Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats look to improve to 3-0 when they take on NAU in rescheduled game

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)

NAU

G Cameron Shelton (6-2 junior)

G Jay Green (6-5 junior)

F Luke Avdalovic (6-5 junior)

F Isaiah Lewis (6-6 sophomore)

C Nik Mains (6-8 junior)

HOW THEY MATCH UP

The series: Arizona has beaten its in-state cousins 33 straight times, though the last 16 have been held in Tucson. The Wildcats beat NAU 91-52 at McKale in their opener last season, when Zeke Nnaji began his breakout with 20 points in just 21 minutes.

Game agreement: NAU signed an agreement to become UA’s season-opening opponent this season and in 2021-22 and 2022-23. However, the game was moved this season from Nov. 10 to Nov. 25 and then again to Monday when the Lumberjacks took a COVID-related pause just before the season.

NAU overview: Having taken over for Jack Murphy on an interim basis in June 2019, when Murphy left to become the Wildcats’ associate head coach, Shane Burcar won the job permanently last spring after guiding the Lumberjacks to a 16-14 record and fifth-place tie in the Big Sky Conference. He lost three starters from last season but returns preseason all-Big Sky pick Cameron Shelton, an aggressive, do-everything point guard who averaged 35.0 minutes per game last season, and 3-point shooter Luke Avdalovic, who has a career percentage of 45.6% from beyond the arc. They also picked up UNLV transfer Jay Green, the older brother of former UA wing Josh Green, whose presence should help the Lumberjacks shore up what was one of the worst defensive teams in the country. Last season, Lumberjack opponents shot 36.4% from 3-point range and 52.8% against them.

NAU remains small inside but will lean heavily on 6-8 junior Nik Mains, the brother of UA walk-on Jordan Mains, while 6-6 sophomore Isaiah Lewis began his college career with promise at McKale Center last season, when he had 13 points and six rebounds, though an injury in the Lumberjacks’ Big Sky opener later cost him seven games.

He said it: “They don’t have a team where 1-5 can shoot the 3, but they certainly have shooters you have to be aware of. Shelton is a lefty driver, slasher who’s really good. Luke Avdalovic can shoot the three. Jay Green is a good athlete, a left-handed driver and a good offensive rebounder. He’s dangerous. He has good high-level experience playing at UNLV and he just needs an opportunity. He plays really hard and is a good defender. For us, it’s defending the 3-point line and Cameron Shelton. Offensively, we have to kind of flow better.”

— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Lumberjacks

KEY PLAYERS

NAU

Cameron Shelton

When Shelton collected 17 points and seven rebounds over 35 minutes against Arizona in November 2019, he pretty much set the tone for the rest of his season. Shelton finished in the Big Sky statistical top 10s for scoring, rebounding, assists and steals. If he can bring the Lumberjacks into Big Sky contention this season, he’ll be a candidate for league MVP.

ARIZONA

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Bennedict Mathurin

One of the highlights of Arizona’s season so far is the long, athletic, energetic looks that freshmen Dalen Terry and Benn Mathurin give the Wildcats at small forward. Mathurin’s slipperiness has prompted defenders to foul him eight times per 40 minutes played while his length could bother NAU’s shooters.

SIDELINES

Keep the windows open, please

With no positive COVID-19 tests on Monday and only one since Aug. 23, New Mexico State had reason to be confident when it traveled from its temporary home in Phoenix to Santa Cruz, California.

Then they were informed that a positive test popped up during a Thursday round of testing.

So the Aggies promptly canceled their next two games – and left the scheduled Dec. 12 UA-NMSU game on shaky ground — and turned around to bus home. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, they did so in two buses: One bus had the person who tested positive and those who were contact-traced to that person, and another bus ferried everyone else.

“We’ve certainly taken the precautions,” New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia told the Sun-News.

“But you can only do the best job you can. It doesn’t mean you’re immune from somebody getting it. As you can see, one positive can derail the whole operation.”

Missing out on the ‘party’

After 11 combined offensive fouls helped push the Wildcats to two foul-outs and 40 total fouls over their first two games, Arizona Sean Miller was asked Saturday if it was a stretch of bad luck or something the Wildcats were doing wrong.

He responded in characteristic form.

“College basketball is so much about running full speed and just falling down, about when a guy leaves his feet, sliding underneath him,” Miller said. “Any big who’s got the ball in and around the goal, as he dribbles to turn — just fall down. I’m not even saying that to complain but we have to do a better job of drawing the charge ourselves — on the ball, off the ball, bigs — because it’s just, I mean, it’s crazy.

“I think we have to kind of join the party and flop. Run full speed and take fouls with our chest and slide in underneath. Those are big plays. Those are turnovers on the offense, fouls on the other team’s good player and a lot of times it erases a basket. ... If the defender just falls down, there’s a chance that it’s an offensive foul.

“So, I mean, it’s a hard game to watch. ... and good players don’t get screened. That’s one of the things we (normally) try to talk about with our defense: Don’t run into the screens, right? Good players don’t get screened, avoid the screens, but running into them, I think, is beneficial right now the way the game is being called. And we certainly have to adjust to that. That’s 100% on me.”

Small-ball benefits

With NAU expected to go with a smaller lineup Monday, Arizona may be tempted to go more often with a smaller lineup featuring both James Akinjo and Terrell Brown in the game at the same time.

That formula worked for the Wildcats as they pulled ahead in the late stages of Saturday’s game with Eastern Washington, helping them on both ends of the floor. A high-volume scorer at Seattle U, Brown showed signs of being able to transition to an efficient playmaker at Arizona with only nine points over two games but 10 assists to three turnovers.

“That’s something that he does well, and it frees James up to kind of attack the basket off the ball some,” Miller said. “We did go small at the end. I thought that helped us defend the 3-point shot on defense, and it maybe allowed us to drive the ball.

“Most of our baskets down the stretch were shots right at the rim. That’s what our team has to learn — we shot some tough, off the dribble pull up twos in the first half, maybe even a couple that we made. We’re not going to win shooting those types of shots. We want drives and post-ups. We want to attack so we get fouled. We want to create open wide-open, one-two step 3- point shots. But until we play a couple games, they’re not going to be able to learn that.”

numbers game

10.9 Percent of time Azuolas Tubelis has collected the Wildcats’ missed shots when he’s on the floor, the 200th best offensive rebounding percentage in Division I so far.

+12 Plus-minus rating for both Tubelis and Terrell Brown during UA’s 70-67 win over Eastern Washington on Saturday.

267 UA’s rank in “minutes continuity,” a Kenpom.com metric that measures what percentage of a team’s minutes are played by the same player from one season to the next. The national average is about 50%; UA’s is 18.2%.

— Bruce Pascoe