Scouting report: No. 6 Arizona Wildcats vs. Colorado Buffaloes

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 6-ranked Arizona Wildcats host the Colorado Buffaloes Thursday night at McKale Center.

What: Colorado (11-3, 3-1) at No. 6 Arizona (12-1, 2-0)

Where: McKale Center

When: 9 p.m.

TV: FS1

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)

COLORADO

G Elijah Parquet (6-4 senior)

G Keeshawn Barthelemy (6-2 sophomore)

F Tristan da Silva (6-9 sophomore)

F Jabari Walker (6-9 sophomore)

C Evan Battey (6-8 senior)

HOW THEY MATCH UP

The series: Arizona has never lost to Colorado in 10 games at McKale Center, the last nine of which came after the Buffs joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12. UA leads the series 21-15 overall and 16-7 in Pac-12 play, though the teams split a pair of games last season.

Arizona won 88-74 at McKale Center on Dec. 28, 2020, when the Wildcats shot 52.6% from the field overall and James Akinjo hit 5 of 7 3-pointers. Colorado won 82-79 on Feb. 6, 2021, at Boulder, where center Evan Battey had 21 points inside and the Buffs hit 11 of 20 3-pointers.

This season: The Wildcats and Buffaloes are scheduled to meet again on Feb. 26 in Boulder.

Colorado overview: Saying goodbye to veterans McKinley Wright (pro basketball), Jeriah Horne (Tulsa), Dallas Walton (Wake Forest) and D’Shawn Schwartz (George Mason) stripped the Buffaloes of significant experience that led them to the second round of last season’s NCAA Tournament. But it has also allowed a sophomore core of forward Jabari Walker, guard Keeshawn Barthelemy and forward Tristan da Silva to develop around senior guard Elijah Parquet and Battey, the Buffs’ senior center.

Walker has emerged as the Buffs’ leading scorer (13.4 ppg) and rebounder (8.4), while the physical, 260-pound Battey has become a reliable inside (55.9% from two) and occasionally from the outside (10 of 19) when he steps beyond the 3-point arc. Parquet is the Buffs' top defender.

Without Wright, Barthelemy has stepped into the full-time point guard role and takes the second-most shots on the team, while former UA signee KJ Simpson is averaging 19.0 minutes off the bench behind him. With Simpson out for concussion protocol on Sunday against Washington, freshman Julian Hammond contributed key minutes.

Struggling initially with all the changes in personnel, the Buffaloes' normally stiff defense has improved. Overall this season, Colorado ranks just 80th overall in defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to shoot 32.4% from 3-point range (137th overall) and 46.8% from two-point range (70th).

The Buffs are also average shooters, hitting 32.2% from 3 and 51.6% from two but they do excel on the glass, with the 14th best defensive rebounding percentage nationally (78.8) and pick up 32.0% of their missed shots (the 77th best offensive rebounding percentage).

He said it: “They lost really good players but they have two guys, Elijah Parquet and Evan Battey, who have played and started in a lot of games. Those two guys can play at any school in this league in the frontcourt. They put pressure on you on the offensive glass with their skill level, their size and aggressiveness.

“Barthelemy got better playing behind McKinley and Jabari Walker's a future NBA player. He's as talented as a frontcourt guy as there is in the conference. He’s really strong and he'll bully you in the paint. He's not shooting it great from the perimeter this year, but he's certainly capable. So they have great pieces. The sophomores have really stepped up. The experience they got from last year has really benefited them. You don't look at their roster and say, `Oh well they brought in five grad transfers and they're all new.’ No, those guys were in the Colorado program last year. They know the system that coach Boyle wants to run and they're doing a good job with it.

"(Barthelemy)last year he came in and he would make some shots. He was kind of like an X factor for them. He plays with great confidence, runs the team and does what they need him to do. If they run like something special, if they're looking to get a three or if they're looking to get a guy shot, usually it's for Barthelemy. That tells you all you need to know. They have a lot of confidence in him.

“KJ is a great kid and obviously we wish him nothing but health and success. As a true freshmen to come in the league and play the role he’s playing, he’s doing a good job. And Hammond is playing well.

“(Parquet) is a veteran. He picks and chooses his spots. He's a capable outside shooter, but another guy who can put pressure on the defense getting to the rim or shot faking and getting fouled. He does a good job in transition finishing. I wouldn't say that they're an unbelievably fast paced team, but they'll get out and run some especially if you're not back in transition.

"Da Silva starts on the perimeter and he can handle it, pass and shoot it. He's playing with way more confidence this year too. When either Walker or Battey goes out, da Silva can slide into the four or even sometimes it seems like the five. He is more than capable of defending three, four and five. He does a good job switching screens when they're all in there together.

“They're really good defensive team. I think that their analytics are a little bit behind where they're playing now. They're playing much better now. They're a top 50 defensive team in my book.”

— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Buffaloes.

