Scouting report: No. 19 Arizona Wildcats vs. Grand Canyon Antelopes
- Updated
Prepare for Arizona's game against Grand Canyon on Wednesday night with Bruce Pascoe's in-depth scouting report.
Matchup: Grand Canyon (5-4) at No. 19 Arizona (8-2)
Location: McKale Center, Tucson
Time: 9 p.m.
TV: ESPNU
Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
The series: Arizona hasn’t played Grand Canyon since the Phoenix school began transitioning to Division I in 2013. In fact, the two programs only met four times, during games at McKale Center over four straight seasons from 1977-78 to 1980-81. The Wildcats won all of them.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Injuries and a challenging nonconference schedule have tested the Lopes in their final season before full Division I membership. They are without second-leading scorer Joshua Braun, a preseason all-WAC pick, but high-powered point guard DeWayne Russell has scored more than a third of the Lopes’ points, hitting 3-pointers at a 46.4-percent rate, possessing a 2-1 assist-turnover ratio and grabbing 10 steals. The Lopes average 73 points with a mix of transfers and players they recruited out of high school, including onetime Pac-12 target Oscar Frayer. Forward Darion Clark arrived via the grad transfer route from USC after averaging 11 minutes last season for the Trojans.
After leading Peoria High School to the Arizona 3A title in 2012, Russell debuted at McKale Center by scoring 13 points and six rebounds for NAU in November 2012. Four years later, he returns as a dynamic veteran star for the Antelopes.
The Wildcats’ Finnish sensation struggled with foul trouble at Missouri but he often learns quickly from his mistakes. Like most teams, GCU doesn’t have a natural player to match up with him, either.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
“Russell had 42 against Louisville and he’s not alone. They’ve done an excellent job of recruiting and have some unbelievable players. Russell can shoot threes when he’s off and on the ball. He has a great pullup jumper and they’ll screen off and on the ball for him. They get after it. They push the ball. (Defensively) they’re mostly man but they’ll mix in some zone. I think we have to be prepared for several things.” — UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack, who scouted the Antelopes.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Top high school prospects now play recruiting showcase games anywhere from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the spring and summer, so maybe that will pay off for the Arizona Wildcats in a week when they have Wednesday’s 9 p.m. tipoff sandwiched between 10 a.m. starts against Missouri and Texas A&M.
Maybe, it will even help sometime next spring, too.
“I think that’s all part of the path of a college basketball season,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “For a coaching staff and players you have to adjust to those odd times. The NCAA Tournament can present that to you. You have that early start in the East and Midwest; you’ve done all this work and it’s very, very difficult tournament to be in be in and you want to have the best chance to advance.”
Miller said UA players had a 6:30 a.m. (Arizona time) pregame breakfast on Saturday at Missouri, and they’ll probably have the same thing this Saturday in Houston before facing Texas A&M.
“Some teams maybe have that as an excuse,” Miller said. “We did it.”
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Wednesday’s game will be a reunion for UA freshman Lauri Markkanen and Grand Canyon guard Fiifi Aidoo, a Finnish player who moved from Ghana when he was five.
The two played together at the Helsinki Basketball Academy – coached by former Utah standout Hanno Mottola -- and for the Finland U20 national team last summer.
“I really know him well, so it’s kind of fun to go against him,” Markkanen said. “I haven’t talked to him too much but I just said `I’m looking forward to Wednesday.’ That’s it.”
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Having played at Pitt in the late 1980s and early 1990s, UA coach Sean Miller said he became aware of Dan Majerle when he played for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.
So did everyone else, apparently.
“As the story goes, 103 players tried out and I was the 103rd," Majerle said of the Olympic tryouts. Assistant “coach (George) Raveling didn’t even know my name. He kept calling me “Major-lee. But I kept pushing and every cut I survived and survived. Then they said I was the token white guy but I ended up playing the most minutes. It was just a great experience.”
Phoenix Suns fans also booed the selection of Majerle during the 1988 draft -- and he became a three-time NBA all-Star.
Now he’s coaching a team aiming to go from Division II to the Top 25 of Division I as fast as possible, and borrowing some philosophies from that 1988 Olympic coach, John Thompson, as well as NBA coaches Cotton Fitzsimmons (Suns) and Pat Riley (Heat) that he played under.
“I take a lot from every coach I’ve had, but you gotta be true to yourself,” Majerle said. “I coach like I played – I’m very fiery and I get after it. The way Cotton handled players, and John Thompson, just his intensity and how much he demanded from you. He pushed us. I get a lot of that from coach Riley, too.”
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
0: Grand Canyon wins in five games alltime against teams in the AP Top 25, two of which came this season (at Duke and against Louisville).
