Scouting report: No. 3 Arizona Wildcats vs. Oregon Ducks

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 3-ranked Arizona Wildcats host the Oregon Ducks Saturday night.

What: Oregon (17-5, 10-5) at No. 3 Arizona (23-2, 13-1)

Where: McKale Center

When: 8 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: 1290-AM 

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)

Probable starters: Oregon

G Will Richardson (6-5 senior)

G Jacob Young (6-3 senior)

F De’Vion Harmon (6-2 junior)

F Quincy Guerrier (6-8 junior)

C N’Faly Dante (6-11 junior)

How they match up

The series: Oregon has won seven straight over the Wildcats and was 13-10 against Arizona during the Sean Miller era, last beating UA 80-69 win in Eugene to finish out Arizona’s postseason-less 2020-21 season.

This season: The Wildcats and Ducks will not meet at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene this season because of the Pac-12’s unbalanced 20-game schedule. UA is playing all Pac-12 teams twice except Oregon (skipping Eugene) and WSU (skipping a home game with the Cougars).

Oregon overview: Picked to finish second in the Pac-12’s preseason media poll, the Ducks have confused just about everybody. With a long history of meshing heavy loads of transfers — four-year transfers, juco transfers and grad transfers alike — the Ducks almost always seem to figure it out by February no matter how many newcomers they have. And they started to this season, winning 9 of 10 Pac-12 games right after New Year’s before skidding lately with a home loss to Cal on Feb. 12 and a road blowout loss at ASU on Thursday.

The Ducks have been a decent shooting team, especially inside, shooting 51.8% from the field in conference games from two-point range. But they are only average at getting to the line (with the seventh-best ratio of free throws taken to field goals taken) in conference play, and they shoot only 66.7% from the line in conference games when they get there.

On the defensive side, the Ducks are holding Pac-12 opponents to just 30.0% shooting from two-point range with a defense that switches formations often, sometimes within the same possession. But they allowed ASU to make 9 of 20 3-pointers while shooting 57.4% overall on Thursday in the Sun Devils’ 81-57 win.

While the Ducks lost three starters off a team that won the Pac-12 regular-season title last season, they have a familiar look with their personnel: Veteran guard Will Richardson is the team’s top scorer and top 3-point threat, while there are loads of versatile, physical wings and forwards that Altman can mix in to try to create mismatches, including returnee Eric Williams, Syracuse transfer Quincy Guerrier and Oklahoma transfer De’Vion Harmon.

He said it: “The credit (Thursday) goes to Arizona State. They played a really good game and, we’ve seen it, they played really hard. Oregon is a talented team. They’ve struggled obviously but the games they won against USC and UCLA — that’s the Oregon I expect to see. They’re gonna come with energy. They know they’ve got to win this game and they’re still in the race for the Pac-12 championship.

“(Altman) has been highly successful doing that kind of (switching) defense. They have the same structure in their team. Will Richardson and Jacob Young can create their own shots. Guerrier is a four-man, Harmon is more of a three but both are very aggressive. They shoot the three and like to drive and jump into you. So you have to be very careful, play them straight up and then don’t give them anything easy.

“A little like UCLA, they try to get mismatches and get the ball where they want. This is a team with a lot of guys who know how to play basketball. They have a lot of guys who been in a lot of high-level basketball games."

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

Key player (Oregon): Will Richardson

If the Ducks beat the Wildcats in a close one again, chances are the game-winning assist comes from Richardson, who set up Shakur Juiston to do so in 2019-20 and Chris Duarte last season. Richardson is 6-0 against Arizona, the common link to all but the Ducks’ first of seven straight wins over the Wildcats. He’s also probably aching to break out of a 3-point slump in which he’s shot just 18.2% from long range over his past four games.

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Key player (Arizona): Azuolas Tubelis

The Lithuanian power forward’s ankle sprain appears to be all but behind him now, or at least he’s behaving that way with at least 14 points in his last six games. But he’ll be challenged defensively against an Oregon team that mostly plays smaller forwards who can work it inside or outside.

