Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Montana Grizzlies

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

Who: Montana (3-4) at Arizona (5-1)

Where: McKale Center

When: Tuesday, 5 p.m.

TV: Pac-12 Networks

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Pregame Podcast

Probable starters: Arizona

G James Akinjo (6-0 junior)

G Jemarl Baker (6-5 junior)

F Dalen Terry (6-7 freshman)

F Jordan Brown (6-11 sophomore)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 sophomore)

Probable starters: Montana

G Brandon Whitney (6-1 freshman)

G Josh Vazquez (6-3 sophomore)

F Josh Bannan (6-9 freshman)

F Kyle Owens (6-8 sophomore)

C Michael Steadman (6-10 senior)

How they matchup

The series: Arizona has won both games it has played against Montana, winning 84-66 in 1995-96 and 61-42 on Dec. 19, 2018, when Chase Jeter led the Wildcats with 21 points and six rebounds.

Game agreement: Montana was one of the nonconference opponents originally placed on Arizona’s schedule, signing in October 2019 to appear at McKale Center on Tuesday for a fee of $95,000.

Montana overview: Don’t let the the Grizzlies’ 1-4 record against Division I competition fool you: Montana played all five of them away from home – including a game at Georgia – and beat Washington in Seattle last week. Certainly, the Grizzlies are not underestimated in the Big Sky Conference. Despite losing four key players, including All-Big Sky picks Sayeed Pridgett and Kendal Manuel, the Griz were picked to finish second behind only Eastern Washington, which lost 70-67 to Arizona on Dec. 5 at McKale Center.

In five of six seasons under Travis DeCuire, the former Griz point guard and an assistant to Mike Montgomery at Cal, Montana has finished among the top three in its league, and DeCuire loaded up on transfers to keep the Griz competitive this season.

As have many past Montana teams, the Griz also has bigger size inside than most programs in low-major conferences, with a frontcourt that goes 6-8, 6-9 and 6-10. Center Michael Steadman was named a preseason all-Big Sky pick this season after leading San Jose State in scoring (13.2) in 2018-19 and averages 12.0 points so far this season. Sophomore forward Kyle Owens has made a big jump so far as a sophomore by averaging 13.1 points and 7.9 rebounds so far while forward Josh Bannan had 12 points and 12 rebounds in Montana’s 66-58 win at Washington last Wednesday.

In the backcourt, Josh Vazquez is shooting 46.0% from 3-point range while freshman Brandon Whitney has played well enough at point guard, excelling defensively, to start over Cameron Parker, who averaged 9.9 points and 7.8 rebounds at Sacred Heart before transferring. Camero is still a major factor off the bench, averaging 9.1 points and 4.4 assists while playing an average of 24.9 minutes a game.

The Griz lost its first four games -- at USC, Southern Utah (twice) and Georgia -- but has since beaten two non-Division I schools and Washington. In their five Division I games, Montana has shot 36.0% from 3-point range but only 42.8% from inside the arc, ranking just 293 nationally according to Kenpom. They aren’t a great rebounding team either, ranking just 299 in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.

The scout says...

“They play very similar to Mike Montgomery’s teams at Stanford and Cal. They’re gonna control tempo. They can get out and run if given an opportunity but a lot of times they want to control the pace, play half court, play inside-out. Very deliberate on offense and they execute very well. They’ll post Michael Steadman on the block. They’ll post Owens, they’ll post Bannan. If they feel like they have an advantage posting their two-guard on your two-guard they’ll post him.

"They’ll try to take advantage of mismatches and they have a lot of counters they can run off their family of sets. That’s not unlike a lot of teams but they just do a really good job of executing in the halfcourt and they don’t rely on the 3-point line. Their wins are not determined on whether they make or miss 3s. They put pressure on the defense in the paint, they get to the foul line and they try to drive you and take advantage of poor closeouts and really try to rack up the fouls. They want to get to the double-bonus early.

Defensively “they play man-to-man. They’ll trap ball screens, they can be aggressive in the halfcourt. They’ll trap the post. They play tough man-to-man defense.” — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Grizzlies

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Key player (Montana): Kyle Owens

Not only do the Grizzlies have size inside but they also have the sort of versatility that can lead to matchup problems. Both Owens and Aussie freshman Josh Bannan have the ability to act as wings or post players, playing inside when Michael Steadman is out or on the perimeter. Averaging 4.6 points as a freshman last season, Owens now leads the Griz in both scoring (13.1) and rebounding (7.6).

