Game info

Who: No. 14 Arizona (22-6, 12-3) at Oregon (18-10, 8-7)

Where: Matthew Knight Arena, Eugene

When: 8:15 p.m. Saturday

Watch: ESPN

Listen: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

Probable starters: Oregon

How they match up

The last time

Arizona hung on for a 90-83 win in a tense game on Jan. 11 at McKale Center in which 52 total fouls were called. The Wildcats took advantage by hitting 34 of 37 free throws, while Oregon hit 21 of just 24.

The last time at Matthew Knight Arena

The Wildcats may not want to remember this one. Arizona lost 85-58 on Feb. 4, 2017, its worst loss since Sean Miller’s first season at UA in 2009-10, when the Ducks hit 16 3-pointers, including 10 of their first 13.

Overall series

Arizona leads Oregon 51-29 overall and has won the last two after three straight losses to the Ducks.

What’s new with the Ducks

Oregon is trying to still make a late push for the NCAA Tournament after a pair of tough losses in Los Angeles last week. The Ducks lost 72-70 at USC and took UCLA to overtime before losing. But they came back to beat ASU 75-68 on Thursday at Matthew Knight Arena when grad transfer guard Elijah Brown scored 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting and freshman Kenny Wooten and Troy Brown played well. Oregon started Wooten against UA on Jan. 11 but has started Paul White in 16 of 25 games, including Thursday’s.

Key player: Payton Pritchard

The Ducks have experienced transfers and talented freshman alike but it all gets tied together by their sophomore point guard, who’s excelled in a more featured offensive role this season. He’s the Ducks’ most accurate 3-point shooter, an 83 percent free-throw shooter and averages 4.9 assists per game.

Key player: Rawle Alkins

With Allonzo Trier likely out again for the Wildcats on Saturday, everyone in the backcourt will have a bigger role but wing scoring and rebounding is a must from Alkins, who hit two 3-pointers in overtime to help UA beat Oregon State on Thursday.

Title on the line

Despite all the off-court issues surrounding the Arizona program this weekend, this much is also true: The Wildcats can clinch a share of the Pac-12 title with a win over the Ducks today and, if Utah beats USC beforehand, they can own it outright.

While UA coach Sean Miller was not available for comment Friday, the league race implications are one reason why Oregon coach Dana Altman downplayed the expected loss of Allonzo Trier.

“They have got a lot of good players and they will make adjustments,” Altman said after the Ducks beat ASU on Thursday, according to the Eugene Register-Guard. “Sean will get them ready. They are playing for a league championship. We have to find a way to win another home game and it will be a tough one. We had a chance at their place and did not finish so we have to get ourselves in position and try to find a way to finish.”

Open tourney field?

Trier’s renewed ineligibility could be a boon for the Pac-12 Tournament, at least the way Pac-12 Networks analysts Don MacLean and Kevin O’Neill described it on their postgame show Thursday night.

“Especially with Allonzo Trier out, it kind of brings Arizona back to the pack, so to speak,” O’Neill said. “Now you’ve got a tournament that’s worth buying a ticket to because any of seven teams can win it.”

MacLean said Arizona will need a collective effort to make up for Trier because “you can’t just say ‘Throw it to (Deandre) Ayton more’ because teams will game-plan for that.”

A little help

While the Arizona bench has been shortened for much of the Pac-12 season, three players received double-digit minutes off the bench on Thursday at OSU: Brandon Randolph, Emmanuel Akot and Keanu Pinder.

Then there was guard Alex Barcello playing for only the second time in the past nine UA games, since Trier was not available to slide over to backup point guard. Barcello played seven minutes and hit both shots he took.

“It was a whole team effort,” Ayton said. “We really needed our guys off the bench, and they stepped up to the plate. I was running down the court screaming when Alex hit two midrange shots. I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ He really had that confidence going. Randolph and Akot too, especially staying in the game at clutch times.”

Numbers game

1

More Arizona win for Dusan Ristic to become the winningest Wildcat player ever with 111.

6

Games Oregon has lost by single digits.

306

Rebounds by Deandre Ayton, who broke Aaron Gordon’s school freshman record of 303 in 2013-14 when he grabbed 12 at Oregon State.