Game info

Who: No. 17 Arizona (12-4, 2-1) vs. Oregon State (10-5, 2-1)

Where: McKale Center

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Watch: Pac-12 Networks

Listen: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster (Twitter) / TheWildcaster (Facebook)

Probable starters: Arizona

Probable starters: Oregon State

How they match up

The series

Arizona is 61-21 all time against OSU, has won 10 of the past 11 games and hasn’t lost to the Beavers in Tucson since Sean Miller’s first season with the Wildcats in 2009-10. Arizona didn’t host OSU last season due to the Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule but had trouble initially with them in Corvallis, despite the fact that OSU was 0-9 entering the game in the Pac-12 and the UA was 9-0. OSU kept the Wildcats to just 34.6-percent shooting in the first half with a zone defense, and the Beavers led 29-27 at halftime before the UA pulled out a 71-54 win. Arizona beat OSU 80-63 the last time they met at McKale Center on Jan. 30, 2016, when Gabe York had 24 points and seven rebounds.

Oregon State overview

As expected, the Beavers have already doubled their conference win total of one from last season and look like a factor in the Pac-12 race after losing four key players to injury or transfer last season. OSU has won eight of its past 10 games, losing to Kent State and Utah by a total of three points during that span.

The biggest addition is forward Tres Tinkle, who is taking advantage of his first healthy season with the Beavers by averaging 35.8 minutes a game (37.0 in Pac-12 play), leading OSU in scoring and rebounding while also shooting 85.7 percent from the free-throw line and 33.8 percent when he stretches to the 3-point line.

OSU guard JaQuori McLaughlin transferred out after six games but the Beavers have played the Thompson brothers, Stephen and Ethan, heavily at both guard spots. The two have combined for 23 assists in three Pac-12 games, while Tinkle has averaged 5.3 assists. Stephen Thompson has played all but six minutes of the Beavers’ first three Pac-12 games, filling box scores with scoring, passing and defense.

Drew Eubanks remains the Beavers’ low-post anchor, blocking nine shots over OSU’s first three Pac-12 games, while UMass grad transfer Seth Berger adds intensity and experience to the frontcourt.

The Beavers are primarily a man-to-man team but have played zone in the past against the Wildcats and are likely to on Thursday. Their defense has improved during three Pac-12 games, allowing just 38.6 percent shooting, but overall on the season is allowing 102.2 points per 100 opponent possessions and 36.0 percent three-point shooting. The Beavers often try to slug it out, with the 68th slowest tempo in Division I.

He said it

“They're a much-improved team not only last year to this year, but they’re much improved from beginning of this year to now. They seem to be hitting their stride. Ethan Thompson was a great prospect coming out of high school. Stephen Thompson is doing a good job. He’s a very good guard, one of the best in our conference I believe and Tres Tinkle — if he didn’t get hurt two years ago and last year Oregon State would have been really good. He’s, in my opinion, one of the best forwards in our conference. They’re physical, they play hard and they have a lot of confidence right now.”

— UA coach Sean Miller

Key player: Tres Tinkle

Finally, the son of the Beavers’ head coach is healthy after two injury marred seasons, and his impact has been obvious. He’s a threat all over the court but is especially adept inside and fouling him doesn’t work, either, because he shoots 85.7 percent from the line.

Key player: Deandre Ayton

With 11 double-doubles already, Ayton needs only one more to tie the freshman double-double record set by Al Fleming in 1972-73 and Michael Wright in 1998-99. But Ayton will face some experienced, capable big men this time and likely be surrounded in a zone defense.

Wide-open Pac

After just two weeks, everyone in the Pac-12 has at least one loss and only Washington State hasn’t won a game — after winning eight in nonconference play. Five games went down to the last possession, two went into overtime and Stanford’s Daejon Davis hit a half-court buzzer beater to edge UCLA on Sunday.

UA coach Sean Miller blames some of the craziness on television, and the difficult travel it can force in an already geographically spread-out league.

“One thing that’s really happened is with the TV contracts of our conferences,” Miller said. “Look at the Big Ten — their schedule is bizarre. They’re playing their conference tournament at the end of February so there’s a lot of Thursday night and Saturday noon (games), back-to-back travel, three games a week. A lot of conferences are doing that. I think when you make the trip that we made (to Utah and Colorado) and play such an emotional game, a draining game, you catch the flight and do the best job you can traveling but that next game is on you quickly as the road team. ... Winning a road game in college basketball is tough right now and that’s why if you have an opportunity to win one you have to covet it.”

Point-less

When former Arizona recruiting target JaQuori McLaughlin quit the Beavers after six games last month, for what appeared to be both academic and athletic reasons, that left OSU without a true point guard. The Beavers have filled in with two of the league’s better all-around guards, brothers Ethan and Stephen Thompson, but it still isn’t easy. OSU turns the ball over 19.9 percent of its possessions, the 114th-worst mark in Division I, but posted 49 assists to 35 turnovers as a team in its three Pac-12 games so far.

“We’ve got to do it kind of by committee,” OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said before Pac-12 play started. “We’re hoping to develop a little more vocal leadership out of the position. If we can’t force it, we’ve got to get creative. You’ve got to have a guy who can put the ball under his arm and direct and lead. … We’ll be OK as far as being able to get some sort of leadership and production, but it’s a key position.”

Emotional journey

The Wildcats received a frightening scare at the end of their exhibition trip to Spain last August, staying only several blocks from where a terrorist drove a van through the heart of the city’s famed Las Ramblas district and killed 14 people.

But Oregon State had it even worse: On a similar exhibition tour at the same time, the Beavers could literally see the carnage unfold from their hotel window as they gathered for a pregame meal before what was scheduled to be their first game.

“We literally saw them lay sheets over four or five people within 50 yards of our terrace,” Tinkle said in a Corvallis news conference after returning home. “We watched a guy not 50 feet from us who was moving. I came up and said ‘Is he OK?’ They said, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s moving.’

“They took his wife and young son to a restaurant. They were working on him for 45 minutes and you could see movement — and then he crashed. The wife came over screaming bloody murder. Police had to grab here and take her back in. They worked on him 25 more minutes and then they had to put a sheet on him.

“It was pretty emotionally draining for sure.”

While UA canceled its final exhibition game scheduled for the next day and returned home, the Beavers were at the beginning of their trip and opted to stick with it.

The Beavers gained new fans — and maybe some new spirit — as a result.

“It was amazing the reaction of the Spanish fans when they found out we were staying, that ‘you’re not leaving our beautiful country,’" Tinkle told the Star in September. “We had guys show emotion they had never shown before and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

Numbers game

3

Straight games Deandre Ayton has scored 20 or more points.

17.3

Arizona’s average victory margin over Oregon State in 10 wins under Sean Miller (UA’s four losses to OSU in that period have averaged 3.5 points).

33

Years since Oregon State beat a Top 25 team in a true road game (No. 15 Washington on Jan. 5, 1985).

84.6

The UA’s all-time winning percentage at home against OSU, the highest mark against a Pac-12 team.