The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews all of the game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of the Arizona Wildcats' road contest against Washington State in Pullman.
Who: Arizona (14-6, 4-3) at Washington State (13-9, 4-5)
Where: Beasley Coliseum, Pullman, Wash
When: Saturday, 6 p.m.
TV: Pac-12 Arizona
Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook
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)
WASHINGTON STATE
G Isaac Bonton (6-3 junior)
G Noah Williams (6-5 freshman)
F CJ Elleby (6-6 sophomore)
F Jervae Robinson (6-2 senior)
C Jeff Pollard (6-9 senior)
HOW THEY MATCH UP
The series: WSU forward Robert Franks scored 34 points with 8-of-11 3-point shooting to help the Cougars flatten the Wildcats 69-55 at McKale Center in the teams’ only meeting last season. The loss was UA’s fifth straight and first loss to the Cougars since coach Sean Miller’s first UA season of 2009-10. But the Wildcats are 13-3 against WSU under Miller and 64-17 overall.
This season: The Cougars will return Saturday’s game on Thursday, March 5 at McKale Center.
Washington State overview: Picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12 this season, the Cougars are ahead of schedule under new coach Kyle Smith, who found earlier success at Columbia and San Francisco. It helped that they returned three starters, including preseason all-conference pick CJ Elleby. The sophomore wing from Seattle has scored 20 or more points in 13 games, including a 27-point effort to help the Cougars beat ASU on Wednesday.
The Cougars have been effective as a team lately from 3-point range, hitting 42% in their last five games, and getting solid point guard ballhandling and shooting from junior college transfer Isaac Bonton, who averages 14.5 points and 4.0 assists while shooting 33.9% from 3-point range. Bonton has the 164th-best assist rate in Division I, dishing the assist on teammates’ baskets 26.4% of the time he’s on the floor. The Cougars are sound with the ball, turning it over on only 16.4% of possessions, the 29th lowest percentage in Division I.
On the defensive side the Cougars can also cause plenty of trouble. WSU opponents average 15.9 turnovers a game, and the Cougars have the second-best defensive turnover rate in Pac-12 games, with their conference opponents losing the ball on 21.2% of possessions. They steal the ball on 9.4% of opponent possessions in league play, ranking fourth in the Pac-12, with both Elleby and freshman wing Noah Williams posting steal rates in the top 500 nationally.
While WSU’s shooting percentages are similar at home and on the road, the Cougars’ turnover margin is plus-4.8 at home and just plus-1.2 on the road, and they average nearly 10 more points a game at home. All that helps explain why WSU is 11-2 overall and 4-1 against Pac-12 opponents at home, with USC the only conference team to have beaten them at Beasley Coliseum (WSU beat UCLA, both Oregon schools and ASU at home.)
He said it
Arizona coach Sean Miller calls to his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, in Seattle. Arizona won 75-72. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
“Kyle Smith is an excellent coach. I followed him a lot when he was at San Francisco because I really admired how he built that program and how his teams played. He was Randy Bennett’s assistant and you see a lot of Saint Mary’s concepts. The difference being that they play a very fast tempo — they push the ball in transition. They really utilize the 3-point shot, and they use their defense.
“They’re a pressure man-to-man team but they down ball screens in a way where they don’t let the dribbler use the screen. They force turnovers and they really pressure you. They play hard with a lot of effort and they have a quick team. CJ Elleby is one of the best players in our conference. He does a little bit of everything. Talk about versatility: He’s the epitome of versatility as a player – steals, blocks, offense, defense, rebounds. He has really become a great 3-point shooter and they’re very smart and clever how they use him on offense.
“The thing that hurt ASU probably more than anything in that game (WSU’s 67-65 win over ASU on Wednesday) is 21 turnovers. Turnovers have plagued a lot of teams against (WSU) and they’re very good in pressuring so that’s the key for us. If we could do what we did (at Washington, with only two second-half turnovers), that will go a long way toward us being successful.”
– UA coach Sean Miller
KEY PLAYERS
Washington State: CJ Elleby
Elleby was freer to operate as a freshman last season with defenses more focused on Robert Franks, and his shooting percentages have dropped as a result. But Elleby has become even more well-rounded and an even more prolific scorer. Beating ASU with a stepback 3 was only his latest show.
