Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Stanford Cardinal

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of the Arizona Wildcats' game against Stanford on Thursday. 

Game info

Who: Stanford (9-5, 5-3) at Arizona (12-3, 6-3)

Where: McKale Center

When: Thursday, 8 p.m.

TV: ESPN2

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Social media: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

G James Akinjo (6-0 junior)

G Terrell Brown (6-1 senior)

F Dalen Terry (6-7 freshman)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-10 freshman)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 sophomore)

Probable starters: Stanford

G Michael O’Connell (6-2 freshman)

G Jaiden Delaire (6-9 junior)

F Spencer Jones (6-7 sophomore)

F Oscar da Silva (6-9 senior)

C Lukas Kisunas (6-10 junior)

How they match up

The last time: Jemarl Baker scored 29 points while making seven of his eight 3-pointers in the second half to help Arizona nearly pull out a game it trailed by seven at halftime, but James Akinjo was called for a charge with seven seconds left and Stanford won 78-75 on Dec. 19 in Santa Cruz, Calif. It was the Cardinal’s first win over Arizona in the Sean Miller era and snapped Arizona’s 20-game win streak against Stanford. Oscar da Silva led Stanford with 21 points and seven rebounds, while the Cardinal shot 52.7% overall.

The last time at McKale: Justin Coleman had 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds, while Ira Lee added 16 points and five rebounds, to lead the Wildcats past Stanford 70-54 on Feb. 24, 2019. The two teams did not play at Arizona last season because of what was then the Pac-12’s unbalanced 18-game schedule.

Series history: Arizona leads the all-time series 68-29 and is now 19-1 against Stanford since Miller took over the Wildcats in 2009-10.

What’s new with the Cardinal: While beating UCLA in overtime last Saturday, Stanford has managed to remain in the Pac-12 race despite losing three starters and not playing a single game yet at Maples Pavilion because of local health orders in Santa Clara County. The Cardinal will be able to start playing at Maples on Feb. 2 since the ordinance has been loosened.

Stanford lost starting guard Daejon Davis against Arizona with a leg injury while also losing guard Bryce Wills on Jan. 4 at Oregon State with an apparent ankle injury, while talented freshman wing Ziaire Williams has also been out since last weekend for personal reasons. Stanford coach Jerod Haase confirmed to 247 Sports that all three starters will not make the trip to Arizona.

Without its veteran guards, Stanford has turned to freshman Michael O’Connell at point guard, and he’s responded by posting a 5.8-1 assist turnover ratio in the past six games, while averaging 6.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists. On the wing, the Cardinal has been rotating the 6-3 Noah Taitz, the 6-9 Jaiden Delaire, and the 6-7 Spencer Jones, although standout forward Oscar da Silva plays both inside and out. Delaire has taken advantage, scoring 19 or more points in three Pac-12 games including 21 against Washington. He’s averaging 12.9 points and 5.8 rebounds in Pac-12 games. At center, the Cardinal starts with Lukas Kisunas, a 6-10 true post player that Arizona once pursued out of Vilnius, Lithuania, the same hometown as the UA’s Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis. The Cardinal also uses the 6-8 Brandon Angel at power forward in a more athletic lineup.

He said it

“The last time that we played them, they had their full roster. Davis was their starting one and Wills was a big factor in them beating us and obviously Ziaire was a really good player on that particular night. So the only Stanford team we’ve seen was the one that had their entire roster, although we’ve watched them play against other teams. I think one aspect for them that’s really changed is Delaire. He’s coming on, being more productive and as he has a bigger role, a lot like Benn Mathurin or Azuolas Tubelis, you can see him almost growing with the added opportunity. (Delaire) is a very good driver. He gives them an athletic forward with great size and he’s really emerged in the absence of some of those guys.

“Oscar plays the power forward and they have a true center with him (Kisunas) and then during the game (da Silva) slides over, becomes like a third forward and plays the center. But he’s the furthest thing from playing like a center. That’s what makes Stanford such a good team, because they have somebody on their team that can play both roles equally effectively. If you have a smaller four man, he’s big enough and strong enough that he can score around the basket and clearly he’s a great driver and excellent 3-point shooter so he can be hard to defend if you’re guarding him with a true big guy. In our case, we’re going to try to guard him with different types of players and hopefully we can keep him from having a big night.

