No. 14 Indiana (8-1) vs. No. 10 Arizona (7-1)
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
5:30 p.m.
Ch. 11
1290-AM, Varsity Network PROBABLE STARTERS
ARIZONA
G Kerr Kriisa (6-3 junior)
G Courtney Ramey (6-3 senior)
F Pelle Larsson (6-5 junior)
F Azuolas Tubelis (6-11 junior)
C Oumar Ballo (7-0 junior)
INDIANA
G Xavier Johnson (6-3 senior)
G Trey Galloway (6-4 sophomore)
F Miller Kopp (6-7 senior)
F Race Thompson (6-8 senior)
C Trayce Jackson-Davis (6-9 junior)
HOW THEY MATCH UP
The series: Indiana and Arizona have never played each other before.
Game agreement: Indiana and Arizona are playing as part of a doubleheader produced by BD Global that will also include an opening game at 2:30 p.m. between UNLV and Washington State.
Indiana overview: Like Arizona, the Hoosiers also parted ways with a Miller brother (Archie) in 2021 and are led by some of that brother’s recruits. They won 21 games and squeaked into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 12 seed last season under Mike Woodson, and are continuing an upward arc so far this season. Indiana won at Xavier and beat North Carolina and Nebraska at home but overall has played one of the weakest nonconference scheduled in the country (ranking 348 by Kenpom.com) and lost 63-48 at Rutgers on Dec. 3. Indiana beat Nebraska 81-65 on Wednesday at Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers’ strong cast of returnees is led by national player of the year candidate Trayce Jackson-Davis, a multiskilled big man who can score or is happy to pass through double teams. They have good-shooting wings in Miller Kopp, Tamar Bates and Trey Galloway, who has replaced five-star freshman wing Jalen Hood-Schifino (back soreness) over the Hoosiers’ past two games. Galloway had 20 points while hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers on Wednesday against Nebraska while, Bates came of the bench to hit 5 of 8 threes. If Hood-Schifino is available Saturday, he can bring the Hoosiers athleticism and the ability to score in multiple ways.
Inside, next to Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson is a solid defender and rebounder, one of Indiana’s most veteran players along with point guard Xavier Johnson. Thompson has played college basketball since 2018-19 and started since 2020-21 while Johnson has started all but two games he’s played in since 2018-19, counting three seasons at Pittsburgh until he moved to Indiana before last season.
Defensively, Indiana ranks 11th in efficiency, allowing just 89.1 points per 100 opponent possessions.
He said it: “They’re a really experienced ballclub. I think that they have great depth. (Indiana’s win over Nebraska) showed it. But obviously a lot of it revolves around Jackson-Davis inside and to a certain extent Xavier Johnson at the point.
“You have these older guys, and a talented guy like him. He’s very explosive. Quick athlete, good defensively. He changed the Carolina game with his defense. It was a tight game, and then he got a couple steals, got them out in transition. He’s a very, very good player.”
With Jackson-Davis, “they’ll post him up, they’ll give him the ball on the perimeter, they’ll give him the ball in short-roll situations where he can be a playmaker and decision-maker. He can do a lot with the basketball. He’s one of those guys that when he has it, you have to think of him as a guard or wing because of how he can put it on the floor. And then when he has the ball in the post, he’s one of the elite back-to-the-basket post scores in the country. I give him a ton of credit because he seems to be very unselfish and not afraid to find his teammates and I think that the younger guys are playing better and better because of the confidence he gives them”
Defensively, “they have their principles that they stick to and they’re very good at it. They really try and to pressure the basketball and kind of choke off the paint so they can it make it a struggle. In transition defense, they’re very good. They’re gonna put pressure on us to play in the half court.”
— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Hoosiers
KEY PLAYERS
Indiana
Trayce Jackson-Davis
The Hoosiers may have caught a break when the talented lefty tested positive for COVID-19 before the NBA Combine, one factor in his return to Bloomington. Already, Jackson-Davis is one of only two Indiana players along with Alan Henderson to have collected more than 1,500 points, 750 rebounds and 150 blocks. Already proven in the low post, Jackson-Davis returned focused on perimeter skills and using his right hand more effectively.
Arizona
Oumar Ballo
The Wildcats’ starting 7-footer elevated onto a national platform with his MVP performance in the Maui Invitational. Now he’ll be asked to help stop a top-tier Indiana interior of Jackson-Davis and veteran power forward Race Thompson.
SIDELINES
Second home
While a potentially big crowd of Indiana fans could keep the MGM Grand Garden from taking on its old “McKale North” look, as it did during the 2013-2016 Pac-12 Tournaments there until the move to T-Mobile Arena in 2017, the Wildcats might still benefit from the trip to Las Vegas this weekend.
After all, they beat Wichita State and Michigan to capture the Main Event title last season across the street at T-Mobile Arena, then returned in March to win the Pac-12 Tournament.
“Even if it’s different building, you’re still getting used to going to the city and that road trip and I think it really helped us last year,” said UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, a Las Vegas native. “I just think it’s becoming a hub for college basketball, especially on the West Coast. It’s one of a handful of places in the country where you know there’s gonna be high level college basketball games every year, so it’s it’s good for us to be part of it.”
What also might be of note this season: T-Mobile Arena is not only scheduled to host the Pac-12 Tournament but also the NCAA Tournament West Regional Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games. Usually, any team that wins the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles is given a seed in the West Region, though Arizona did not last season because Gonzaga was rated a higher No. 1 seed.
Here we go again
Just a day after Arizona beat Cal 81-68 at McKale Center on Sunday, Golden Bears coach Mark Fox found out that standout guard Devin Askew tested positive for COVID-19. Another reserve player who was on the court Sunday, ND Okafor, also tested positive.
That meant both players missed Cal’s loss Wednesday to Eastern Washington, while the Wildcats ... were subject to another exposure notification.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was asked Thursday if that news was a concern.
“Not really,” he said. “We’ve been dealing with this thing for going on about three years now, and it’s just a way of life. It hits sometimes and sometimes it misses.”
Lloyd said all his players were vaccinated, though he declined to say if they had all received the updated booster shots that became available this fall, citing HIPAA regulations. But the Wildcats were known to have received booster shots entering last season.
“We’ve done everything we can to be proactive and we seem to be plugging along pretty well,” Lloyd said. “So we’re just gonna take it as it comes.”
Lewis comes home
While the Wildcats prepared for a trip to Las Vegas on Friday, UA signee KJ Lewis swung through the state to play for his Duncanville (Texas) High School team at Scottsdale’s Chaparral High School on Thursday night.
Duncanville beat New York’s Cardinal Hayes High School, 68-58. While stats were not publicly available, Pro Insight tweeted that Lewis “looked the part of a powerful CG tonight, doing a good job making reads in PnR & drive-and-kick situations + bringing energy on defense.”
Lewis, who has roots in Tucson and Vail, told Pro Insight that the Wildcats will be getting a player who wants to win and brings a variety of skills.
“If I’m not scoring, then I’m trying to involve my teammates, rebounding and guarding the best player on the team,” Lewis said. “Just bringing energy. Off the court, (I’m a) fun, happy kid that loves to be involved with the community and is always smiling.”
Numbers game
1 – Oumar Ballo’s national rank in shooting percentage (76.9).
7 – Arizona wins in 10 Pac-12 Tournament games during its run from 2013 to 2016 at the MGM Grand Garden before its move to T-Mobile Arena in 2017.
7.8 – Percent of opponent possessions that end in a Trayce Jackson-Davis block when he’s on the floor. (the 59th-best block percentage in Division I).
— Bruce Pascoe
