Who: Arizona Wildcats (14-11, 5-7) at Colorado Buffaloes (15-9, 6-6)

Where: CU Events Center, Boulder, Colorado

When: 6 p.m. Sunday

Watch: ESPNU

Listen: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

G Justin Coleman (5-10 senior)

G Brandon Randolph (6-6 sophomore)

F Dylan Smith (6-5 junior)

F Ryan Luther (6-9 senior)

C Chase Jeter (6-10 junior)

G McKinley Wright (6-0 sophomore)

G Shane Gatling (6-2 junior)

F Tyler Bey (6-7 sophomore)

F D’Shawn Schwartz (6-7 sophomore)

C Lucas Siewert (6-10 junior)

The last time

Brandon Williams had 14 points and six assists to offset four ineffective minutes from Justin Coleman, who dislocated his shoulder three days earlier in practice, while the Wildcats took a 64-56 win in the Pac-12 opener for both teams. Arizona held Colorado to just 35.8 percent shooting and forced 17 Colorado turnovers.

The last time at CU Events Center

Colorado took a 20-point lead in the first half and shot 54.7 percent from the field while beating Arizona 80-77 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. The Wildcats shot just 38.4 percent against Colorado’s mostly zone defense and coach Sean Miller said he “did a terrible job of getting them ready.”

Series history

Colorado has won two straight against Arizona in Boulder and is 4-2 against the Wildcats at CU Events Center. But Arizona is 14-5 overall against CU since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12 and leads the series 19-13 overall.

What’s new with the Buffs

Colorado is making a push to earn one of the Pac-12’s Tournament’s four first-round byes, having won four straight games in what is its longest-ever Pac-12 winning streak. After a two-point loss at home to Oregon State on Jan. 31, the Buffs beat Oregon then beat UCLA and USC last weekend for their second-ever Pac-12 road sweep and then edged ASU 77-73 on Wednesday.

Point guard McKinley Wright had 24 points and eight assists against the Sun Devils, while wing forward Tyler Bey had 22 points and 17 rebounds. The Buffs have a similar size and lack of depth as Arizona has, especially in their post play, where they turn to stretch-forward Lucas Siewert, slender forward/center Tyler Bey and 6-foot-8, 264-pound big man Evan Battey.

However, Battey is questionable for Sunday’s game because of a back issue and the Buffs have been plagued with injury and academic issues that have forced four players to log 30 or more minutes in four games already. Center Dallas Walton is out all season with a torn ACL, while guard Namon Wright has been sidelined with a foot injury and guard Deleon Brown is academically ineligible this semester.

Tyler Bey is really playing the best basketball of his career, getting 17 rebounds against Arizona State. Like a sophomore does a lot of times he kind of grows and you can really see that. And (Wright) speaks for himself. He offensive rebounds. Against Arizona State, I thought he had a stretch in the second half where I thought he almost took over the game, passing, making his teammates better, scoring at the rim. He’s so physically strong when he drives and he’ll knock in an open 3. Plus defensively he does a lot of good things for Colorado.”

Defensively “they play man-to-man and they play zone. We didn’t play well offensively in the second half of the game against Colorado (last month), and they were playing zone at that time. I don’t know if it was the zone or sometimes we have those moments on offense. But the first half against Colorado we had 39 points. We were very efficient, guys were moving, making good plays. Hopefully, we can be that team (this time).”

— UA coach Sean Miller

COLORADO

Colorado’s boxscore-stuffing point guard is playing at an all-conference level despite a shoulder injury that will require surgery after the season. He’s not a great 3-point threat (30.6) but shoots 61.7 percent inside the arc and has the 47th-highest assist rate in the country despite also leading the Buffs in scoring.

ARIZONA

The normally man-oriented Buffaloes successfully played zone defense in Boulder last season to try to keep the ball from Deandre Ayton and they might try the same tactic again with Jeter, who has a size advantage over Colorado’s interior players and has recovered from a sore back.

