Game info

Who: No. 14 Arizona (15-4, 5-1) at Stanford (11-8, 5-1)

Where: Maples Pavilion, Stanford, Calif.

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

Watch: Ch. 13

Listen: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

Probable starters: Stanford

How they match up

The series:

Arizona has owned Stanford in the Sean Miller era, and has actually won 15 straight games dating back to a 101-87 win at McKale Center in 2008-09, when Russ Pennell coached the Wildcats on an interim basis. The Wildcats’ last two games at Maples haven’t been close, either: They won 71-57 in 2015-16 while holding Stanford to just 30.6 percent shooting, and 91-52 last season, when Chance Comanche had 13 points and 10 rebounds off the bench and four UA starters scored in double figures to record UA’s biggest victory margin ever against Stanford. UA leads the all-time series 63-29.

Stanford overview

Picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 and contend for an NCAA Tournament berth, the Cardinal are finally living up to expectations. Stanford has won five straight games to tie Arizona for first place in the Pac-12, including a sweep in Washington last weekend and an 86-77 win over ASU on Wednesday. One big reason: Stanford has guard Dorian Pickens and forward KZ Okpala back after they missed most of the nonconference season, and it has size and experience up front in Michael Humphrey and league MVP candidate Reid Travis.

Off the bench inside, the Cardinal has 7-footer Josh Sharma, who went 7 for 7 from the field and collected four rebounds and two blocks against ASU. Travis averages 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds, behind only Arizona’s Deandre Ayton (20.2) among Pac-12 scoring leaders.

In the backcourt, former Washington signee Daejon Davis has brought a much-needed dose of speed and scoring ability to the point, while Pickens is a versatile shooter on the wing. Freshmen Okpala and Oscar da Silva also bring athleticism and confidence to the frontcourt.

In conference games, Stanford has been efficient from 3-point (36.5) and two-point (54.7) range, but is hitting only 59.7 percent of its free throws. The Cardinal plays mostly man-to-man defense but is expected to throw multiple defenders at Ayton.

He said it

“They’re not a real deep team so I’m sure one of the things they’re worried about is foul trouble. All coaches worry about that. Their strength really lies in their top six players. Doubling the post, mixing in zone, and rotating (players against Ayton) — I’m sure they’ll do all those things.”

– UA coach Sean Miller

Key player: Reid Travis

Five-star recruits out of high school don’t normally stick around too long in college, but when they do this is what can happen: Travis has become a Pac-12 MVP candidate while collecting six double-doubles already.

He’s equally comfortable around the basket or driving the ball, picking up an average eight trips to the free-throw line every game.

Key player: Deandre Ayton

The Wildcats’ freshman 7-footer tends to make a lot of defenders look, well, mortal. But Stanford has the kind of experience, skill and size inside that could make this matchup a little more interesting at least.

Growler

After Ayton picked up a technical foul during a post-dunk celebration Wednesday at Cal, UA coach Sean Miller expressed sympathy for him — and, to an extent, the officials.

“You know, it’s hard with a player like him because he’s so physically imposing and I don’t think you realize how much contact he takes,” Miller said. “He certainly gives his fair share out there but people bounce off him. If that’s a lesser person physically, it would look almost like, ‘Wow, that’s a hard foul.’ But it’s difficult for the officials because you can ref 60 games, 70 games, and there’s only one of him out there.

“I do think that our conference is adjusting to Deandre and by the way he’s very composed. Very seldom loses it. I think he got called a foul for taunting. He growled at the guy or something. You’d rather him growl and tell him not to growl than be passive, right? I don’t think he meant any harm.”

Business trip

Even with two days between games this weekend, the Wildcats didn’t have a whole lot of free time.

What was scheduled to be a mostly off day Thursday turned out to include a practice at Maples Pavilion, and tentative dinner plans for a local steakhouse were shelved, with the team eating dinner instead in its Palo Alto hotel and holding academic “study table” sessions.

On Friday, the Wildcats woke up, watched film and practiced at Maples in the morning, then broke for lunch and returned to watch more film and more study tables in the afternoon.

“They have their own fun,” Miller said. “We have a pretty focused group.”

Tongues-lashing

Born in Germany, with a Brazilian father, Stanford forward Oscar da Silva says he speaks six different languages: German, Portuguese, English, French, Spanish and Latin.

Latin helped him learn other languages, da Silva said, though he admitted he can’t actually speak it that well.

“OK, I guess (I know) five and a half,” da Silva said. “I took four languages in high school. The German school system kind of encourages that, at least the school that I went to. And my dad is from Brazil, so I spoke two languages already.”

What that means is da Silva can avoid technical fouls from refs who have no idea what he’s saying. Da Silva said his frustrations on the court often come out in German or sometimes Serbian, since “we have a bunch of Serbian players back home.”

That means UA’s Dusan Ristic could get an earful he might not expect Saturday.

“I’ll talk some trash (to Ristic) maybe,” da Silva said, smiling.

Numbers game

7

Stanford wins in 8 games since senior guard Dorian Pickens has been healthy. (It was 4-7 without him.)

13.3

Arizona’s average victory margin during its 15-game winning streak over Stanford, including a 12.4-point margin at Maples Pavilion.

136

Spots in RPI Stanford has moved up since Jan. 2 (from 214 to 78)