Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Arizona State Sun Devils

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews all of the game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of the Arizona Wildcats' Pac-12 opener against rival Arizona State. 

Game info

Who: ASU (9-4) at No. 25 Arizona (10-3) 

Where: McKale Center

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

TV: Pac-12 Arizona 

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 Zeke Nnaji (6-11 freshman)

C Chase Jeter (6-10 senior)

Probable starters: ASU

G Remy Martin (6-0 junior)

G Alonzo Verge (6-3 junior)

F Rob Edwards (6-5 senior)

F Taeshon Cherry (6-8 sophomore)

C Romello White (6-8 junior)

How they match up

The series: Remy Martin had 27 points and ASU shot 55.6% from the floor on March 9 last season to beat Arizona at McKale Center for the first time since 2010. Combined with ASU’s 95-88 overtime win over the Wildcats on Jan. 31 in Tempe, it was also the first time the Sun Devils had swept the season series since 2008-09. Arizona won six straight before last season and leads the series 14-6 in the Sean Miller era. UA also leads the 107-year-old series overall, 152-84.

This season: The Wildcats and Sun Devils will meet again in just three weeks, finishing up their regular-season conference series on Jan. 25 in Tempe.

ASU overview: Despite the loss of two Pac-12 all-defensive team players, forward Zylan Cheatham and Lu Dort, the Sun Devils have continued their aggressive defensive ways mostly with success. Although Saint Mary’s hit 59.6% from the field against them, the Sun Devils have the 57th most efficient defense and 34th highest steal rate in Division I, recording steals on 12% of all opponents’ possessions. ASU primarily runs a man-to-man defense, occasionally picking up opponents with a man-to-man press that can prompt help defenders to jump switch on to a primary ballhandler when the occasion calls for it.

Point guard Remy Martin continues to be the energetic face of ASU’s defense, collecting a steal on 3.5% of opponent possessions, while he averages 4.1 assists per game offensively. The Sun Devils also are receiving an inspired infusion of defense off the bench in Jaelen House, the son of ASU shooting legend Eddie House. Jaelen House steals the ball on 4.9% of opponent possessions, the 13th best rate in Division I, and there’s shades of dad in him too: House is a 34.2% 3-point shooter who is averaging 7.2 points a game in just 21.0 average minutes.

The Sun Devils are a poor-shooting team overall from 3, making just 30.4%, but Rob Edwards (31.3%) and Martin (31.7%) aren’t afraid to toss them up, both hitting 20 3s each through 13 nonconference games. Stretch-four shooter Taeshon Cherry has made just 9 of 37 3s while Edwards has been in a particular shooting slump lately, hitting just 4 of 27 field goals over his past four games.

Most of ASU’s scoring comes inside through veteran big man Romello White, or off drives to the basket or other two-pointers. White is questionable with an ankle sprain but UA is expecting him to play, while oft-injured Mickey Mitchell has returned from a back injury that kept him out most of last season and early this season to help the Sun Devils inside. The biggest addition to the Sun Devils’ offense has been JuCo transfer guard Alonzo Verge, a versatile scorer who dropped 43 points on Saint Mary’s and has also been an aggressive, effective defender.

He said it

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“Martin has always been a tough on-ball defender. He always plays with a big motor, lot of energy and House has added that for them. Those guys take pride in their defense and I would say Verge is another guy who gets steals, creates disruption. So it doesn’t surprise me that their defensive numbers are up.

(White) “is an unbelievable offensive rebounder. He does a great job of sealing guys, posting up, commanding the ball. They went to him last year and they’ve continued that. When you’ve got a big dominant guy like that inside, you’ve gotta go to him. … If you look at (Verge’s) statistics over the past five games, you can make the case that he’s one of the hottest players in the Pac-12, if not the country. He has a knack for getting buckets and he can score at all levels.”

— UA assistant coach Justin Gainey, who scouted the Sun Devils

Sidelines

UA adds ex-Pinnacle star as walk-on

One of Nico Mannion’s top teammates on Pinnacle High School’s powerhouse basketball teams, wing Jordan Mains, has joined the Wildcats as a walk-on player.

Mains has actually been with the Wildcats all season but served as a manager during the fall semester until he was cleared to play following a knee surgery that also cost him most of his senior season. He began practicing with the Wildcats last month in preparation for Saturday’s game and is expected to suit up.

Mains received several mid- and low-major Division I offers while playing for Pinnacle and the Phoenix-based Powerhouse club, but underwent surgery on his knee early last season and opted to enroll at UA as a freshman this fall.

Mains has suffered the same condition as sophomore guard Brandon Williams, osteochondritis dissecans, a joint condition in which bone underneath the cartilage of a joint dies due to lack of blood flow to varying degrees, with the bone and cartilage sometimes breaking off and causing pain or a lack of movement.

Williams had surgery to improve the condition as a high school junior and after last season, and he’s now redshirting with the hopes of playing in 2020-21.

Mains’ older brother, Nik, is averaging 5.3 points off the bench for NAU as a redshirt sophomore this season. He played 12 scoreless minutes against the Wildcats on Nov. 7.

Just chillin’

In part because the Pac-12 assigned Arizona to play only ASU this week, the Wildcats had an unusually long Christmas break that spanned 14 days since their last game, against St. John’s in San Francisco.

That gave the Wildcats a chance to take four full days off before returning for practices on Dec. 26, giving them time to work on their own games, prepare for ASU and, maybe as much as anything, relax.

“I think it was a good opportunity for everybody to kind of rest their bodies,” center Chase Jeter said. “Me personally, I was able to get in the gym one time, and then another time lifting weights, but usually during the Christmas break time, I like to get a chance to rest my body a little bit.”

Long road back

Entering the season, ASU wasn’t really hoping for rugged forward Mickey Mitchell to play a key role as much as the Sun Devils just wanted him to feel better.

A former transfer from Ohio State, Mitchell was limited to just 53 minutes over six games last season because of a back injury, after he had averaged 5.8 points and 5.2 rebounds as a part-time starter in 2017-18.

“He’s a great kid and he was a warrior for us two years ago,” Hurley told Blue Ribbon Yearbook before the season. “He brings a lot of physicality and toughness. We’re just hopeful. ... at some point this year he could help us. But we’re more interested in seeing him get healthy, because he’s had to get through this for two years.”

Mitchell finally returned to the floor last month, averaging 2.0 rebounds and 0.8 points while playing nearly 10 minutes a game over five games. He played 25 minutes against Texas Southern on Dec. 28, with four points and four rebounds, when the Sun Devils were without White.

“Mickey looks really good,” coach Bobby Hurley told reporters in Tempe. “His game is getting better and better as he gets more reps. I’m pleased with what I’ve seen from Mickey this week.”

Numbers game

1

Martin’s rank in steals among Pac-12 players (2.08 per game)

8

Times in the past 12 seasons, including Saturday’s game, that ASU will have started Pac-12 play on the road.

9

Straight Pac-12 openers Arizona has won (including four against ASU).

20,134

Miles ASU traveled over the first month of the season, between trips to China, the East Coast and San Francisco.