Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Washington State Cougars

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews all of the game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of Arizona's showdown with Washington State. 

Game info

Who: Washington State (15-14, 6-10) at Arizona (19-10, 9-7)

Where: McKale Center

When: 8:30 p.m.

TV: FS1

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Probable starters: Arizona

G Nico Mannion (6-3 freshman)

G Dylan Smith (6-5 senior)

F Josh Green (6-6 freshman)

F Stone Gettings (6-9 senior)

C Zeke Nnaji (6-11 freshman)

Probable starters: Washington State

G Isaac Bonton (6-3 junior)

G Noah Williams (6-5 freshman)

F CJ Elleby (6-6 sophomore)

F Jervae Robinson (6-2 senior)

C Jeff Pollard (6-9 senior)

How they match up

The last time: Stone Gettings had season-highs in points (19) and rebounds (12) to lead Arizona to a 66-49 win over Washington State in Pullman on Feb. 1, completing the Wildcats’ road sweep of the Washington schools. Arizona shot only 39.7% overall but held the Cougars to 37.0% and outrebounded WSU 49-36, scoring 11 second-chance points off 15 offensive rebounds.

The last time at McKale Center: WSU forward Robert Franks scored 34 points with 8-of-11 3-point shooting to help the Cougars flatten the Wildcats 69-55 at McKale Center on Feb. 9, 2019, in the teams’ only meeting last season. The loss was UA’s fifth straight and first loss to the Cougars since coach Sean Miller’s first UA season of 2009-10.

Series history: The Wildcats have won 14 of the last 15 games against WSU and are 14-3 against the Cougars under Miller. Arizona also leads the alltime series 65-17.

What’s new with the Cougars: Since losing to Arizona in Pullman, the Cougars sandwiched a four-game losing streak with wins over Washington, the last on Friday, Feb. 28 in Seattle, where CJ Elleby had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead WSU in its first Pac-12 road sweep. 

The Cougars’ struggles before the second Washington game can be traced in large part to an injury that kept point guard Isaac Bonton out for a loss at USC and home losses to Cal and Stanford. Without him, the Cougs averaged just 55 points and shot 30.0% (54-180) while hitting at a 19.7% (16-81) clip from behind the arc.

Under first-year coach Kyle Smith, the Cougars are continuing to run the second-fastest adjusted tempo in Pac-12 games. They also emphasize long-range shooting, taking 40.9% of their shots from beyond the 3-point arc in conference games, the second-highest reliance on the 3 in the Pac-12. But they struggle to score inside, making only 43.4% of two-pointers in Pac-12 games, the worst mark in the conference.

WSU has been shooting virtually the same on the road as at home in Pac-12 games – the Cougars average just 39.0% overall in conference play -- but in road games have allowed opponents to shoot an average of 50.4 percent.

He said it

“CJ Elleby is a terrific player. They depend on him a lot and he's delivered. I believe that he's one of the most talented players in our conference ... Isaac Bonton, you could see the difference in their team when he's been injured. They weren't nearly as good. He's a very, very good player. A lot like Elleby, he does a little bit of everything. Those two combine for about 34 points per game on the season. So it starts with how we defend those two guys.

“They've beaten Oregon, they’ve beaten UCLA, they've beaten Arizona State. They've won at Washington. They're a very well-coached, tough-minded team. They depend on the 3-point shot as much as any team that we play. You have to defend the 3. That's dangerous in and of itself because they shoot the ball from a variety of positions. And when they have a big night from 3 as they did against Washington, they're an explosive basketball team.

“Defensively, they pressure, they force turnovers, and those turnovers allow them to get out in transition, and shoot the 3-point shot. Both Elleby and Bonton are excellent players in transition, so their defense leads to their offense. They play at a breakneck speed. They play at the fastest pace of the teams in our league. They're not a walk it up group. They're not a passive defensive team. They're not a team that doesn't rely on the 3.”

-- UA coach Sean Miller

Key player (Washington State): CJ Elleby

The Cougars’ sophomore standout had his worst shooting game of the season against the Wildcats last month, hitting just 2 of 12 shots (1-4 from 3-point range) and scoring only seven points. The odds aren’t good that he repeats that performance Thursday. Elleby had 18 points at McKale Center last season while he has shot 48 percent in his last two road games this season.

Key player (Arizona): Dylan Smith

Not only will Smith again be leading the defensive effort against Elleby and the Cougars’ 3-point shooters but he’ll also be trying to shake off a rough shooting weekend in Los Angeles (3 for 14 from 3 combined in losses at USC and UCLA) before the postseason begins.

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The long way home

Because they live in the Pac-12’s most remote spot, the Cougars had a difficult travel decision to make this week: Whether to bother going home between their game Saturday at ASU and a Tuesday arrival in Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament that begins on Wednesday.

WSU coach Kyle Smith opted to take his guys back to Pullman, reasoning at least they will get a little time in their own beds and avoid an overly long road trip.

Besides, a charter flight – the kind Arizona now takes everywhere – will help make that commute easier… right?

“I’m glad you asked,” Smith said, chuckling. “No.”

