Scouting report: Arizona Wildcats vs. Washington Huskies

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of the Arizona Wildcats' game against Washington on Saturday.

Game info

Probable starters: Arizona

Probable starters: Washington

How they match up

The last time: In the Wildcats’ first game after the school announced they would not participate in postseason play, they pummeled Washington 80-53 on New Year’s Eve. Arizona held Washington to just 31.3% shooting, crushed the Huskies in 58-30 rebounding and took 15 more free throws. Washington shot just 19.4% (6 of 31) from 3-point range and while guard Quade Green led all scorers with 23 points, he was only 8 for 21 overall and 3 of 13 from 3-point range. With seven players scoring eight or more points, Arizona also scored 19 second-chance points on 19 offensive rebounds. 

The last time at McKale Center: Arizona stumbled to a 38-23 halftime deficit, committing 10 turnovers before halftime, and never fully recovered in a 69-63 loss to the Huskies in the 2019-20 regular-season finale on March 7 at McKale Center. Guard Dylan Smith hit 6 of 10 3-pointers, suffering a broken nose when he collided with the elbow of 250-pound Husky center Isaiah Stewart, but returned after just six minutes.

Series history: Arizona leads the all-time series 55-31 and is 13-8 over the Huskies in the Sean Miller era. But the teams have split the past six games. Last season, the teams each won at the other team’s home court and Arizona beat Washington 77-70 in the first (and only) round of the Pac-12 Tournament.

What’s new with the Huskies: Fighting to stay out of the Pac-12’s cellar, Washington has turned away from its 2-3 zone in favor of a man-to-man/zone hybrid while looking more to the perimeter for scoring but the strategies haven’t met with any better results.

The Huskies lost four more straight games after losing to Arizona on New Year’s Eve, beat Colorado and Utah at home, and then went on to lose eight of their next 10 games. Their only road win has been a 65-63 victory at Washington State on Feb. 15, though they came close to avenging a 97-64 thumping at ASU on Tuesday. In a rematch Thursday at Desert Financial Arena, Washington and ASU were tied at 72 entering the final minute before the Sun Devils went on an 8-0 run to close out their 80-72 win. The Huskies used only seven players in the rematch, five starters plus transfer wings Erik Stevenson (Wichita State) and Cole Bajema (Michigan).

Sophomore guard Marcus Tsohonis, who didn’t play against Arizona on Dec. 31, has had five games of 20 or more points since then, though he was limited to five points on 2-for-9 shooting at ASU on Thursday and is just 2 of 16 from 3 over his past four games. Guard Jamal Bey leads the Pac-12 in 3-point percentage in conference games (55.2) while averaging 31.5 minutes in Pac-12 play. Guard Nate Pryor started against Arizona but has had six DNPs since then, including Thursday at ASU.

Point guard Quade Green still runs the show for Washington, playing an average of 32.2 minutes in Pac-12 games while averaging 15.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists while shooting 42.8% overall, 30.6% from 3 and 85.1% from the line, where he takes an average of 2.8 free throws per game. He ranks 78th nationally in Kenpom’s percentage of possessions used (28.9), which measure how often a player ends a possession when he’s on the floor with a basket, a miss that is not rebounded or a turnover.

Playing defensively without the big wings that used to make their 2-3 zone so successful, the Huskies aren’t much better in whatever format they use. In conference play, they allow opponents to shoot 51.9% from two-point range and 34.6% from 3, while forcing turnovers only 16.8% of the time, the second-lowest defensive turnover percentage in the Pac-12. They aren’t a good rebounding team either, ranking last in defensive rebounding percentage (64.8) and 10th in offensive rebounding percentage (24.3).

He said it

“Two things have changed since we played them. They really depended on the two. Everything was two, two, two. Now it’s completely flipped. Part of it is putting Tsohonis more into the lineup and some of the other guys as well. The second part is that Syracuse-Washington 2-3 zone that we’re used to seeing with four guys high above the free throw line, they’ve completely gone away from that. They’ll come down and they’ll show the initial alignment of that zone, and then on the first pass they break off into this switching man-to-man or matchup zone, kind of moving around and switching ball screens. So they’ve really changed their defense and, I think, their attack on offense in terms of what they’re trying to do.  