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“To some extent, we can’t even worry about what Stanford’s doing. We have to put our best foot forward on our end, be the smartest we can be, making sure we don’t get into foul trouble and make sure that our guys can be rested.” — Sean Miller

Key player (Stanford): Oscar da Silva

If UA coach Sean Miller were voting for the Pac-12’s Player of the Year right now, he indicated he would give it to the crafty, multiskilled German forward because of what he means to the Cardinal. Da Silva has seven games of 20 points or more, including 21 points and seven rebounds in Stanford’s Dec. 19 win over Arizona.

Key player (Arizona): Ira Lee

The Wildcats need more from all of their healthy rotation players Thursday, and Lee has historically played some of his best games against the Cardinal. His late heroics helped UA to a 75-70 win at Stanford two seasons ago, while he had 16 points later that season at McKale and, in Santa Cruz earlier this season, he had six points, six rebounds and two steals in just 17 minutes.

Sidelines

Homeward bound, finally

Thanks to the lifting of California’s regional stay-at-home order, and Santa Clara County’s subsequently reduced guidance for its college and pro teams, Stanford gets to start finally playing games at Maples Pavilion next week.

The move comes even sooner than it might have been expected, too. Stanford had been scheduled to play four straight road games starting Thursday, counting games at UA and ASU, plus a makeup game at USC on Feb.2 and then a cross-bay game at Cal on Feb. 6.

But on Wednesday, the Feb. 2 USC game was flipped to be at Maples instead, effectively making up a game that was canceled on Dec.13. The Cardinal and Trojans will also meet at Los Angeles on Feb. 22, to make up another game on Jan. 21 that was postponed on Jan. 21 just 10 minutes before tipoff when USC appeared to have a COVID-19 issue that later turned out to be a false positive.

“Pretty amazing,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase told The Bootleg of the chance to play in Maples. “I personally was not expecting the news and so it was great to hear … I think it’s exciting for our guys, and I think gives us reason to have some optimism.”

Off limits

Tempe native @DalenTerry was a ball boy for Arizona State during the UA-ASU game in 2011-12. Terry on what finally playing in the rivalry game meant to him: pic.twitter.com/G9z4ofzRSt

— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) January 27, 2021

When Arizona played ASU twice over the past week, it was not only a chance for UA freshman Dalen Terry to play against his hometown team but also the team that he once served as a ballboy for.

Even if he may have had mixed emotions at the time.

“I used to go in (the ASU) locker room after the game,” Terry said. “But I also remember being a ball boy for ASU and still wanting to talk to the Arizona players — and they were not allowing me to.”

Terry said he knew former Sun Devils Jahii Carson and Carrick Felix well but that all of the college players he spoke to then had the same advice.

“They always said to keep working hard, that they can see the future in me and just be myself,” Terry said.

Ristic moves back to Russian league

After opening the season with Italian club Brescia Leonessa, former Wildcat center Dusan Ristic will finish it with Avtodor Saratov in VTB United League, the same league of mostly Russian teams that Ristic played in last season while with BC Astana of Kazakhstan.

Ristic signed a three-year deal with the Red Star in Belgrade, Serbia after leaving UA in 2018 but the Serbian club loaned him to Astana last season and said Brescia bought out the final year of the contract.

However, Ristic said via WhatsApp on Wednesday that a coaching change in Brescia led to new signings that would have limited his playing time. He said his agent presented an offer from Saratov that he accepted a few days earlier.

Ristic will leave Brescia on a roll. He had 21 points, six rebounds and a block against Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna while averaging 11.1 points and 6.2 rebounds overall in Serie A, the top level of Italian basketball. He also averaged 9.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.7 blocks over 10 Eurocup games.

Numbers game

2

Arizona’s national rank in free throws attempted (397). The Wildcats are third in free throws made (285) and No. 128 in free-throw percentage (71.8)

11.0

Percent of Stanford possessions that end in a steal by its opponents in Pac-12 play, the worst mark in the conference.

45.0

Percent of two-point shots Stanford’s Pac-12 opponents average, the second-best defensive two-point percentage in the conference.