Instead, the Cougars will board an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Spokane and then make the 90-minute bus ride down to Pullman. The good news is that flight leaves Saturday night after the Cougars’ late afternoon game in Tempe, sparing them another hotel night, but the bad news is they won’t get home before early Sunday morning by the time their bus finishes rolling through the Palouse.

Then they’ll have to turn around Tuesday morning and make a similar trip to Las Vegas.

Rooks to join Pac-12 Hall of Honor

Former Arizona standout Sean Rooks will join the Pac-12’s Hall of Honor, scheduled to be posthumously honored on March 13 in Las Vegas during an induction ceremony at the Pac-12 Tournament.

Rooks played for the Wildcats between 1989-92, becoming an all-conference player as a senior, before becoming the No. 30 overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. He is still No. 4 on Arizona's alltime list of free throws attempted (590, or 4.6 per game).

After leaving Arizona, Rooks went on to play 12 seasons in the NBA and was a Philadelphia 76ers player development coach when he died suddenly in 2016 at age 46.

PJC wins British League honors

Parker Jackson-Cartwright was named British Basketball League Player of the Month for February after averaging 22.0 points and 6.6 assists during the month while shooting 44% from 3-point range. He is playing for the Cheshire Phoenix, a club based in Ellesmere Port, England, just south of Liverpool.

Described in a BBL news release as both a recruit from the G League’s Westchester Knicks and the star of Netfix documentary At All Costs, Jackson-Cartwright had five 3s and a total of 27 points to lead the Cheshire Phoenix over Plymouth last month while also collecting 31 points, 11 assists and seven steals in a double-overtime loss to Bristol.

“He has been irrepressible all season,” a BBL news release said, “appearing in the weekly All-Star 5 a league-leading six times, and is currently ranked second in scoring (20.0), first in steals (3.8), fifth in assists (7.0) and fourth in three-pointers made (24), all while playing the most minutes per game (36.0) of any player in the league.”

Don’t blame Cincy

UCLA coach Mick Cronin was asked this week if UA coach Sean Miller might have been feeling the rivalry vibe when his emotions flared up last Saturday and he was ejected from the Bruins 69-64 win for getting two technical fouls.

“Nah, Sean and I are good,” Cronin said. “It’s so hard to score on his teams. They lost Thursday (at USC) and I know him, he was not up for losing two in a row and that’s what’s made him a great coach. Especially (with) me being new, you don’t know back stories between coaches and certain officials, so that’s all stuff, you never know what could go into that.”

Miller argued notably at all three officials Saturday and declined to say what he said to official Tony Padilla, who called the ejection-triggering second technical foul.

“I regret that I got kicked out,” Miller said.

Backfired

When Washington students chanted repeatedly at WSU freshman Noah Williams that he was a “UW reject” last Saturday in his hometown of Seattle, that didn’t work out well for the Huskies.

Williams had 15 points and six rebounds while helping defend several ex-club ball teammates now playing for the Huskies during the Cougars’ 78-74 win.

“It feels great to get win back in my city and on my birthday,” Williams said, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “That ‘UW rejects,’ I don’t know what they’re talking about, because I feel like they’re WSU rejects. So, we just came out fighting and came out on top.”

He wasn’t the only local player having some fun, either. Sophomore standout CJ Elleby, also of Seattle, added 21 points for the Cougars – dropping a total of 55 points on his hometown team over two games.

Miracle recovery

K9 Chief returned home to Moses Lake with a 25-car honor procession after being released from WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital earlier today. https://t.co/LL4TF4NM0e

— The Daily Evergreen (@DailyEvergreen) March 4, 2020

One of the biggest news stories out of Washington State this week concerned a dog, but not the sports mascot kind.

WSU’s well-regarded veterinarian school was credited with saving the life of Chief, a German shepherd in the Moses Lake (Wash.) K-9 Unit who was shot in the head while pursuing a felony robbery suspect last Friday, according to the WSU Daily Evergreen.

Chief was airlifted the 120 miles from Moses Lake to Pullman, then given CT scans, when vets were amazed to find the bullet went through the dog’s left eye and shattered his jawbone, missing the brain entirely.

“That gunshot wound, if it was angled a little differently, it would have killed him,” said Emilia Terradas, a resident at  WSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

The dog’s eye was surgically removed Tuesday and he was released with a bandages around his head and other injured areas Wednesday to a 25-car escort on his way back to Moses Lake. It’s unclear if he will return to active duty but his handler, Moses Lake policeman Nick Stewart, was grateful to have his partner back.

“He had an amazing recovery,” Stewart told the Evergreen. “I thought he was going to die that night.”

Numbers game

17.9

Percent of WSU possessions that end in a turnover during Pac-12 play, the conference’s third-lowest turnover percentage.

24.8

Percent of missed WSU shots the Cougars rebound themselves, the second-worst offensive rebounding percentage in Pac-12 games.

31.2

Arizona's offensive rebounding percentage in Pac-12 games, second-best in the Pac-12.

50.4

Percent WSU opponents shoot when hosting the Cougars.

61

Games it took CJ Elleby to score 1,000 for his Washington State career, the third fastest mark in school history and two games faster than Klay Thompson.