Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Washington State Cougars

Probable Starters: Arizona

G James Akinjo (6-0 junior)

G Noah Williams (6-5 sophomore)

G T.J. Bamba (6-5 freshman)

F Andrej Jakimovski (6-8 freshman)

F Efe Abogidi (6-10 freshman)

C Dishon Jackson (6-10 freshman)

How they matchup

The last time: Terrell Brown banked in a go-head 3-pointer with 13 seconds left in the second overtime period to give UA an 86-82 win over Washington State on Jan. 2 in Pullman. Bennedict Mathurin added then-career-highs of 24 points and 11 rebounds.

The last time at McKale Center: Nico Mannion had 23 points and seven assists with only one turnover while leading Arizona to an 83-62 win over Washington State on March 5, 2020. Zeke Nnaji added 21 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats, who buried some early struggles with a 26-0 run early in the second half.

Series history: Arizona leads the all-time series 67-17, is 16-3 over the Cougars in the Sean Miller era and has won 16 of the past 17 games. The lone loss came at McKale two seasons ago, when WSU beat UA 69-55 for the fifth UA loss in a historic seven-game losing streak.

What’s new with the Cougars: Since losing to Arizona, Washington State has gone 6-9 with a six-game losing streak over a tough stretch that included four road games and two losses to Colorado. But the Cougars returned to sweep the Bay Area schools at home last weekend while playing without leading scorer Isaac Bonton. Bonton suffered an injury Feb. 13 against USC, with WSU coach Kyle Smith saying he caught his shoe on a gap in the floor and “somehow ended up rolling both ankles,” according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Bonton is scheduled to travel this week and could play against the Wildcats for the first time in WSU’s past four games, while Ryan Rapp could also return after missing the past two games with a knee injury.

Without Bonton, Noah Williams took over point guard and the team’s top scoring role, scoring 72 combined points over Cal and Stanford last weekend, while T.J. Bamba played shooting guard and versatile 6-8 freshman Andrej Jakimovski has become increasingly more productive in his point-forward role on the wing.

In other recent moves, 6-10 freshman Dishon Jackson (a former UA recruiting target) has been earning more time over Ukrainian 7-footer Volodymyr “Vova” Markovetskyy at center, though the Cougars still play Markovetskyy often against bigger centers such as UA’s Christian Koloko. Nigerian freshman Efe Abogidi is a physical force on both ends of the floor who had 12 points and eight rebounds against UA last month.

Bonton averages 19.5 points per game in conference play, second only to ASU’s Remy Martin (22.8). But he’s played in only 13 of WSU’s 17 Pac-12 games (76.5%), and players must play in 75% or more of their team’s games to qualify.

In Pac-12 games, the Cougars are the conference’s third-best rebounding team (35.7) behind only Arizona (37.5) and USC (38.7), and they make the third-most 3-pointers (8.1) – taking 39.5% of their shots from beyond the arc. They’re especially effective on the offensive glass, collecting 11.1 per game and with the Pac-12’s third-best offensive rebounding percentage (30.7) in conference games.

He said it

“We’re preparing as if Bonton is going to play. We have to be super locked in on those two guys (Bonton and Williams). Our focus and intensity is going to have to be on the boards and making sure we block out every single time, knowing that this is a team that pushed us to double overtime. We know (rebounding) kept them in the game. They started early and they were persistent. Part of that is their identity. They’re also a good halfcourt defensive team. They played us about 60 possessions of zone, so we’ve got to be mindful of that. We can’t allow zone to slow us down.

“We’re pretty efficient (against zones) and Coach (Sean Miller) has a great game plan, but I’ve got to give credit to the players because we are No. 1 in 3-point (percentage, 38.9) shooting in the conference. We spend tons of time on shooting and if teams want to play us zone and take us out of our halfcourt sets, we’ll take the opportunities that come and shoot the ball with confidence.

“(Their zone) is very similar to the one that Washington plays. Their wings are very high. It’s not a traditional 2-3. But the thing that makes it unique is that they have a good shot-blocker in Abogidi. You want to be careful driving in there and understanding that if you drive, you’re going to have to kick (a pass out) a lot. 

“Sometimes the corners are something that we want to attack but it’s just taking what they give us. Their zone is different – one game it’s the corner (open), next game maybe the middle, or maybe penetration. You just don’t know so you have to make your adjustments as the game goes.”

“With Bonton out, (Williams) played exclusively at the point guard position so the ball was in his hands more and he’s good at getting his own shots. He does a great job of picking his spots and with pick and rolls, he can step behind and shoot 3s. If you don’t pay attention to him in transition he’s great at pushing the ball himself and seeking out shots. He’s been aggressive too.