Sidelines

Greenberg: ESPN-Miller situation was ‘difficult’

Nearly four years after both he and fellow ESPN analyst Jay Bilas publicly doubted that former UA coach Sean Miller would coach in college again, following an ESPN report in February 2018 that said Miller discussed paying then-UA star Deandre Ayton with agent Christian Dawkins, they are scheduled to return to McKale Center as part of the "College GameDay" crew.

In a Zoom call Monday to promote "GameDay" on Friday, Greenberg said he gave an opinion based on the information he had received.

“Sean and I have talked this year and we hadn't talked prior to this year,” said Greenberg, formerly a head coach at Long Beach State, South Florida and Virginia Tech. “I was in a business a really long time, and there are certain things that impact your career, and the things that were being alleged surely impact your career. And to be honest with you, it was a very, very difficult situation to be in.

“But I can only speak from my experience. I’m not in the NCAA. I could just report on the information that I received and have an opinion on it. And that's what I did.”

Miller coached another three seasons with the Wildcats but was fired in April amid Arizona’s still-pending NCAA infractions case. In October 2020, Arizona was handed an NCAA notice of allegations that included five Level I (most serious) charges, including allegations against former assistant coaches Book Richardson and Mark Phelps for unethical conduct, academic misconduct and trying to cover up a loan.

Miller was handed a Level I charge for a lack of head coach responsibility, though a link between Miller and Ayton was not mentioned. The director of a 2020 HBO documentary entitled “The Scheme” said Dawkins made it clear he never talked with Miller about paying Ayton but "did have that conversation with Book."

Maybe C-Lo woulda hit 'em

After Arizona beat Oregon State on Thursday night, center Christian Koloko was asked if Oregon was the team he went to the free throw line against.

“It was. Freshman year," Koloko said, smiling. "So you remember that?"

As a freshman in 2019-20, Koloko had been sent to the free-throw line with 1.4 seconds left in overtime at McKale Center, having been inserted into an overtime game with the Ducks for defensive reasons but picking up a foul at a pressure-packed time. He missed both free throws and the Wildcats lost 73-72.

While Koloko appeared to be handling that memory well Thursday, teammate Dalen Terry still came to his defense. 

“He’s a lot different now,” Terry said. “So I think we should talk about something else.”

But Koloko carried right along. Asked what he got out of the experience, he said with a smile “just got to make my free throws” — and he has.

Koloko hit just 7 of 20 free throws as a freshman in 2019-20, to a 62.5% shooter last season and now makes 74.1% from the line.

Clearly a different player at the line these days, Koloko can smile about it now. So can Terry.

“Listen, listen, listen,” Terry said. “Christian Koloko was freshman year. He is 'C-Lo' now. That’s a whole different person.”

Five-star visitor Kylan Boswell returns

When 2023 five-star point guard Kylan Boswell took an unofficial visit to Arizona last August, after leading his teams to titles both in the Section 7 high school team tournament and in the club-ball Peach Jam, UA coach Tommy Lloyd didn’t have quite as much to sell.

Lloyd had yet to coach a game with the Wildcats, with Boswell still tweeting then  that he had a “great visit” with Lloyd, then UA-assistant coach Jason Terry and assistants Jack Murphy and TJ Benson.

Things will be a little different Saturday when Boswell returns as part of his official visit: The Wildcats are 23-2, ESPN and its "College GameDay" crew are in town and the Wildcats have a chance to end a long losing streak to Oregon and all but wrap up a Pac-12 title.

It all might be just in time for the Wildcats. Boswell is technically still listing eight finalists but is making UA his third official visit after UNLV and Illinois and told WCIA-TV of Champaign, Ill., that “a decision might be coming soon.”

Boswell grew up in the Champaign-Urbana area but played last season in Southern California for Corona Centennial and is now playing for AZ Compass Prep in Chandler.

“It’s coming back home, hometown hero,” Boswell told WCIA of what it would mean to play for the Illini. “It’s always going to be at the top, my family’s here, all of that is here. It would be a blessing to come back and play here.”

Numbers game

2 — Arizona wins in its past 12 games against Oregon, and none in the past seven.

67.0 — Oregon’s free throw shooting percentage, ranking 319 nationally.

43.9 — Oregon’s ratio of assists to made field goals, ranking 317 nationally.