Scouting report: No. 8 Arizona Wildcats vs. Colorado Buffaloes

Probable starters

COLORADO

G Luke O’Brien (6-8 junior)

G KJ Simpson (6-2 sophomore)

F Tristan da Silva (6-9 junior)

F Nique Clifford (6-6 junior)

C Lawson Lovering (7-1 so.)

ARIZONA

G Kerr Kriisa (6-3 junior)

G Courtney Ramey (6-3 senior)

F Cedric Henderson (6-6 senior)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-11 junior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 junior)

How they match up

The series: The Wildcats lead the all-time series 23-16 and are 10-0 against Colorado at McKale Center since the Buffs joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12. Last season, Arizona won two of three matchups against CU, winning 76-55 on Jan. 13 at McKale, when the Wildcats shot 50.9% from the field and held Colorado to 32.8% shooting overall. Colorado avenged its loss on Feb. 26 in Boulder, when the Buffs held Arizona to 39.2% shooting in a 79-63 game that snapped the Wildcats’ nine-game winning streak.

In the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals, Arizona beat Colorado 82-72 despite playing without point guard Kerr Kriisa, who suffered a significant ankle sprain in a quarterfinal game against Stanford. Justin Kier started in Kriisa’s place, collecting 13 points and three assists with two turnovers, while Azuolas Tubelis led the Wildcats with 20 points and 11 rebounds

This season: The Wildcats and Buffaloes are not scheduled to meet in Boulder because of the Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule. That’s probably a good thing for Arizona, which has lost five straight to Colorado there.

Colorado overview

Picked to finish sixth in the Pac-12, the Buffaloes are just about there with four games left in their season. Colorado is tied for seventh place after beating ASU 67-59 on Thursday but has taken a wild ride to get there. After following up a loss to Grambling State with a win at Tennessee early in the season, Colorado went on to lose eight of its first 12 Pac-12 games. Since then, the Buffs have swept Cal and Stanford at home and, after losing 74-62 at Utah last Saturday, beat ASU.

Without talented big man Jabari Walker and rugged veteran Evan Battey this season, the Buffs have relied heavily on former UA guard signee KJ Simpson and versatile forward Tristan da Silva.

Simpson is leading the Buffaloes in scoring (16.2) and assists (3.8) while shooting 40.9% from the field. He also draws 5.0 fouls per 40 minutes played and hits free throws at a 82.3% rate. Da Silva is leading the Buffaloes in scoring during Pac-12 games (16.5) while shooting 49.5% overall and 44.4% from 3-point range.

Defensively, the Buffs have the second-best efficiency in Pac-12 games, allowing just 92.9 points per 100 opponent possessions, and rank first in defensive rebounding percentage (73.8) and defensive turnover percentage (21.9). They hold teams to an effective field goal percentage of 47.2 (with 50% extra added to 3-point shots), while Pac-12 teams shoot 30.1% from 3 and 48.3% from 2 against them.

Offensively, the Buffaloes are mediocre shooters and turnover-prone. In Pac-12 play, they rank last in percentage of shots that are blocked (13.4) and percentage of possessions that end in a steal (11.6).

Starting forward J’Vonne Hadley was lost for the season earlier this month with a right finger injury, with Yale transfer Jalen Gabbidon soaking up some of his minutes. Junior forward Luke O’Brien received his first start of the season on Thursday at ASU, responding with nine points, 10 rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes.

Key players

COLORADO — KJ Simpson

Maybe it’s no surprise that a player who pulled out of his Arizona letter-of-intent after Sean Miller was fired in April 2021 played well against the Wildcats last season at McKale Center: He had a then-career-high 17 points while hitting 2 of 3 3-pointers with four assists to just one turnover. Simpson has been more consistent and productive as a full-time starter as a sophomore this season.

ARIZONA — Azuolas Tubelis

Two straight foul-plagued games, including a self-induced one Thursday when he kicked the ball into the stands, are way off course for Arizona’s most consistent and productive player. Odds are that he reverts to the mean, especially against an undersized Colorado interior defense.

Sidelines

Lucky charms

The way guard Kerr Kriisa described it in his postgame interview with Bill Walton on Thursday, Arizona’s 88-62 win over Utah wasn’t just about avenging the Utes’ 81-66 win over Arizona on Dec. 1.

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It was also about the fact that UA walk-on Luc Krystkowiak is the son of former Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak, who was fired by Utah after the 2020-21 season. Luc, known on the team by his family nickname of “Lucky” in order to avoid confusion with fellow walk-on Luke Champion, even hit a layup with 30 seconds left.