 “If they want to go with traditional bigs, it’d be Jackson and Abogidi. They haven’t really been playing that lineup, but if they see what we did against USC, they may need to play both bigs. We’ve got two guys (Azuolas Tubelis and Jordan Brown) who are coming off big double-doubles. Jackson is more mobile, more active (than Markovetskyy). But he’s also a big body and he’s strong. They like him for the future.” — UA assistant coach Jason Terry, who scouted the Cougars

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Noah Williams

Williams probably won’t be shy after a week in which he bombarded Cal and Stanford with a combined 55 shots. Williams had 16 points with 7-of-14 shooting against UA last month but was 0 for 5 from 3-point range. He’s been more prolific and usually more accurate from 3 since then.

Key Player: Arizona

Bennedict Mathurin

The most significant game of Mathurin’s season probably came in Pullman, when he had 24 points and 11 rebounds while playing power forward much of the time out of necessity thanks to foul trouble with UA’s big men. He’s been in a notable slump lately, shooting 2 for 17 (0 for 8 from 3-point range) and averaging just 3.3 points and 3.0 rebounds over his past three games.

Sidelines

Burger Bummer

Not only has the McDonald’s All-American game been canceled for a second straight year, but it’s also been the second straight year Arizona hasn’t landed any of the players named to the prestigious game’s rosters.

Not that the Wildcats aren’t trying.

With the 2020 roster, they made inroads with several players and came down to the wire with Stanford-bound Ziaire Williams.

This year, the Wildcats were finalists for several McDonald’s honorees: Seattle forward Paolo Banchero (Duke), Seattle guard Nolan Hickman (Kentucky) and Oregon center Nate Bittle (Oregon). UA was also one of many schools Long Beach guard Peyton Watson considered before choosing UCLA.

In addition, the Wildcats had some early involvement with forward Michael Foster of Hillcrest Prep and Jaden Hardy of Nevada, but both of those players are expected to skip college for pro basketball.

The last time Arizona recruits were named to McDonald’s rosters was in 2019, when Nico Mannion and Josh Green played. Sophomore center Jordan Brown played in the 2018 game before spending his freshman season at Nevada.

At least the weather's good

Just like Arizona is traveling back to the Northwest for a third time this season, the Cougars will have to pay for their opponent’s troubles.

Washington State was unable to host Arizona on New Year’s Eve because of the Sun Devils’ COVID-19 pause. The Pac-12 assigned WSU to play two road games at ASU – their scheduled one on Saturday and another on Monday, making for almost a weeklong stay in the desert.

Predictably, WSU coach Kyle Smith appeared less than thrilled about swapping a home game for a road game.

“You know, not great,” he said. “Because we are ahead of other people in games (played) … our hopes were that Arizona State was gonna come up and play us and then Washington in the last week. But it didn’t work out that way. The league said ‘This is what we’re doing,’ and we’re abiding. Can’t control it so we’ll try to make the best of it.”

To accommodate the expected last-week moves, the Pac-12 proactively moved up the Cougars’ home game against Washington from March 6 to Feb. 15, cramming it between two two-game weekends. The Cougars lost to the Huskies 65-63.

But at least the extended Arizona trip gets the Cougars one Quad 1 opportunity (at UA) and two Quad 2 opportunities (at ASU). Plus, as Smith noted when discussing how the Cougars will bring guards Isaac Bonton and Ryan Rapp on the trip after their injuries, there’s a health benefit of sorts.

“We’ve got to get them some sunshine,” he said, “and get these vitamin D deficiencies fixed.”

Arizona, meanwhile, will travel to Eugene on Monday to take on the Ducks in what is (for now) the final game of the Wildcats’ season.

What might have been

It’s long been a problem for European national teams to have to play in-season qualifying FIBA games without players who are committed to NCAA or NBA teams in the United States.

Case in point: North Macedonia.

While Finland managed to talk Utah forward Mikael Jantunen into heading home to help its national team for a weekend, North Macedonia barely missed out without Washington State freshman Andrej Jakimovski.

A Kerr Kriisa-less Estonia wound up taking the final spot in its qualifying group over North Macedonia because Estonia had a seven-point combined scoring margin in two head-to-head games against the Balkan country. North Macedonian officials asked Jakimovsky to help out even though it had been made clear that his commitment to WSU would preclude such a possibility.

“They were pounding him pretty hard and it’s hard for those guys to say no because that’s their national team. They get a lot of pressure,” Smith said.

“But I’m pretty good about telling them (during the recruiting process) that they’ve got choices to make and I want them to opt in here if that’s something they want to do. The summer (games) we’re pretty good with and they get to play in those.”

Numbers game