BERKELEY, Calif. -- Even if Arizona's Pac-12 opener tonight at Cal matches the dramatics of Wednesday's UCLA-Oregon game, the chances are pretty good that it won't match the score.
That is, it will be a surprise if the game gets out of the 60s, with Cal being a defensive-minded force this season and the Wildcats purposefully plodding on occasion in part because of their shorthanded roster.
Cal, ranked No. 6 nationally in defensive efficiency, allows just 89.9 points per 100 possessions by opponents and teams shoot just 36.6 percent against the Bears.
According to Kenpom, Cal's tempo ranks 241 of 351 teams while UA is even slower at 289. Not surprisingly, the over-under for tonight's game is only about 128 points.
UA coach Sean Miller said earlier this week that was not part of his original plan.
"We’re not playing as fast as we have been or would have wanted to," he said. "It's been the furthest thing we envisioned because of the losses we had in terms of players. So yeah, we walk the ball up, at times we’re patient.
"When you play with seven players each game is different. Most of time you're not even playing with seven, because one of the seven is in foul trouble. So you’re really dealing with six. You don’t ever want to put your team in a position where you’re playing with less than five scholarship players.
"So we've made many decisions through the course of the last month to slow the ball down. You can sense our team runs out of gas, so even if we wanted to push it, that wouldn’t be in our best interests because the results wouldn’t be good for us. But I like that we’ve played it smart, we played to win, we played the best we can be to be the best we can."
Because Arizona started last season with three road games, all in the same seven-day period, starting with a Bay area trip may not seem as bad in comparison.
UA was 1-2 after those three games, the last of which was their four-overtime loss at USC, but the Wildcats finished with five of seven at home -- and won all five of those games.
Here's the school-produced notes from Cal, Stanford and Arizona.
The San Francisco Chronicle featured Cal guard Charlie Moore and his Chicago background.
Our advance story on Pac-12 freshmen is attached to this post and our notes are here.
