Scouting report: No. 24 Arizona Wildcats vs. Oregon State Beavers

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews all of the game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of Arizona's showdown with Oregon State.

Game info

Who: Oregon State (15-10, 5-8) at No. 24 Arizona (18-7, 8-4)

Where: McKale Center

When: Thursday, 6 p.m.

TV: Pac-12 Networks

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Pregame Wildcast Podcast

Probable starters: Arizona

G Nico Mannion (6-3 freshman)

G Dylan Smith (6-5 senior)

F Josh Green (6-6 freshman)

F Stone Gettings (6-9 senior)

C Zeke Nnaji (6-11 freshman)

Probable starters: Oregon State

G Ethan Thompson (6-5 junior)

G Zach Reichle (6-5 junior)

F Tres Tinkle (6-7 senior)

F Alfred Hollins (6-6 junior)

C Kylor Kelley (7-0 senior)

How they match up

The last time: Arizona allowed OSU to shoot 65.4% in the second half in what turned from a 31-31 halftime tie into the Beavers’ easy 82-65 win over the Wildcats on Jan. 12 at Gill Coliseum. Arizona shot just 34.5% overall after halftime and was outrebounded 31-28. Zeke Nnaji led Arizona with 21 points and nine rebounds but all five OSU starters scored in double figures.

The last time at McKale Center: Arizona hit 13 of 27 3-pointers while Ryan Luther totaled 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to an 82-71 win over OSU on Jan. 19, 2019. Chase Jeter left early in the game and missed the following two games after suffering a hard fall near the basket.

Series history: The Beavers haven’t beaten the Wildcats in Tucson in a decade, during Sean Miller’s first season at Arizona. The UA leads the series overall 65-22.

What’s new with the Beavers: After beating the Wildcats by 17 on Jan. 12, the Beavers went on a four-game losing streak that dragged them out of the Pac-12 race. They beat Oregon at home but only after losing at Cal, and have gone a combined 3-6 since playing Arizona.

The bright spots lately have been wing Zach Reichle, who is shooting 46.7% from beyond the arc (7-for-15) and averaging 8.5 points over the last four games while guard Ethan Thompson has averaged a team-best 15.0 points and 6.3 assists over the last three games, while hitting 9 of 10 free throws over that span. But while OSU star Tres Tinkle has scored 90 straight games in double figures, the longest streak in school history, he’s shooting just 28.2% from the field over his past three games.

He said it

“Not only is (Tinkle) one of the Pac-12’s best players but he’s one of the most experienced players. Ethan Thompson has done nothing but get better, and I think he’s come a long way as a point guard. He takes good care of the ball and uses his size to his advantage and scores at that position. Oregon State offensively is a terrific team. They’re a tough team to defend: They score from two, they score from the free-throw line, and they get to the free-throw line. In our last game, they were 13 for 16 from two in the second half. I don’t know too many teams that have done that to us. We couldn’t keep them off the foul line, and their starting five, a couple of their key role players played really, really well.

“Alfred Hollins and (Zach) Reichle both played very well against us. That was a big reason they had 51 points in the second half — they got contributions from a lot of different players. The other part is Oregon State played a lot of zone in the first game. I think we were comfortable against the zone back then, but we’re more comfortable against the zone right now.”

— UA coach Sean Miller

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Key player (Oregon State): Tres Tinkle

Seem like Tinkle’s been around for about a decade now? Maybe that’s because he has been a major contributor since 2015-16, when he scored 353 points as a freshman. Now, he’s the eighth all-time leading scorer in Pac-12 history (2,188), with a chance to crack the Top 5 if the Beavers have a postseason.

Key player (Arizona): Stone Gettings

Gettings was a limited factor in 15 minutes at Corvallis, but a lot has changed since then. The Wildcats were still starting Chase Jeter and Gettings was in just his third game back from a month-long rehabilitation of his head injury. While Tinkle could be a tricky matchup for him if the Beavers go small, on the other end of the floor, Gettings’ increasing confidence and versatile offense are making the Wildcats better against zone defenses like OSU’s.

