Scouting report: No. 2 Arizona Wildcats vs. Stanford Cardinal

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 2-ranked Arizona Wildcats face Stanford Thursday night.

What: Stanford (15-13, 8-10) at No. 2 Arizona (26-3, 16-2)

Where: McKale Center

When: 7 p.m.

TV: ESPN2

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Social media: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

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)

STANFORD

G Michael O’Connell (6-2 sophomore)

G Harrison Ingram (6-7 freshman)

F Spencer Jones (6-7 junior)

F Jaiden Delaire (6-9 senior)

C James Keefe (6-9 junior)

How they match up

The last time: Backup center Oumar Ballo had a breakout night with 21 points, six rebounds and two blocks to lead Arizona to an 85-57 win over Stanford at Maples Pavilion on Jan. 20. Ballo’s efforts were key for the Wildcats in a game when forward Azuolas Tubelis suffered a high ankle sprain and center Christian Koloko played just eight minutes while picking up four fouls and committing three turnovers.

The last time at McKale Center: After losing 20 straight games to Arizona through the 2019-20 season, Stanford completed a season sweep of the Wildcats on Jan. 28, 2021 at McKale Center, when Jaiden Delaire had 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting and the Wildcats shot only 41.5% from the field. Stanford snapped the streak a month earlier with a 78-75 win over Arizona in Santa Cruz, Calif.

What’s new with the Cardinal: Despite a big and veteran team that has four quadrant one wins — including two over USC — Stanford has fizzled in the second half of Pac-12 play. The Cardinal has lost five of its past six games, including a dreary 53-39 loss at California last Saturday in which it shot just 23.5% from the field. In that game, Stanford hit just 4 of 28 shots in the first half while Cal scored 19 straight points after the game was tied early at 4-4.

Stanford has the highest turnover percentage (22.5) of any team in Pac-12 play, and while it shoots reasonably well from two-point range (48.5), it has the second-lowest two-point percentage defense (52.5) in Pac-12 games.

Stanford’s strongest asset continues to be its rebounding. The Cardinal leads the Pac-12 in defensive rebounding percentage (57.7) and is fourth in offensive rebounding percentage (33.2) in conference games. Overall, Stanford has outrebounded its opponent in 23 of 28 games — including a 42-39 edge over Arizona on Jan. 20.

Leading scorer Spencer Jones is averaging 13.0 points over his last eight games, including a 22-point effort against UCLA in which he shot 9 for 14 from the field and a 24-point effort against Washington State when he shot 10 for 14. Jones had nine points on 3-for-10 shooting against Arizona but his three makes were all from 3-point range. However, another of Stanford’s top inside-outside threats, Jaiden Delaire, has averaged just 8.8 points over his past five games. Freshman Harrison Ingram has also averaged just 4.3 points over his past three games.

Tucson guard Sam Beskind has continued to play spot minutes, while also starting on Feb. 19 at home against Colorado, counted on to bring energy and defense off the bench. He hit a 3-pointer against Cal on his only try and has averaged 7.4 minutes in his past 10 games.

Key player (Stanford): Jaiden Delaire

Of Stanford's many big inside-outside threats, Delaire is also a veteran who led the Cardinal to a win at McKale Center last season. He had 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting.

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Key player (Arizona): Azuolas Tubelis

Even before suffering a severe ankle sprain at Stanford on Jan. 20, Tubelis has had tough times against the Cardinal, a team loaded with hybrid forwards he matches up with. Tubelis had four points while leaving after just seven minutes on Jan. 20, and had just 14 combined points in two games against the Cardinal last season.

Sidelines

Wildcats, unfiltered

Thanks to Oumar Ballo and some of his teammates, the raw emotion of the Wildcats’ Pac-12 championship could be seen inside their locker room via live Instagram video following their win at USC on Tuesday.

“Bear Down. Bear Down. Bear Down. Bear Down. Bear Down,” Ballo said into the video, gesturing and smiling wildly while teammates danced and jumped around behind him.

That scene was a marked difference from UA’s official postgame interview, when a cooled-down Bennedict Mathurin and Justin Kier to meet with the media outside the locker room.

“We worked hard for it all year,” Kier said, when asked how winning the title felt. “Credit to USC. They’re a good team. They play hard. They didn’t stop today and they kept fighting so credit to them. But this is what we worked hard for.”

In the future, fans may only see locker room videos that are officially released by UA or at least livestreams that start after Lloyd addresses the Wildcats. Lloyd told the Wildcats in the locker room that “this is the standard for this program,” and wanted to keep the huddle private.

“I don’t love videos posted out of the locker room because that’s my time with the guys,” Lloyd said. “We’ll have to tighten some things up.”

It’s hardly unusual, however, for a team to guard its postgame locker room scene carefully. Under former coach Sean Miller, the Wildcats only sometimes posted his postgame address after big wins via its official social media channels.

Stromer lists Arizona among top four

Two days after Arizona landed its first 2023 commitment, from five-star guard Kylan Boswell, the Wildcats made a list of four schools by four-star 2023 guard Dusty Stromer of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Stromer also listed Gonzaga, Houston and UCLA, and UA guard Dalen Terry wasted no time giving Stromer some “advice.”

“Don’t gotta say too much youngin,” Terry posted in reply to Stromer’s Instagram post. “We champs ova here.”

Not in the Card

Losing six of nine games in February ensured Stanford will miss its ninth straight NCAA Tournament this season — barring an unexpected romp through the Pac-12 Tournament next week — though the Cardinal might have had an argument in 2019-20 with a 20-12 record before that season’s event was canceled.

And on Saturday, even probable Pac-12 freshman of the year Harrison Ingram couldn’t save the Cardinal. The team’s leading scorer, Ingram was just 2 for 10 from the field while Stanford Stanford shot just 23.5% overall.

Despite having won six Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards this season, Ingram is now averaging just 4.3 points over his past three games.

“We need to find ways to get him involved in the right places and he needs to make those plays,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said during his postgame radio interview Saturday at Cal. “His experiences and his production this year has been unbelievable. It’s very, very rare in today’s game for a freshman to have the success he’s had but we do need to rely on him somewhat and as a coach I need to put him in positions where he can be successful.

Pac-12 tourney times set

Because Arizona has clinched the No. 1 Pac-12 Tournament team, the Wildcats’ tipoff times are set for whatever games they play next week in Las Vegas.

UA will open in the Pac-12 quarterfinals on Thursday, March 10 at 1 p.m. on Pac-12 Networks against the winner of the No. 8 vs No. 9 game (currently, Stanford and ASU are in those slots based on having identical 8-10 records).

If UA wins that game, it will advance to a 7 p.m. semifinal on Friday March 11 on Pac-12 Networks against either the No. 4, 5 or 12 seeds. Currently, Oregon is fourth, Colorado is fifth, while OSU will be No. 12.

The championship game will be held on March 12 at 7 p.m. on Fox.

Numbers game

2: Arizona’s national ranking in average height (6 feet 7.4 inches)

3:– Stanford’s national ranking in average height (6-7.1).

5:Power conference teams that didn’t take a single transfer before the 2020-21 season, including Stanford, Colorado, Connecticut, Villanova and Purdue.

20: Approximate number of friends and family members of Stanford guard Sam Beskind expects to be on hand Thursday to support the Catalina Foothills graduate.