Arizona Wildcats, Baylor Bears hoping to gain from nonconference experiences

Home-and-home series are becoming rarer in college basketball, but Arizona will play its third game this season resulting from them on Saturday against Baylor.

Bears coach Scott Drew said it has helped the Wildcats that they already played UConn and Alabama, too, on top of their Maui Invitational competition.

“This is a team that’s played a lot of quality opponents,” Drew said Friday. “It’s given them a lot of opportunity to find out who they are and what they need to do to be successful and win. They’re really good at scoring in bunches from the 3-point line. They’ve won on the road at UConn, which isn’t easy to do early in the year to get a quality road win.

“This is a team that with their guards do a great job of creating opportunities to either get fouled or get 3s. They do a good job of dropping it off with Jeter down low.”

UA coach Sean Miller has said the Wiidcats now know considerably more about themselves after their experiences so far.

“It’s certainly a time in your season where you know more about your team than you ever have before but yet you have so much basketball ahead to realize the things we need to improve on and do it., to keep improving the things we’ve established so well,” Miller said.

Baylor is hoping Saturday’s game provides the same kind of preparation, according to a Waco Tribune story. Baylor Bear insider Jerry Hill noted that McKale Center will add to the challenge.

Bill Walton fans might enjoy Baylor's official game notes.

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