“The three guys that have grown for their team since we played them last are Tsohonis, while Stevenson has become significantly more efficient and productive, and Bey is shooting 56% from 3. Those three guys have really helped their team pick it up.” — UA assistant coach Danny Peters, who scouted the Huskies

Key player (Washington): Quade Green

As he showed on Dec. 31, when he had 23 points on 8-for-21 shooting against the Wildcats, Green isn’t always the most efficient shooter but he’s always at the center of things. The Huskies’ point guard is by far their most prolific shooter, taking 28.9% of the Huskies’ shots when he’s on the floor. He’s most effective driving inside, hitting 47.7% of two-point shots, and it doesn’t pay to foul him when he does since Green makes 82.8% of his free throws.

Key player (Arizona): Ira Lee

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The rare modern-era Arizona player to stick around for all four seasons, Lee has played a shrinking role as his senior season comes to a close. The hard-playing reserve forward has played only in single-digit minutes during 10 of UA’s last 11 games, but coach Sean Miller says he’ll get the start in what could be his final home game. Lee had six points and three rebounds at UW on New Year’s Eve.

Sidelines

Lee to get senior day honor

It’s rare for Miller to give a senior who doesn’t normally start the nod at the beginning of his final home game but he says he will with Ira Lee on Saturday.

“What we always try to do is get them in the game,” Miller said. “But Ira deserves to start.”

It will be the eighth start of Lee’s career and the first this season, thanks in part due to the rise of freshman forward Azuolas Tubelis and sophomore center Christian Koloko.

But Lee has still played a contributing role as the Wildcats’ fourth player for its two post positions, rotating off the bench along with Jordan Brown. He’s also on track to graduate this spring with a degree in sociology, with a minor in Korean, the native language of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.

While efforts to reach Lee for comment this week were unsuccessful, he is also expected to be able to invite four guests to Saturday’s game, along with grad transfer Terrell Brown, walk-on Matt Weyand and UA senior managers.

“The ceremony we’re going to have is going to be identical to the one we had a year ago but unfortunately the parents and families won’t be able to join our players on the court because of COVID,” Miller said. “They are invited to the game and each of our seniors has four tickets so I hope they’ll be here. Then we’re gonna send those guys off, I hope, with a good performance.”

Kriisa could return

Already socked with a 17-game penalty by the NCAA clearinghouse, freshman guard Kerr Kriisa missed practice time in January with a concussion and on Thursday against Washington State sat out what would have been his seventh game after suffering a groin injury in practice earlier this week.

“With that type of injury, if he would have pushed through here (Thursday), he basically would have just steadily deteriorated and wouldn’t have had an opportunity” to recover, Miller said.

The Wildcats managed to put away Washington State while Miller gave 35 minutes or more to James Akinjo, Terrell Brown and Bennedict Mathurin, but that’s not exactly the sort of thing he wants to do again.

“It’s too much to ask to only play three guards or four guards,” Miller said. “You need Kerr available. Kerr has become a really big part of what we’re doing. So we’ve got to get him back in there.”

Quick like a fox

Before former Wildcats Ernie McCray and the late Al Fleming are inducted into UA’s Ring of Honor on Saturday, Fleming’s brother recalled how crazy Al’s recruitment became as a high school star in Michigan City, Ind.

“I remember we had all these recruiters,” Robert Fleming said. “Bob Knight was at the house. Professional basketball (scouts) were at the hose. Colleges. He didn’t know where to go and I didn’t know, his mother didn’t know and his father didn’t. We just didn’t know about basketball — he was just our brother and the next thing you know, he was highly sought after.

“Then I remember when he called (then UA coach) Fred Snowden. He said, ‘If you want me, you better hurry up and sign me.’ He said, ‘So many people are coming.’”

So Snowden did just that and Robert Fleming said he’s grateful he did.

“He made his decision after he went to Arizona and he said he’s gonna take a chance on going to Arizona,” Fleming said. “We appreciate that because he left a boy but he came back a man, and he came back really a man full of honor and integrity. That’s something that I really appreciate the university for doing for my brother.”

Huskies sell NIL advantage

Anticipating new NCAA rules that could allow for athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, Washington has already turned it into a recruiting pitch. 

The school announced this week a program called “Boundless Futures,” a program designed to help athletes take advantage of NIL opportunities in the Seattle economy.

“Located in a top-15 media market that includes several Fortune 500 companies, the UW is uniquely positioned to help athletes seize once-in-a-lifetime NIL opportunities, from sponsorships to entrepreneurship,” the school said in a release. 

“Seattle is the second-largest tech hub and the 11th- largest metropolitan area in the United States. It’s also home to a robust and impressive alumni network; because a large majority of UW graduates stay in Washington, connections that students make while at UW remain relevant long after graduation.”

Numbers game

8

40.9

43.7