Scouting report: No. 11 Arizona Wildcats vs. Wyoming Cowboys

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 11-ranked Arizona Wildcats prepare to take on the unbeaten Wyoming Cowboys at McKale Center on Wednesday night.

Wyoming (8-0) at No. 11 Arizona (7-0)

Where: McKale Center

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

TV: Pac-12 Arizona

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM 

Probable starters

ARIZONA

G Kerr Kriisa (6-3 sophomore)

G Dalen Terry (6-6 sophomore)

F Bennedict Mathurin (6-6 sophomore)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-11 sophomore)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 junior)

WYOMING

G Drake Jeffries (6-5 senior)

G Xavier DuSell (6-4 sophomore)

F Hunter Maldonado (6-7 senior)

F Jeremiah Oden (6-8 sophomore)

C Graham Ike (6-9 sophomore)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads its old WAC foe 20-15 overall but hasn’t played the Cowboys in 17 years, since Lute Olson’s last Elite Eight team drilled Wyoming 98-70 at McKale Center early in the 2004-05 season. In fact, the teams have played only three times since UA left the WAC, with Arizona also winning 94-84 in Phoenix during the 1998-99 season and beating the Cowboys 68-60 in Albuquerque, N.M., during the second round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament.

Game contract: Arizona will pay Wyoming $90,000 to make a one-time appearance at McKale Center. The game was initially set for Nov. 20, 2020 but was moved to Dec. 21, 2021 after the NCAA pushed the start of the 2020-21 season back to Nov. 25. On Feb. 22, 2021, it was moved again to Dec. 8 so that the Cowboys could play in the Diamond Head Classic between Dec. 22-25. Leaving Dec. 21 open later allowed the Wildcats to schedule Tennessee; the Vols replace a game against Gonzaga, which both sides agreed to postpone after Arizona hired Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd.

Wyoming overview: The Mountain West’s most prolific scoring and 3-point shooting team last season in coach Jeff Linder’s first year, Wyoming now runs a slow pace that features both efficient inside scorers and 3-point shooters. The Cowboys have the seventh-best two-point shooting percentage in the country (59.1) and are the 26th best team nationally in getting to the free throw line in proportion to field goals taken (40.2). Wyoming takes only 36.7% of its shots from beyond the 3-point line, but has efficient 3-point shooters in Drake Jeffries and Xavier DuSell.

Forward Hunter Maldonado and center Graham Ike do the most damage inside. A young sophomore who emerged late last season, Ike makes 58.6% of his two-pointers and draws the second-most fouls (8.9) per 40 minutes than anybody in Division I, ranking 16th nationally in scoring at 20.8 points per game. With double doubles in his past two games, Ike was named the Mountain West’s Player of the Week.

Maldonado shoots 58.7% from 2 and while he’s struggled to hit 3s (2 for 13), Maldonado has better than a 2-1 assist-turnover ratio, equally comfortable passing and posting up as the Cowboys’ point guard/forward.

Jeffries is the Cowboys’ biggest outside threat, hitting 51.5% from 3 in Division I games, the 51st best percentage nationally, while DuSell lofts up nearly six 3s per game, hitting them at a 38.3% rate. A Scottsdale product who played for AZ Compass Prep, DuSell missed about 50 days last season because of COVID-related contact tracing protocols but broke into the starting lineup late last season. With Ike inside, sophomore Jeremiah Oden has been playing more often at power forward, where can cause matchup issues with his size and athleticism.

While Wyoming has played mostly teams from low-major conferences, the Cowboys have won three true road games, at Washington, Grand Canyon and Cal State Fullerton.

He said it: “They’re a very unique team. They try to control the game and they want to attack the weak link defensively. What makes them uncomfortable to play against is they are slow, they have a point guard post up and have shooters around him. There are not many teams who play like that.

“They are very comfortable in the half court. They don’t care about getting early points. They just want to walk the ball there and get it to the right spot with the right people and play out of that.

“(Ike) has had tremendous development. He’s a very efficient scorer on the block so we have to make it hard. He’s been terrific so far this season for them. We have good bigs of our own and it will be a great challenge for them.

