Game info

Matchup: Stanford (16-13, 10-6) at No. 19 Arizona (22-7, 12-4)

Where: McKale Center

When: 8 p.m.

Watch: FS1

Listen: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / @TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters for Stanford

Probable starters for Arizona

The last time

Arizona hung on for a 73-71 win at Stanford on Jan. 20 despite Deandre Ayton fouling out and Allonzo Trier missing three free throws in the final 18 seconds. Trier led UA with 21 points while Rawle Alkins, in between games he missed for foot soreness, played 34 minutes and scored 13 points.

The last time at McKale

Arizona struggled with Stanford’s interior attack, allowing a double-double of 26 points and 10 rebounds from Reid Travis, but managed a 74-67 win over the Cardinal on Feb. 8, 2017. In his first start since being reinstated nearly three weeks earlier from a PED suspension, Trier led the Wildcats with 18 points.

Overall series

Arizona has beaten Stanford 16 straight times, since the Russ Pennell-coached Wildcats lost 76-60 at Maples Pavilion on Jan. 4, 2009.

What’s new with the Cardinal

Stanford has won five of its past seven games to move into position for one of the Pac-12 Tournament’s top four seeds, and it can even earn a share of the conference title if it beats both Arizona and ASU, and Arizona loses to Cal and UCLA beats USC. Since January, forward KZ Okpala has continued to make an impact after he missed 12 games to start the season because he slipped below Stanford’s conditional academic acceptance terms during the spring of his senior year in high school.

Okpala has started 15 of 17 games he’s played in, and has averaged 12.3 points in his last three games. With a mix of man-to-man and a zone defense , Stanford has the Pac-12’s third-most efficient defense. Offensively, the Cardinal adds to its scoring balance by collecting 33.1 percent of its offensive rebound chances (the third-highest rate in the Pac-12) and it gets to the free-throw line more often than any other Pac-12 school, shooting 40.9 free throws for every 100 field goals attempted. Stanford has averaged 23.9 free throws taken in Pac-12 games, and hit them at a 66.0 percent rate.

Key player (Stanford): Reid Travis

Not only did the reigning Pac-12 player of the week collect 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Wildcats last month, but he also helped get Ayton into an unusual bout of foul trouble. He was seen telling his teammates “he can’t guard me” after scoring and picking up a foul on Ayton, but the UA forward will get another crack at Travis on Thursday.

Key player (Arizona): Deandre Ayton

Having Oregon fans wave fake $100,000 checks and yell at him last Saturday may have only served to fire up the Bahamian big man, who had 28 points and 18 rebounds against the Ducks. With UA having declared him eligible, Ayton this time will likely be enveloped in warm fan support Thursday in his second-to-last game at McKale Center.

Homecoming

No matter how McKale Center fans greet the Wildcats on Thursday following six days of turmoil, the Cardinal could have a small but vocal fan section because Phoenix-bred Dorian Pickens and Michael Humphrey of Stanford will be playing their final game at McKale Center.

Both players were recruited by the Wildcats and have played well against them over the course of their Stanford careers. Pickens, of Pinnacle High School, has averaged 9.9 points in seven games against UA while Humphrey, of Sunnyslope, has averaged 9.3 points over six games. On Jan. 20 at Maples Pavilion, Humphrey had 13 points and 12 rebounds while Pickens had 15 points while hitting 4 of 10 3-pointers.

Book’s alleged “juice”

Among the emails from sports agent Christian Dawkins that Yahoo Sports reported on last week were some discussing the relationship between former UA assistant coach Book Richardson and forward Alkins, and whether Richardson would steer Alkins to the firm Dawkins worked for.

Yahoo quoted an Aug. 18, 2016 memo from Dawkins as saying Richardson “basically told me he wants me to talk to Rawle Alkins. He said he is picking the agent, period.”

Two days later, Yahoo reported, Dawkins wrote: “Book at Arizona has the juice with the situation, they’re going to listen to him. Nobody else is involved besides book, the kid and Rodney (the cousin). The mom has say but I think she will depend on Rodney. He can get stuff done.”

The federal complaint released on Sept. 26, 2017 alleged that during a videotaped meeting on June 20, 2017, Richardson committed to financial advisor Munish Sood that he would steer a current player to Dawkins’ firm, saying “there’s no ifs, ands about that. I’ve already talked with (the player’s) mom, I’ve talked with his cousin.”

Richardson received $5,000 in cash at the end of the meeting, the complaint said. Richardson was arrested on federal bribery and fraud charges on Sept. 26 and UA fired him on Jan. 11.

Stanford’s inspiration

The Cardinal’s surprising 96-61 romp over Oregon earlier this month might be due at least in part to an 11-year-old cancer patient.

Ty Whisler of Tahoe City, Calif., has been battling brain cancer for nearly 18 months while befriending several Cardinal players. Before the Oregon game, according to the Chronicle, he told Stanford players in a pre-game talk that “I’ve fought for the last year. Now you need to fight in your season! I want you to beat the quack out of the Ducks!”

Ty also sat on the Stanford bench last weekend when the Cardinal swept the Washington schools at Maples Pavilion.

Doctors couldn’t remove all of Whisler’s tumor in 2016 because it wrapped around his brain stem, though the Chronicle said the long-term survival rate is 70-80 percent if the cancer does not spread.

Whisler has required seven months of chemotherapy, forcing him to miss all of fourth grade. It helped that Stanford players have allowed him to attend practices and pregame meals while center Grant Verhoeven even took him miniature golfing, the Chronicle said.

“These players and coaches took him in as if he was their own child or their own brother,” Ty’s mother, Jill, told the Chronicle. “It helped so much with his healing process. As a parent, you can never say thank you enough.”

Numbers game

1

Victory that Dusan Ristic needs to tie Matt Muehlebach and Kaleb Tarczewski as the winningest player in UA basketball history.

3

Pac-12 coach of the year awards that Sean Miller and Lorenzo Romar have each won.

47

3-pointers Stanford’s Dorian Pickens has made in the past 15 games (hitting them at a 46.5-percent rate)