Arizona: Josh Green
Freshman Josh Green scored just two points in the Wildcats’ loss, going 0 for 8 from the field.
While the Wildcats gained confidence as a team Thursday at Washington, Green continued to slump from the field. He’s 2 for 15 in his past two games and, on Saturday, will be needed to put a lot of his energy on the defensive side against Elleby.
SIDELINES
Cougar slow-boil
After taking over for fired WSU coach Ernie Kent last spring, Kyle Smith had a platform for some quick change.
He had coached San Francisco to three straight 20-win seasons and his analytics-based “nerdball” approach was viewed as a potential solution to the perennial challenges WSU faces, a way to potentially maximize whatever talent he could attract. His staff goes deep even with “hustle stats,” rewarding players with game time for reasons that might not be easy to see at first.
But Smith said he didn’t want to overwhelm his new guys with his approach, at least outwardly.
“I’ve always used the frog-in-the-water analogy,” Smith said. “They’re trying to sit in it and you change it one degree until they don’t really know what they’re immersed in. It’s not the cliché ‘my way or the highway.’ You’ve gotta get people slowly empowered by it. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Yet the Cougars’ improvement is.
The Cougars have already won more games, 13, than they have since Tony Bennett was coaching them back in 2008-09. They have been particularly effective at home, sweeping Oregon and Oregon State, while also beating UCLA and ASU.
“I didn’t know what would happen but once we got to June 9 and had a roster, I felt like we were close to what we had at USF but just didn’t have the experience that USF had,” Smith said before the Cougars beat ASU on Wednesday. “I felt like with this group we could come back. But did I think we could beat Oregon? That definitely exceeded my expectations.”
One-and-won
About two months after taking over the WSU job last spring, Smith received a welcome gift: Elleby decided to return to Pullman for a second year after hiring an agent, working out for four NBA teams and participating in the G League Elite Camp.
Smith has taken full advantage, scheming successfully to incorporate his all-league talent, while Elleby’s NBA stock may be gaining from his increasingly well-rounded game, which now includes playing a big role in Smith’s aggressive man-to-man defense.
“I think if I choose to go back, just depending on the decision I make, defense is going to have to be a bigger importance,” Elleby told the Spokane Spokesman-Review before opting to return. “I’m going to really have to harp and buckle down on that.”
Elleby also said then it was important to show NBA teams “I’m a versatile player and I can guard one through four.”
His strategy may be paying off. If Elleby were to leave after this season, according to NBADraft.net, he’s a first-rounder: Its latest mock 2020 draft has slotted Elleby at No. 24.
Channeling Kobe
Arizona guard Jemarl Baker Jr. (10) and Washington forward Jaden McDaniels (0) reach for a loose ball as Arizona's Dylan Smith, left, watches during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, in Seattle. Arizona won 75-72. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Jemarl Baker wasn’t just wearing the Nike Kobe 5 Protro Chaos shoes on Thursday at Washington.
In a sense, with a career-high 17 points and several determined shots, he was Kobe.
A native of Southern California, Baker discussed his admiration for Bryant before and after Thursday’s game at Washington which came as no surprise to Miller.
“I think the biggest point is it’s one thing to be a Kobe fan but a lot of these kids who grew up in LA, Southern California, you’ve just got to think about their life,” Miller said.
“A guy like Jemarl is 20 years old. So since he’s been 4 years old, he’s watched Kobe Bryant play for the Lakers. It means much more to those guys. It’s very similar to growing up in Chicago in the ’80s with Michal Jordan playing for the Bulls.”
Not surprisingly, the Wildcats are expected to keep wearing their green-accented Kobes on Saturday.
Numbers game
11
Years since Arizona gave up 14 3-pointers as they did Thursday at Washington. Stanford hit 15 during an Arizona win on March 7, 2009.
38.3
Percent of WSU scoring that comes from 3-point shots in conference games, the highest percentage in the Pac-12.
79
Consecutive minutes Jemarl Baker has played without committing a turnover. He has 13 assists over that span.
885
Points Elleby has already scored over 54 career games for the Cougars.