“Obviously we had to get revenge … we slipped at Utah a few months ago, so we really wanted to beat them,” Kriisa said. “And of course, Luc Krystkowiak, I think that’s the best part of the night. Utah screws his family over, and we just get right back at them.”

That’s a characteristically blunt assessment from Kriisa, of course. Luc Krystkowiak said the Wildcats mostly just wanted to avenge the Dec. 1 game in Salt Lake City, while UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Luc “and his family have nothing but good things to say about Utah.”

While it may have looked curious that Lloyd was playing Krystkowiak for only the second time all season — and first since UA’s season opener — Lloyd said part of that has to do with not being able to travel more than 15 players for Pac-12 games.

“I wanted to give him the opportunity to play today,” Lloyd said. “He grew up on that campus, and I’m sure playing against Utah has special meaning for him. For him to get the opportunity and score a basket was really cool.”

Zu keeper

After Tubelis picked up a technical foul for kicking a ball in the first half Thursday against Utah, Lloyd had to adjust his Friday calendar with a little meeting.

“We’ll deal with that tomorrow,” Lloyd said after the game. “He and I have already talked about it a little bit, but he’s a great guy, and obviously he’s not proud of what he did.”

Lloyd benched Tubelis for the rest of the half after he picked up the technical five minutes into the game and commended Tubelis for playing well while scoring 11 points in the second half. But Lloyd still wasn’t happy with how Tubelis kicked the ball toward the UA student section after picking up a personal foul.

“You can’t do what Zu did,” Lloyd said. “Zu is a great kid. He’s had an incredible year, but you can’t boot the ball up into the stands. This isn’t like open gym. I mean, this is a game with rules and customs and standards.

“So obviously a disappointing decision by Zu.”

New-look Buffs

While Colorado may be putting up defensively sound numbers, the Buffs still have a huge hole in the middle. They not only lost Walker and Battey before this season but also now are playing without Hadley.

“I probably underestimated how the loss of Jabari Walker and Evan Battey would affect this team,” Boyle said Friday. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in every player that we recruit, but the reality is, even Tristan (da Silva) and KJ (Simpson) are in totally different roles this year.

“Last year they were supportive guys, so they’ve grown into those roles. And then everybody else has kind of grown into supporting roles as well. Some guys have done that better than others.”

The move has meant opportunity for Simpson, the former UA signee.

“It’s been good individually, but team-wise a bit up and down,” Simpson said. “I feel like a lot of improvement for sure, but sophomore year, it’s kind of what you expect.”

Lloyd off Naismith list

By guiding Arizona to a 33-4 record in his rookie year as head coach last season, Lloyd nearly swept the national coach-of-the-year awards except for the Naismith version, which went to Providence’s Ed Cooley.

This season, the Naismith Award did not include Lloyd among 15 coaches on its late-season watch list.

Miller, now at Xavier, and UCLA’s Mick Cronin were among the 15 coaches named to this list. The others: Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s; Jeff Capel, Pittsburgh; Chris Collins, Northwestern; Dennis Gates, Missouri; Pat Kelsey, College of Charleston; Dusty May. Florida Atlantic; Nate Oats, Alabama; T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State; Matt Painter, Purdue; Kelvin Sampson, Houston; Shaka Smart, Marquette; Jerome Tang, Kansas State; and Rodney Terry, Texas

More NBA guys

Not only is Zeke Nnaji of the Denver Nuggets scheduled to be inducted into the Arizona Ring of Honor for being the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019-20, but the Wildcats could have several other “NBA alums” on hand Saturday against Colorado thanks to the off time afforded by the NBA All-Star Weekend.

Among the possible attendees are the three players UA lost to the NBA last spring: Bennedict Mathurin, Christian Koloko and Dalen Terry. Another UA player last season, Justin Kier of the G League’s Austin Spurs, has been in town while taking the NBA All-Star week off

Mathurin was scheduled to play in the NBA’s Rising Stars game on Friday in Salt Lake City.

Numbers game

0 — Times Arizona has lost in back-to-back games under Lloyd.

2 — Wins in eight true road games Colorado has played this season.

7 — Sellouts in a row that Arizona is expecting at McKale Center, counting Saturday’s game against Colorado and the Feb. 25 home finale against ASU, the most in a row since a nine-game sellout string in 2017-18.