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
2: Russell’s ranking among all Division I scorers, behind only Marcus Keene (30.8) of Central Michigan, Majerle’s alma mater.
- Bruce Pascoe Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
358: Games Arizona has played against in-state schools, only four against GCU but 230 against ASU and 124 against NAU.
The series: Arizona hasn’t played Grand Canyon since the Phoenix school began transitioning to Division I in 2013. In fact, the two programs only met four times, during games at McKale Center over four straight seasons from 1977-78 to 1980-81. The Wildcats won all of them.
Injuries and a challenging nonconference schedule have tested the Lopes in their final season before full Division I membership. They are without second-leading scorer Joshua Braun, a preseason all-WAC pick, but high-powered point guard DeWayne Russell has scored more than a third of the Lopes’ points, hitting 3-pointers at a 46.4-percent rate, possessing a 2-1 assist-turnover ratio and grabbing 10 steals. The Lopes average 73 points with a mix of transfers and players they recruited out of high school, including onetime Pac-12 target Oscar Frayer. Forward Darion Clark arrived via the grad transfer route from USC after averaging 11 minutes last season for the Trojans.
After leading Peoria High School to the Arizona 3A title in 2012, Russell debuted at McKale Center by scoring 13 points and six rebounds for NAU in November 2012. Four years later, he returns as a dynamic veteran star for the Antelopes.
The Wildcats’ Finnish sensation struggled with foul trouble at Missouri but he often learns quickly from his mistakes. Like most teams, GCU doesn’t have a natural player to match up with him, either.
“Russell had 42 against Louisville and he’s not alone. They’ve done an excellent job of recruiting and have some unbelievable players. Russell can shoot threes when he’s off and on the ball. He has a great pullup jumper and they’ll screen off and on the ball for him. They get after it. They push the ball. (Defensively) they’re mostly man but they’ll mix in some zone. I think we have to be prepared for several things.” — UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack, who scouted the Antelopes.
Top high school prospects now play recruiting showcase games anywhere from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. throughout the spring and summer, so maybe that will pay off for the Arizona Wildcats in a week when they have Wednesday’s 9 p.m. tipoff sandwiched between 10 a.m. starts against Missouri and Texas A&M.
Maybe, it will even help sometime next spring, too.
“I think that’s all part of the path of a college basketball season,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “For a coaching staff and players you have to adjust to those odd times. The NCAA Tournament can present that to you. You have that early start in the East and Midwest; you’ve done all this work and it’s very, very difficult tournament to be in be in and you want to have the best chance to advance.”
Miller said UA players had a 6:30 a.m. (Arizona time) pregame breakfast on Saturday at Missouri, and they’ll probably have the same thing this Saturday in Houston before facing Texas A&M.
“Some teams maybe have that as an excuse,” Miller said. “We did it.”
Wednesday’s game will be a reunion for UA freshman Lauri Markkanen and Grand Canyon guard Fiifi Aidoo, a Finnish player who moved from Ghana when he was five.
The two played together at the Helsinki Basketball Academy – coached by former Utah standout Hanno Mottola -- and for the Finland U20 national team last summer.
“I really know him well, so it’s kind of fun to go against him,” Markkanen said. “I haven’t talked to him too much but I just said `I’m looking forward to Wednesday.’ That’s it.”
Having played at Pitt in the late 1980s and early 1990s, UA coach Sean Miller said he became aware of Dan Majerle when he played for the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.
So did everyone else, apparently.
“As the story goes, 103 players tried out and I was the 103rd," Majerle said of the Olympic tryouts. Assistant “coach (George) Raveling didn’t even know my name. He kept calling me “Major-lee. But I kept pushing and every cut I survived and survived. Then they said I was the token white guy but I ended up playing the most minutes. It was just a great experience.”
Phoenix Suns fans also booed the selection of Majerle during the 1988 draft -- and he became a three-time NBA all-Star.
Now he’s coaching a team aiming to go from Division II to the Top 25 of Division I as fast as possible, and borrowing some philosophies from that 1988 Olympic coach, John Thompson, as well as NBA coaches Cotton Fitzsimmons (Suns) and Pat Riley (Heat) that he played under.
“I take a lot from every coach I’ve had, but you gotta be true to yourself,” Majerle said. “I coach like I played – I’m very fiery and I get after it. The way Cotton handled players, and John Thompson, just his intensity and how much he demanded from you. He pushed us. I get a lot of that from coach Riley, too.”
0: Grand Canyon wins in five games alltime against teams in the AP Top 25, two of which came this season (at Duke and against Louisville).
2: Russell’s ranking among all Division I scorers, behind only Marcus Keene (30.8) of Central Michigan, Majerle’s alma mater.
358: Games Arizona has played against in-state schools, only four against GCU but 230 against ASU and 124 against NAU.
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