Scouting Report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Oregon State Beavers

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 Oregon State on Thursday.

Game info:

What: Oregon State (10-8, 6-6) at Arizona (13-6, 7-6)

Where: McKale Center

When: Thursday, 6 p.m.

TV: Pac-12 Arizona

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 Bennedict Mathurin (6-7 freshman)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-10 freshman)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 sophomore)

Probable Starters: Oregon State

G Ethan Thompson (6-5 senior)

G Jarod Lucas (6-3 sophomore)

F Zach Reichle (6-5 senior)

F Warith Alatishe (6-7 junior)

C Roman Silva (7-1 senior)

 HOW THEY MATCH UP

The last time: Bennedict Mathurin poured in 31 points on 10-for-12 shooting during his first start of the season while forward Jordan Brown added 25 while being moved to the bench in UA’s 98-64 win over OSU at Corvallis on Jan. 14. Arizona outrebounded Oregon State 42-28 overall while holding the Beavers to 41.0% shooting, The Wildcats scored the first 15 points of the game — the first seven of which came from Mathurin — and were up by 35 just four minutes into the second half.

The last time at McKale Center: Arizona made 10 of 21 3-pointers and scored 26 points off 21 OSU turnovers in its 89-63 win over the Beavers on Feb. 20, 2020, avenging an 82-65 loss at Corvallis a month earlier. OSU standout Tres Tinkle was ejected for having two technical fouls, while Josh Green led UA offensively with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting.

Series history: The Wildcats lead Oregon State 67-22 overall and are 16-5 against the Beavers in the Sean Miller era. Arizona has won eight straight over OSU at McKale Center, last losing there during Miller’s first UA season of 2009-10.

What’s new with the Beavers: Although the Wildcats drubbed OSU on Jan. 14 in Corvallis, the Beavers had just two days to prepare because of their COVID pause and they have played overall better since then. OSU has gone 5-3 since, losing only road games to the league’s top teams – USC, UCLA and Colorado while beating ASU, USC, Oregon and the Washington schools.

Lineup shifts appear to have helped: The Beavers have started Jerod Lucas at shooting guard since losing to UA while moving 7-footer Roman Silva back to the starting center spot for the past three games. 

Lucas has become OSU’s second-leading scorer behind Ethan Thompson overall and in league games, while hitting 44.3% from 3 in Pac-12 play. With Lucas, the Beavers aren’t quite as big overall when 6-7 Warith Alatishe plays power forward instead of small forward but Silva gives them a bigger look at center even though he averages only 6.0 points and 2.0 rebounds in Pac-12 play. Alatishe remains a fearsome rebounder, getting back 13.8% of his team’s missed shots when he’s on the floor, the 36th best offensive rebounding percentage in the country. 

Alatishe is also first in the Pac-12 in offensive rebounds (3.17) and second overall in Pac-12 rebounding (8.17), plus he’s third in blocked shots (1.67)

The Beavers are patient and well-connected offensively, with the highest assist-to-made field goal ratio of any Pac-12 team (63.5). They are a mid-level 3-point shooting team, hitting 34.8% from beyond the arc in league games, but they hit only 44.8% of their two-point shots.

Defensively, the Beavers are strongest on the perimeter with their constantly changing schemes, allowing their Pac-12 opponents to shoot only 31.2% from 3-point range, though they only generate turnovers on 17.2% of opponent possessions, the third-lowest percentage in the Pac-12.

HE SAID IT

“They’ve overhauled their lineup and I think that’s why they’ve had the success they’ve had. They have multiple defenses they use to try to junk up the game and slow you down. If you struggle to recognize them, that will frustrate you. They’ve always done it but I think now it’s more consistent. If they make a shot, they’re going to give you a different look. They’re going to switch it up, a little 2-3 (zone), a little 1-3-1, matchup zone, they may press. They’re doing something every time they make a shot.

“I think the one thing they’ll probably a do a lot more, seeing as we had some success against their man to man, is they’ll play a lot of zone. I think overall offensively we’ve been just been very efficient. We haven’t turned over the ball a lot. But I would expect them to try to get us to turn the ball over and create some offense.

“Thompson is always the key guy but for me it’s Lucas — he’s a guy like (Alfonso) Plummer at Utah who can come in and get hot if you let him get going. 

“He’s always hunting for shots. We can’t give him a 20-point night. Ethan’s going to give you a variety of looks — he’ll play point, he’ll play two and when (6-3 reserve point guard) Gianni Hunt is in), he’ll move to the three. He wants to take advantage of the matchups. He wants to post our smaller guards. 

“He did it a few times where he posted James (Akinjo), posted Terrell (Brown). I know he’ll try to do it with Kerr (Kriisa). So we’ve gotta be mindful of that for sure.”

— UA assistant coach Jason Terry, who scouted the Beavers

KEY PLAYERS: OREGON STATE

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Ethan Thompson

If it seems like the Oregon State guard has been around forever, that’s understandable. Not only does Thompson do a little bit of everything for the Beavers — leading them in scoring (15.7), assists (3.9) and minutes (32.9) while blocking 1.1 shots — but also he’s on track to start more games than any other Beaver in history. Thompson has started all 112 games he’s played in, second only to Gary Payton (120) and the Beavers have eight more games scheduled plus the Pac-12 Tournament. (He already graduated with a 3.8 GPA, too.)