Sidelines

Dammed up

After Oregon State beat Arizona on Jan. 12 with what coach Wayne Tinkle called the “most active” 2-3 zone defense the Beavers have had all season, they nearly fell off a cliff.

OSU lost four straight games, then split the Bay Area trip before beating Oregon and Utah at home — and were drubbed by Colorado 69-47 last Saturday in Corvallis.

Replicating that Jan. 12 game, and the defensive effort that held UA to 39.6% shooting, Tinkle said, has been a focus for everybody.

“It’s odd,” Tinkle told reporters in Corvallis earlier this week. “We practice well. It’s not like one day’s good, one day’s bad. So there’s no inconsistency there. I really think it’s maybe mindset at times where it’s tough to handle and get through struggles then sometimes it’s tough to handle success.

“We’ve kind have been at both ends of that. The big thing is, ‘guys, we’ve got to commit here for 40 minutes come game time and not have those ebbs and flows.’ I don’t know if it’s focus. I don’t know if it’s energy. I think it’s more the mental concentration of doing what we need to do.”

Rhythm shooter

Max Hazzard played less than eight minutes in UA’s Feb. 6 win over USC, leading UA coach Sean Miller said he felt badly that he didn’t play the former UC Irvine standout more, and that playing Hazzard 16 minutes “gives him the best chance to be himself.”

The stats bear that out. In every game but one (San Jose State) where he’s played 16 minutes or more, Hazzard has had at least one 3-pointer. He went 4 for 6 from 3 in 17 minutes against Long Beach State, 3-for-6 against Colorado in 17 minutes on Jan. 18 and 2-for-4 at Washington on Jan. 30 — while cramming in a 6-for-10 effort in just 17 minutes against Utah on Jan. 16.

But since the USC game, Hazzard has played only 14 minutes each against UCLA and Cal, and only 11 minutes at Stanford. In those three games, he’s 1 for 5 from long range. And taking out his combined 9-for-16 effort in that Utah-Colorado homestand, Hazzard is shooting just 24.0% from 3-point range in Pac-12 games.

“That’s basketball, man, that’s part of the season,” Hazzard said of the fluctuations.

“I’m in my fifth year, so I’ve had experiences like this before. It’s really just a matter of staying persistent, staying consistent, staying in the gym and stay ready because my time is gonna come.”

Hazzard said he’s improved greatly as a defensive player during his grad season at Arizona, saying “there’s so much more I do than just shooting the ball, but I know when I’m shooting it well, we’re at our best.”

Eternal springs

Sean Miller on @Double0AG losing the slam dunk contest: pic.twitter.com/xrbuehxFVg

— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) February 18, 2020

One of his sons showed Miller the YouTube videos of former Wildcat Aaron Gordon’s latest controversial loss in the NBA dunk competition.

Gordon also lost in 2016 despite a dazzling under-the-legs dunk as he elevated above the Orlando Magic mascot.

“It’s just he’s amazing how talented he is,” Miller said. “I didn’t realize he has more perfect scores in an NBA dunk contest or contest than any other player in history. It’s amazing he hasn’t won one of those two.”

Saying he felt like he should have “two trophies” by now, Gordon told ESPN he didn’t think he would do another dunk contest.

But he could. Maybe for many more years.

“Watching him jump, I feel like he’s been gone from our program for so long you forget how young he is,” Miller said. “He’s 25 years old. He’s got a lot of games left. So, it’s fun watching him grow as a player.”

Gordon is actually only 24, having turned pro after leaving Arizona as a freshman in 2014.

Numbers game

55

Points Tres Tinkle needs to pass Gary Payton as OSU’s all-time leading scorer.

74.2

OSU’s free-throw percentage, best in the Pac-12

11

Average OSU turnovers per game. The Beavers have the second-lowest turnover percentage (16.2) in the Pac-12.

55

Percent of Arizona’s overall rebounds (39 of 71) collected by perimeter players last week at Cal and Stanford.