When Utah beat Arizona 70-64 last season in Salt Lake City, that left only one Pac-12 team that has never beaten the Sean Miller-coached Wildcats.
That team shows up today at McKale Center, just in time to catch Arizona coming off its most lopsided loss in seven years.
Saying “we got killed,” UA coach Sean Miller has been trying to create some positive momentum from the loss.
“You have that one game, maybe a couple, that you have to learn from and that’s clearly what we tried to do,” Miller said on a Pac-12 teleconference call. “Now it’s about defending our homecourt, defending a much-improved Stanford team and trying to put that loss behind us. That game with Oregon came at ideal time for us, at the stretch run, it was a reminder of what it’s like to play a team when they’re at their very best.”
Stanford has lost 14 straight to Arizona, after it won four in a row during the "transition" years of 2007-08 (Kevin O'Neill) and 2008-09 (Russ Pennell), last beating the Wildcats on Jan. 4, 2009 at Maples Pavilion.
Stanford’s Reid Travis might have been at his best last Saturday against Utah, pouring in 26 points on 11-for-15 shooting despite not playing for the final nine minutes of the first half because of foul trouble.
Miller is fully aware of him. Travis had 11 points and eight rebounds (five on offense) against UA on Jan. 1 but is averaging 15.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in Pac-12 play.
“I don't know if we’ve faced a player more physical and productive than Reid Travis is,” Miller said. “We got a really good feel for how good an offensive rebounder he is. Stanford does a great job of running clearouts and isolation plays for him where he drives with the ball. He’s very mobile and physical and their team does an outstanding job of putting them in good position. He’s a one-man wrecking crew.”
UA assistant coach Book Richardson, the game scout for the Cardinal, says he's also trying to make sure the Wildcats don't overlook the motivation of Stanford's Arizona-bread players (slide No. 6 in the scouting report), Dorian Pickens and Michael Humphrey.
The San Francisco Chronicle looked at Stanford's losing streak against Arizona.
The school-produced notes from Stanford and Arizona.
Manute Bol's son, 2018 Mater Dei big man Bol Bol, told Scout he'll visit Arizona after receiving an offer from them during UA's trip to Los Angeles last month.
San Diego 2018 forward Taeshon Cherry visited UCLA for Arizona's win on Jan. 21 and told Scout he's "definitely" interested in visiting UA.
One reason Greg Byrne may have taken off for Alabama: The revenue gap between the SEC and Pac-12 keeps getting wider.
But, at Colorado at least, the Buffs can make up some of the difference with Grateful Dead concerts.
Colorado's Xavier Johnson apologized to his teammates for getting suspended.
Lonzo Ball's little brother, UCLA-bound LaMelo Ball, dropped 92 points in a high school game.