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KEY PLAYERS

Colorado: Jabari Walker

The son of former NBA veteran Samaki Walker, Jabari made the Pac-12’s all-freshman team last season while playing off the bench for the Buffaloes, and he’s pushing for all-conference honors this time. Walker has a combination of strength, skills and aggression that makes him difficult to stop inside.

Arizona: Bennedict Mathurin

Now an early candidate for Pac-12 Player of the Year, Mathurin was actually held scoreless while missing all three shots he took against the Buffaloes at McKale Center last season. Chances are pretty good he will do better this time.

SIDELINES

Dinner can wait

When both Arizona’s men’s and women’s basketball teams were undefeated last month, men’s coach Tommy Lloyd said women’s coach Adia Barnes texted him to say “First one to lose buys dinner.”

That hasn’t happened yet. Partly because of COVID-19 and partly because, well, Lloyd has an issue to work out with Barnes.

As it turned out, the UA men lost on Dec. 22 at Tennessee … three days after the women’s team was supposed to play No. 11 Texas before the Wildcats ran into COVID issues.

“We’ll probably have to negotiate this,” Lloyd said, smiling. “Going on COVID pause and not playing that Texas game? And we had to play at Tennessee? I don’t know if that’s a fair break on my end.”

Seriously, though, Lloyd said he’ll get to the meal issue later. The UA men are 12-1 and the women are 11-1 after losing 76-67 at USC on Sunday.

“When you're coaching a season that parallels theirs — and when they're home, we're away and vice versa — you don't get a bunch of time to connect,” Lloyd said. “But I know they're having a great season and I'm sure they'll continue to really have a strong season. Her and I will catch up after the season.”

Boyle: LLoyd is coach of the year so far

When Colorado coach Tad Boyle scouted Arizona video last season, he’d see Azuolas Tubelis skillfully working his way to the basket, the high-ceiling potential of Bennedict Mathurin on the wing and Christian Koloko blocking shots inside.

Boyle even had a glance at guard Kerr Kriisa, who matched up grittily with former CU standout McKinley Wright during what was just Kriisa's second college career game in Boulder late last season.

This season, the veteran Buffs coach can see those same guys, except they’re 12-1 now.

“What I would say is Tommy Lloyd is the Coach of the Year at this point in our conference, and maybe nationally,” Boyle said. “Arizona, we knew they were good when Sean Miller was there and we knew they were going to be good when Tommy Lloyd was there. But the way they're playing right now offensively, the pace at which they play, and they’re averaging almost 22 assists a game?”

Boyle chuckled. Arizona averages 21.8 assists per game, and is second nationally in the percentage of made baskets that come off assists (66.8). Colorado averages 14.8 assists and ranks No. 205 in assist ratio (49.7).

“I think our high (in assists) this year is 17 and they’re averaging 22,” Boyle said. “They pass the ball and share the ball as well as anybody in the country. They’re legit, and they’re still good defensively.”

Pause, redefined

While Colorado ran into COVID-19 issues that resulted in called-off games against Kansas, Oregon and Oregon State over the past month, the Buffaloes really never paused except for the Christmas holiday.

They returned from nearly three weeks without games to beat Washington State and Washington at home last weekend, somewhat to Boyle’s surprise.

“We were fortunate in that lot of the guys who got it didn't have a lot of symptoms, so they were able to keep their cardio going,” Boyle said. “As we've experienced this thing, the biggest challenge to your players if they do test positive and have return-to-play protocol is keeping their conditioning at a level where when they come back, there's not too much of a drop off.

“We only had two practices with our entire team before our Washington State game so I was really nervous. I didn't know to expect. There was a little bit of rust, but we were fortunate to have come out of it and hopefully we can now state stay clear of it the rest of the season.”

Actually, the Buffaloes can't even take a breather now. CU plays at UA and ASU this weekend, then will host USC and UCLA next weekend.

“We're gonna find out a lot about ourselves over the next two weeks,” Boyle said. “We have tremendous opportunities and that's all you can ask for in life is opportunities. In December, we had the Tennessee game and the Kansas game. We did not pass the Tennessee test (a 69-54 loss). We didn't get a chance to play Kansas so we'll never know but now it's Arizona.”

The upside of downtime

The Wildcats’ extended layoff hasn’t resulted in any change in the status of forward Kim Aiken, whom Lloyd said continues to be away from the Wildcats since Dec. 8 for what the school has called a personal reason.

But the extra time did help guard Pelle Larsson, who missed portions of a Dec. 8 game against Wyoming and a Jan. 3 game against Washington while retreating to the locker room because of sprains to his left ankle.

“Time always heals most injuries,” Larsson said. “So in that case, the timeout has been good for me.

Numbers game

1 — Arizona men’s basketball games in the past 22 days.

14 — Colorado’s national rank in ability to get to the free throw line, as measured by Kenpom.com in ratio of free throws taken to field goals taken (39.1)

19 — Days between Colorado’s games with Cal State Bakersfield (Dec. 18) and Washington State (Jan. 6) because of Colorado COVID protocols that led to games with Kansas, Oregon and Oregon State being called off.