Key player (Arizona): James Akinjo

So far this season, the Wildcats have gone largely where their point guard has taken them. Even with Jemarl Baker on fire again Saturday from 3, Akinjo’s struggles from the field and free throw line, plus a costly charge call in the final seconds, proved pivotal in the Wildcats’ loss to Stanford. But Akinjo also helped engineer five wins before that.

Sidelines

Monkey gone

Maybe after playing Stanford 19 times and never losing, the odds were due to catch up to UA coach Sean Miller. Until Saturday, the Cardinal was the only Pac-12 team that had never beaten them, even with the last three games at Maples Pavilion being close calls.

"We've been in so many games like this" with Stanford, Miller said. "It just bounced our way.”

Stanford coach Jerod Haase wasn’t downplaying the significance of things changing this time.

“It’s extra gratifying,” he said. “We’re very proud of the program we’re building. This is something that really validates what we’re doing. Arizona is a big time program and has had a lot of success in recent years against Stanford, so getting that monkey off our back is a big deal.”

Cardinal players honored

After beating Arizona 78-75 on Saturday, Stanford players swept Pac-12 weekly honors.

Forward Oscar da Silva was named the Pac-12’s Player of the Week while Ziaire Williams was named Freshman of the week.

A senior from Munich, da Silva scored 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting against the Wildcats and averaged 26.5 points over two games that also included Stanford’s win at Cal State Northridge.

Williams scored 16 points while hitting 3 of 5 3-pointers against Arizona, and drew a game-clinching charge with seven seconds left. Williams averaged 14.0 points, four rebounds and three assists for the week.

Faith in Akinjo

Miller not only defended James Akinjo’s drive that drew a critical offensive foul with seven seconds left Saturday but also his surprisingly off shooting night.

After tying the UA school record for percentage free-throw shooting with a 14 for 14 effort against UTEP on Dec. 12, Akinjo shot 2 for 8 from the field and k just 2 of 9 free throws.

“He's a good free throw shooter,” Miller said Saturday. “It's just ironic because he just broke the school record and tonight he didn't have (the same success). In no way am I blaming tonight's game on James. James is our heart and soul. He's the engine that really makes us go. He has turnovers, but he also had nine assists and played the entire game (38 ½ minutes).

“He'll bounce back, no doubt. I'm sure he was in his own head. You would think if anyone would have had great confidence from the line tonight, it would have been him, based on what he just did in the last game.”

Just not meant to be

When Arizona agreed to cram in an ill-fated Monday game with San Diego on Monday, between a road trip to Santa Cruz, Calif., and the Montana game, it wasn’t just an act of desperation by the Wildcats.

The Toreros needed to get a game in even worse -- and it still didn’t happen, with USD announcing Monday it had paused all basketball activities because of a “COVID-19 related concern” in its program.

It was the second time already this season that the Toreros have had COVID issues.

USD didn’t even start its season until Dec. 9, when it lost at UCLA 85-65, because a positive test shut its program down for 14 days starting on Nov. 20, five days before the season was allowed to start.

The Toreros had expected to open the season against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 25, but that game was postponed because of COVID issues with both teams and a rescheduled affair on Dec. 11 didn’t work out, either: One of the teams involved could not get a test result back in time, though USD athletic director Bill McGillis would not tell the San Diego Union-Tribune which team it was.

After that, San Diego managed to get in games with Nevada (a home loss) and Cal Poly (a road win) before their scheduled game Tuesday at Long Beach State was shot down because of COVID issues with the Beach.

That left this week wide open for the Toreros ... if they could have played any games. They aren’t scheduled to play again until visiting San Francisco for its conference opener on Dec. 31.

Numbers game

9 – Arizona’s Kenpom ranking in offensive rebounding percentage, with the Wildcats pulling down 39.3% of their missed shots.

16 – More points Stanford (42) scored in the paint Saturday than Arizona (26).

61.3 — Average points per game Montana allows, the 43rd lowest defensive scoring number in Division I.