Colorado’s 80-77 win over Arizona last season earned some national buzz because after the game, when asked whether beating teams involved in the federal investigation meant anything more, Colorado coach Tad Boyle said ‘Hell, yes.”

In the Buffs’ next game, USC coach Andy Enfield, whose team has also been involved in the federal investigation, called a needless timeout as an apparent response.

Last week, Boyle had his chance to respond. After CU pulled out a 69-65 win at USC on Feb. 9 at the Galen Center, Boyle pumped his fists repeatedly as he approached the post-game handshake line and exchanged some heated words with USC coach Jason Hart.

“I’m an emotional guy,” Boyle said of the incident.

Still, Boyle said Saturday there isn’t any lingering sense of rivalry with UA over the issue.

“Not from my perspective,” he said. “I think sometimes what you say after a game is a little emotional and context is important. … We just gotta try to win (Sunday) night. That’s all we’re concerned with and that’s all Sean’s concerned with.”

Even when times are good, the CU Events Center hasn’t been a fun place for the Wildcats to play. The Buffs enjoy a high-elevation advantage, student fans sitting adjacent to the opposing bench and a crowd that is usually strong when the Wildcats show up.

“It’s a tough place to play,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “Colorado plays hard. I think they play with a lot of confidence at home. Their crowd has been very good in the past when they’ve been here. But whether we’ve won six in a row, lost six in a row, it’s the next game and a road game. We have to play well.”

Boyle spoke as if they will.

“You gotta be ready to beat these guys because they don’t beat themselves,” Boyle said Saturday. “Obviously, they’ve had their struggles but that doesn’t mean anything (Sunday) night at 6. … Arizona is going to be — I don’t want to stay desperate —but they’re going to be a hungry team. They got competitors. Their coach is a competitor. So we gotta be ready to go.”

You wouldn’t know it from McKinley Wright’s box score line against ASU — 24 points on 9-for-11 shooting with eight assists and six rebounds — but he’s been playing for over a month now with a bum shoulder that will eventually require surgery.

Wright first suffered a partial tear of his left labrum just before the Pac-12 season started, then dislocated it on Jan. 12 against Washington.

“I might have torn it a little bit more, too,” Wright said.

But Wright missed only one game, on Jan. 20 at Utah, and has pretty much his usual self since then. Boyle said the only way he’s been compromised is in a reluctance to join a scrum on the floor or fight for a rebound (despite his six boards against ASU).

Wright said doctors left him with the choice of whether or not to play, and that a twice-a-day treatment regimen has been key to survival.

“It’s just mental toughness,” Wright said Friday, after the Buffaloes practiced at the CU Events Center. “It’s a physical sport. We all experience contact. We gotta keep our minds strong and get treatment, try to stay healthy.”

“I just try to see how my body feels, try to get as much treatment as possible. It’s not a small injury so I gotta take care of it.”

Colorado big man Evan Battey left the Buffs’ game with ASU early Wednesday when he aggravated a lower-back issue and he’s questionable for Sunday’s game.

“Hopefully we’ll have him ready to go,” Boyle said. “But at the end of the day he has to make the call. It’s his back. He knows how it feels and what it feels like normally. … I don’t question his toughness. I know if he can play, he’ll play.”

But chances appeared good Saturday that Battey will be able to go, not only because he showed up for practice but also because he and his 6-foot-8, 264-pound frame were able to survive a round-trip plane trip to the East Coast over a 24-hour period Thursday to Friday so he could attend his grandmother’s funeral.

“We were a little worried about that but he had some muscle relaxants” and a machine to aid recovery, Boyle said. “He was able to get through it OK.”

29

Days since Arizona has won a game.

30.8

Percent Colorado’s Pac-12 opponents have shot from 3-point range, the second-best 3-point defense in the conference behind Washington (29.1).

39.4

Percent Arizona’s Pac-12 opponents have shot from 3-point range, the worst 3-point defensive mark in the league.