“(Maldonado) is a point guard. He’ll post up and play pick and roll but he is really comfortable playing the block and, like all guards who play in the post (he’s a) very good passer so they get a lot of offense out of that. He’s one of the reasons they’re very unique in what they do.

“(Defensively) they like to shrink the floor and pack the paint, try to make you make tough decisions in small spaces. They do a couple of different things in pick and roll coverages but I’d say the No. 1 thing they’re trying to do is protect the paint. They’ll do a 2-3 (zone) occasionally but it’s mostly man-to-man. They don’t like to switch much and they’ll go under some ball screens.”

— UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois, who scouted the Cowboys.

Key players

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Wyoming — Hunter Maldonado

The Cowboys want the ball to go through their 6-foot-7-inch senior “point forward” whenever possible, because good things often happen when it does. Maldonado isn’t a 3-point threat but he does just about everything else well while playing any of four positions.

Arizona — Oumar Ballo

Even when starting center Christian Koloko is hurt or struggling, the Wildcats don’t have to go small thanks to the big man from Mali. Ballo helped UA turn around its early struggles at Oregon State, while he and Koloko will face challenge inside against Wyoming’s inside players.

Sidelines

Weight on his shoulders (and ankle)

When Christian Koloko returned Sunday at Oregon State from a sprained ankle he suffered eight days earlier against Sacramento State, any lingering soreness or worry wasn’t the only thing he had to deal with.

He also had to deal with more people paying attention to him, after a standout November in which he averaged 16.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks over six games — while being named the Main Event MVP.

“A lot has happened to Christian in a small time,” Lloyd told the Star at Oregon State. “Maybe sometimes it’s a lot to take in. People start talking to you about (being) a different player than maybe you were before. So there’s a little bit of an adjustment period and we’ll help him with that.”

In the first half at OSU, Koloko had just four points on 1-for-3 shooting, three rebounds and a block but came back to score eight points and blocking two shots after halftime.

“I thought he was a little bit soft and a little bit off balance,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “He was a little tentative early. As I think as he settled into the game, he kind of played more like the guy he has been playing like.”

Lloyd says booster shots ‘personal’

Washington says all its players and staff are fully vaccinated, indicating the Huskies’ games with Arizona and UCLA last week were canceled because of a breakthrough infection or infections involving the seven players and coaches reported to be in COVID-19 protocols.

Two other teams joining Washington at the Crossover Classic in South Dakota last month, Nevada and George Mason, also ran into COVID-19 issues afterward.

That sort of news might prompt some coaches to pursue booster shots for their players to increase the odds they’ll stay eligible to play, though UA coach Tommy Lloyd indicated he’s staying out of it.

“That’s all personal stuff,” Lloyd said, when asked if UA players are getting them or if he’s recommending they do. “I’ve taken mine. We take it seriously and Justin (Kokoskie, athletic trainer) does a great job. If guys are willing to take it, we’ll be supportive.”

Before the season, Lloyd said the Wildcats were 100% vaccinated.

Baby steps

Sophomore wing Dalen Terry ranks second nationally in assist-turnover ratio at 5.80, having only five turnovers to accompany his 29 assists, while point guard Kerr Kriisa is right behind him at No. 4 at 5.29 (37 assists to 7 turnovers).

But the way Lloyd explained it on his weekly radio show Monday, it took a little tough love to wrap Terry’s gifts into that sort of efficiency.

“Dalen’s a creative player and I think he’s always fancied himself as a playmaker,” Lloyd said. “But I remember we had a practice last summer and I went up to Dalen and said, `Hey, you can’t practice today.’ He looked at me like I was crazy. I said, ‘No, last practice, you traveled 12 times so you need to get on the sidelines and work on not traveling. Because if we travel, we literally have to give the gall away and then go back and play defense.’

“He kind of looked at me like I was a little bit crazy and then thought about it. We took him to footwork boot camp. We worked on jump stopping and pivoting and basketball basics. He made huge progress. Then he started having success with it.”

Numbers game

1

Arizona’s national rank in ratio of assists to made baskets (71.9), out of 358 Division I teams.

12

Arizona’s rank in Kenpom.com’s adjusted tempo.

289

Wyoming’s rank in Kenpom.com’s adjusted tempo.

340

Wyoming’s rank in ratio of assists to made baskets (39.1).