a gimme-game against Long Beach State, it is then off to face a very good UNLV team. After that, it is some tough tests against a few SEC and AAC squads, with very few cupcakes sprinkled in-between them.

I am going to go out on a pretty sturdy limb here and declare the Arizona Wildcats as fine. Maybe Miller’s grouping of talent isn’t as good as last season, nor will it be a top-5 team in the country for this specific voyage, but I find it too hard to believe with a player like Allonzo Trier on the roster, that the Wildcats are all of a sudden awful.

People have already begun to question Arizona’s  standing in the Pac-12 this season. Don’t be that guy. At least not yet.

In the immortal words of Aaron Rodgers: R-E-L-A-X!