Pac-12 Tournament scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Washington Huskies

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews all of the game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of Arizona's showdown with Washington in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament. 

Game info

Pac-12 Tournament, first round: No. 12 seed Washington (15-16) vs. No. 5 seed Arizona (20-11)

Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

When: 2:30 p.m.

TV: Pac-12 Arizona

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Pregame Wildcast Podcast

Probable starters: Arizona

G Nico Mannion (6-3 freshman)

G Dylan Smith (6-5 senior)

F Josh Green (6-6 freshman)

F Stone Gettings (6-9 senior)

C Zeke Nnaji (6-11 freshman)

Probable starters: Washington

G Marcus Tsohonis (6-3 freshman)

G Jamal Bey (6-6 sophomore)

F Nahziah Carter (6-6 junior)

F Hameir Wright (6-9 junior)

C Isaiah Stewart (6-9 freshman)

How they match up

How they got here: The Huskies fell from first to worst in the Pac-12 this season, going just 5-13 in conference play and picking up the No. 12 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. The UA finished in a tie for fifth place with Colorado at 10-8 but earned the No. 5 seed because the Wildcats beat the Buffaloes the only time they played during the regular season, 75-54 at McKale Center on Jan. 18.

The season series: Arizona and Washington won on each other’s home courts.

In Seattle on Jan. 30, Jemarl Baker hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 44 seconds left and Arizona hung on for its first road win of the season, 75-72 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Baker scored a career-high 17 points while hitting 4 of 7 3-pointers. The Wildcats shot only 38.7% but held Washington standout freshman forward Isaiah Stewart to 3 for 13 shooting; Arizona only turned the ball over six times in the last 36 minutes.

At McKale Center last Saturday, Arizona had one of its worst offensive halves of the season in a 69-63 loss to the Huskies. The Wildcats scored just 23 points while shooting 20% in the first half. In the second half, UA couldn’t cut Washington’s lead to less than four points despite a spirited Senior Day effort from Dylan Smith, who hit 6 of 8 3-pointers after halftime despite having suffered a broken nose seven minutes into the game.

What’s new with the Huskies: Not much, really. Washington will be playing Arizona just four days after the McKale Center matchup, a fate that befell both teams after ASU beat Washington State, Utah beat Colorado and USC beat UCLA earlier Saturday. On Monday, Washington freshman forward Jaden McDaniels picked up the Pac-12’s Freshman of the Week award in part for scoring 20 points, with six rebounds and three blocks against the Wildcats on Saturday. He also had 16 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks in Washington’s win at ASU on March 5.

Pac-12 Tournament history: The Huskies and Wildcats haven’t met in the conference tournament since Washington’s Isaiah Thomas sent the 10-team league off on a classic note by hitting a step-back jumper at the buzzer to beat Arizona 77-75 in overtime at Los Angeles’ Staples Center in 2011.

Series history: Washington has won three of the last four against Arizona, but the Wildcats lead 11-8 in the Sean Miller era and 53-31 in the all-time series.

He said it

“McDaniels is a very talented young player. Those guys seem to always hit their stride at some point in their freshman year, and it seems like he’s hitting his stride here at the end. He just has the ability to shoot over the top of people, and finish above the rim. And defensively in their zone he takes up a lot of space. The light bulb can go on for those talented freshmen and young players at different times and I think he’s playing his best basketball right now down the stretch.”

— UA coach Sean Miller

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Key player (Arizona): Nico Mannion

Washington feeds off turnovers created by its aggressive 2-3 zone defense so when Mannion had four turnovers to no assists in the first half Saturday, it was no surprise the Huskies led by 15 at halftime. Mannion had five assists to only one more turnover in the second half but he’ll need that sort of performance in both halves this time.

Key player (Washington): Jaden McDaniels

Long, athletic and skilled, the Huskies’ talented but puzzling forward drips with NBA potential and he’s put it on display more over the past month. McDaniels has come off the bench in eight of the Huskies’ last nine games, but plays starters’ minutes. He’s averaged 16.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks over his past four games and is a difficult matchup at power forward, able to work his way inside or shoot from 3-point range at 6-foot-9.