KEY PLAYERS: ARIZONA

James Akinjo

If Kerr Kriisa can continue to give the Wildcats’ point guard some rest, that could keep Akinjo sharper on the defensive end against a team with two difficult players to stop in the backcourt: Akinjo will likely find himself in front of not only Ethan Thompson but also Jerod Lucas, who takes 62.5% of his shots from beyond the arc in Pac-12 games and hits them at a 44.3% rate.

SIDELINES

COVID-19 edge swings to Arizona

Colorado jumped out to a 19-2 start over Arizona last Saturday in Boulder, a fact UA coach Sean Miller attributed partly to the Buffaloes having an entire week to prepare, since ASU’s COVID-19 issues meant CU didn’t have to play the Sun Devils on the preceding Thursday (Plus, the Buffs likely were steamed after having blown a 19-point lead in a loss to Utah the previous week).

Arizona also had the same issue on Jan. 2 at Washington State, beating the Cougars in double overtime despite having to play Washington on New Year’s Eve while WSU had the night off because of a previous ASU pause.

But now, the Wildcats have a normal Saturday-to-Thursday preparation window for OSU, while the Beavers had to play a makeup game at Colorado on Monday – and then had only two days to travel to Tucson, rest and prepare for Thursday’s game.

Except, well, the high Wednesday in Corvallis was 46 degrees. In Tucson it was sunny and in the low 70s.

So Miller wondered jokingly how bad could it be.

OSU coach “Wayne Tinkle, there’s no doubt he’s a smart man. I mean, Corvallis, Oregon, on Feb. 9 (versus) Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 9?” Miller said Tuesday, gesturing with his hands weighing each side. “No one’s ever questioned his intelligence. Being here for four days continues to put stock into how smart of a guy he is.”

But seriously, this will be the second straight time the Wildcats have had a rest and preparation edge for the Beavers. UA’s 98-64 win over OSU on Jan. 14 came just two days after the Beavers had reemerged from a strict COVID pause of basketball activities.

“We caught them at a very vulnerable time,” Miller said. “I think that’s easily understood by everybody, and we recognize Oregon State’s played some very good basketball since that game.”

Then again, Miller said, who knows who really has any sort of advantage in a season like this one.

“We’ve played three games in a week two different times and (have been) playing against somebody where it was their one and only game” that week, Miller said. “You can go stir crazy trying to figure out who has the advantage and who doesn’t. It’s just that this year, there’s no reason to make an excuse. All of us are doing the best that we can.”

Bumpy trip for Beavers

OSU’s weeklong trip didn’t start out well. After beating Washington State at home on Saturday just 68-66, the Beavers first endured a harrowing flight into Colorado, thanks probably to the high winds downslope of the Front Range on Sunday.

Then, on Monday, they were blown out 78-49 by the Buffaloes. Thanks to makeup games against Colorado and Utah, the Beavers had played seven games in 23 days through Monday before they even reached Tucson.

“We don’t make excuses but obviously fatigue had a little bit to do with it,” Tinkle told OSU radio broadcaster Mike Parker after Monday’s game. “But we’re disappointed with (not having) the fight and discipline to do things the way we were supposed to do them.

“I thought we got selfish offensively. We weren’t moving the ball. We weren’t executing. We weren’t working inside out, and a lot of out-of-character shots led to transition opportunities for them — and we carried that same frustration to the defensive end.”

Tinkle said he was planning to use the time in Tucson to give his players rest, watch film and prepare better for Thursday.

“We’ve got to wash this one way, but learn from it, come together as a group,” Tinkle said, “and understand the next time we face adversity, we’ve got to handle it much, much better.”

Terry joins chat group 

When Mathurin responded with 22 points on Saturday at Colorado after struggling at Utah, it wasn’t just a result of one-on-one meetings and film review with Miller. The coach said all of his staff have pitched into conversations with Mathurin and other Wildcats.

First-year assistant Jason Terry also has a unique background to offer – having played both a sixth man and starring role at UA, while going on to play 19 years in the NBA.

“He’s been in their shoes in a big way, both in college and here at the U of A,” Miller said, “and then obviously he lived that life that they all want to live, 19 years as an NBA player, a world champion, an NBA Sixth Man of the Year. There’s a lot of sacrifice and a lot of lessons that he has that he can share with our players, and he does that very well. The rest of our staff does too.”

Terry said he tried to get Mathurin to realize that offensive struggles shouldn’t carry over to the other end of the floor, as they did when Mathurin was 1 of 6 against the Utes.

“He’s had some games where he’s scored a lot of points but the games where he’s not as involved or the ball is not finding him as much, he still has to be clocked in on the defensive end,” Terry said. “He can contribute to winning in other ways than just scoring. But when you’re a freshman and you’ve had some early success, you kind of think it’s just gonna happen for you game after game.

“It doesn’t work like that. So just getting him to understand that and get him to have the mindset of ‘What are other ways I can contribute on nights I don’t have my offense going?’ — that was the kind of the conversation.”

Numbers game

6.38

 — James Akinjo’s average assists per Pac-12 game, most in the conference.

28.8

 — Percentage of Arizona’s field-goal attempts in Pac-12 games that are from 3-point territory, the lowest in the conference.

90.9

 — Jarod Lucas’ free-throw percentage in Pac-12 games, tied with ASU’s Alonzo Verge for best in the conference.