Sidelines

Desert dogs

Between playing at McKale Center on Saturday night and needing to be in Las Vegas on Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday’s rematch with Arizona, Washington already faced a short turnaround time if the Huskies headed home to Seattle.

So the Huskies simply shuttled between deserts, from the Sonoran to the Mojave.

“It was like ‘Why do we want to be in Seattle for less than 24 hours?’ Washington coach Mike Hopkins said after Saturday’s game. “So we’re just going to Vegas.”

The coronavirus made it an even easier call. Washington became the first major university in the country to cancel on-campus classes last Friday after a staff member tested positive for the virus, meaning the Huskies had no classes to go back to Monday or Tuesday morning anyway.

The Seattle region has been the United States’ hardest-hit city so far, reporting the first cases of the infection and the first death. And with over 55,000 students attending the public university, an online petition to close the campus had more than 26,000 signatures as of Friday, according to the Washington Post.

“We’re not worried about all that,” Hopkins said. “I know it’s a concern but I think that the university and everybody is showing great leadership in the decisions that they’re making.”

Best of the best

Arizona’s Zeke Nnaji on winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year: “It’s something I dreamed about for a long time.” pic.twitter.com/LNDRuA3Y9A

— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) March 10, 2020

Arizona forward/center Zeke Nnaji was studying film with assistant coach Danny Peters on Monday when he was told he had been named Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, meaning the league’s 12 coaches voted him over a bunch of guys who were more highly rated out of high school.

In 247Sports.com’s player rankings for the class of 2019, eight players who signed with Pac-12 schools were rated higher than Nnaji: Washington’s Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels, Oregon’s N’Faly Dante and C.J. Walker, USC’s Onyeka Okongwu and Isaiah Mobley — and even Nnaji’s own teammates, Nico Mannion and Josh Green.

“Yeah. Yeah,” Nnaji said when asked Tuesday if he was surprised. “I was going up against a lot of really good players. Big O (Okongwu) and Isaiah Stewart are both really great players and to be able to win the award over them is really humbling and it means a lot.”

Nnaji’s award was announced Monday, a day before UA coach Sean Miller held his weekly news conference, so he wasn’t immediately asked about it. So, 10 minutes into his press conference, he brought the topic up himself while answering a question about the Wildcats’ motivation entering the Pac-12 Tournament.

“I also want to congratulate Zeke Nnaji,” Miller said. “It’s quite an award to win when you consider those that have won the award in the past and this year in particular with the deep freshman class — and we have four of them on our own team.”

There are “quite a few high school All-Americans. Quite a few players that are incredibly talented, that when they when their time ends in college, I have no doubt that they’ll play in the NBA. This is as deep of a young group of talent as maybe we’ve had in our conference.”

Unmasked man

Dylan Smith played 24 minutes Saturday after suffering a broken nose with nothing other than cotton stuffed into his nostrils. 

He might just play the Pac-12 Tournament without a protective mask, too.

But he was wearing one in practice this week, just in case.

“It’s just to protect him, just as simple as a basketball not hitting him in the face at the moment,” Miller said. “But I think every day that goes by, he’ll get better.”

Miller doesn’t know if Smith will wear a mask Wednesday, but said he is counting on the senior wing to play against the Huskies. The fact that Smith hit 6 of 8 3-pointers in the second half Saturday after suffering the injury in a collision with Stewart is a pretty good indication he will.

“Dylan played a great second half,” Miller said. “I’m sure he’s really, really sore, but we expect him to play and he hasn’t missed a thing (since then) which is really a testament to Dylan. For him to be able to overcome a broken nose like he has is remarkable.”

Numbers game

70.8

Arizona’s winning percentage in Pac-12 Tournament games under Sean Miller (17-7).

8

Wins against two losses in Arizona’s first Pac-12 Tournament game during the Miller era.

8

Years since Washington swept the “desert” road trip by beating Arizona and ASU as the Huskies did last weekend.

65

Blocks this season by Isaiah Stewart, the best ever for a Washington freshman.