Scouting report: No. 11 Arizona Wildcats vs. Oregon State Beavers

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 11-ranked Arizona Wildcats prepare to take on Oregon State in the Pac-12 opener.

No. 11 Arizona (6-0, 0-0) at Oregon State (1-7, 0-1)

Where: Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Ore.

When: Sunday, 2 p.m.

TV: ESPNU

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 State

G Jarod Lucas (6-4 junior)

G Dashawn Davis (6-2 junior

F Dexter Akanno (6-5 junior)

F Warith Alatishe (6-8 senior)

C Maurice Calloo (6-10 senior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads 62-22 all time and has won 10 of the past 11 matchups with Oregon State, crushing the eventual Elite Eight-bound Beavers 98-64 on Jan. 21 last season in Corvallis, when OSU was two days removed from a COVID-19 pause. Bennedict Mathurin led the Wildcats with 31 points on 10-for-12 shooting, while collecting eight rebounds, in his first career start. Jordan Brown added 25 points off the bench.

This season: The Wildcats and Beavers are scheduled to meet again at McKale Center on Feb. 17. Sunday's game is one of two early December games that were added to Arizona’s schedule to make a total of 20 games; a second game at home against Washington on Thursday was postponed because of the Huskies’ COVID issues and has been rescheduled for Jan. 25.

OSU overview: Picked to finish 12th in the Pac-12 last season, the Beavers finished sixth, won the Pac-12 Tournament title and then made it all the way to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. But they’re back in a rough spot so far this season. Mixing in transfers to a group that lost leading scorer Ethan Thompson from last season, the Beavers have lost home games to Samford and Princeton, then lost to Wake Forest and Penn State in the Emerald Coast Classic before opening Pac-12 play with a 73-61 loss at Cal on Thursday.

The Beavers are mediocre shooters, hitting 49.1% of their two-pointers and just 28.5% (ranking 304 nationally) in 3-pointers, and they don’t even pick up many of their missed shots — ranking just 293rd nationally in offensive rebounding percentage (23.6%). OSU isn’t much better on the defensive glass with a lineup of smaller perimeter players and underperforming big men. Starting center Roman Silva, one of the Beavers’ best players in the NCAA Tournament last season, is averaging only 1.1 rebounds while 6-10 forward Maurice Calloo averages just 3.0 rebounds. It hasn’t helped the Beavers that 6-8 forward Rodrigue Andela broke a foot last week in practice and will be out at least two months after starting four of seven games.

Jerod Lucas played a starring role in the backcourt during OSU’s postseason run but has averaged only 9.4 points on 37.9% shooting so far this season. Speedy Gianni Hunt and slashing guard Dashawn Davis split point guard duties while the Beavers flash their usual mix of zones and man-to-man defense.

He said it: “They’ve had nine different starters and almost 11 different guys in double-figure minutes. They’re searching for an identity but they don’t quit and they play very, very hard.

“Andela had been playing better and they’d really been playing through him in the post. (At Cal) they played through (Warith) Alatishe a lot more in the post and he had a really good game and Davis had a good game. So I think they’ve found some pieces and Jerod Lucas is a dangerous player. He’s one of the best shooters and scorers in the conference. He’s had some good games and some games where he's struggled but in every game, he’s on top of the scouting report.

"Hunt’s a streaky player but he had two double-figure scoring games against us last year. He’s struggled from 3 this year but you can’t let him get his rhythm or confidence against you. He’s smaller, quick and a lefty. Davis is much more aggressive to the rim and he’s done a good job taking care of the ball. He’s strong with the basketball and makes good decisions, gets into the paint. Tre' Williams has some athleticism and has some good experience from the Big Ten at Minnesota.

"(Calloo) is a pick and pop four man, a really good shooter. Half of his shots are from three. When he’s making 3s, their offense is usually playing pretty well.

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"(Alatishe) is a stud, an all-conference player. He’s a matchup problem because he’s athletic and quick like a three but he’s powerful and strong like a four. He’ll even play a little five for them.

"(Defensively) they'll play zone they'll press, they'll switch it up. They'll play play some man but you have to be ready for zone, you have to be ready for some of their different press looks. Especially with their offense struggling at times they've tried to create some offense from their defense -- they'll get out passing lanes, play aggressive, so you have to take care of the ball.

"These guys are capable. They definitely have talent. It’s just putting all those pieces together in the right spots for them." — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Beavers.

Key player (Oregon State): Warith Alatishe

The biggest sign of life with the Beavers is in the mobile and aggressive forward who was the Pac-12 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player last season. This season, Alatishe is shooting 55.7% from two-point range, and pulls down offensive rebounds on 11.1% of his teammates’ shots when he’s on the floor.

Key player (Arizona): Azuolas Tubelis

The Wildcats' Lithuanian sophomore is the No. 3 top player nationally on EvanMiya.com, a website that measures a player's efficiency and impact on both sides of the court when he is on the floor. But he could have one of his stiffer challenges defensively against OSU's bigs. 

Sidelines

So close, yet so far

UA coach Tommy Lloyd grew up in Kelso, Washington, about two hours away from both Seattle and Corvallis, but didn’t exactly spend a lot of time following the Pac-12 programs in those cities.

“I'm a small-town boy, so we didn’t go up to the big city much,” Lloyd said. “And I lived in Eastern Washington for 22 years (while coaching at Gonzaga) and there was always a little bit of a rivalry between our little outpost and the big city. I mean, Seattle is great but I was never a huge Husky basketball guy or anything like that.”

And as for OSU’s hometown, Lloyd said he had never visited Corvallis in his life before making the trip this weekend.

“You’re going to have to show me around,” he said.

Olson 'wasn't just about winning'

Among the collateral damage in the Arizona-Washington postponement Thursday was that the school was unable to host its scheduled in-season tribute to former UA coach Lute Olson, since it was the first scheduled Pac-12 home game to be played before McKale Center fans since the Hall of Fame coach died in August 2020.

The school planned to hold a moment of silence for Olson just before the national anthem is played at 6:25 p.m., and play a video tribute to him during halftime. Arizona will not host another Pac-12 game until Jan. 13 against Colorado.

Whenever it happens, Lloyd indicated he will be among those with high regard for Olson.

“What I've taken away from (hearing about Olson) was just the impact he had on the community and this is a guy I've never heard anybody say a bad word about,” Lloyd said. “He was beloved and wasn't just about winning. It was his relationships with people.

“And I've heard the stories that Tucson and the University of Arizona, we're kind of not well known, and he came here and was able to kind of put it on the map for everybody. I think this this town and university appreciate him for that and continue to show it.”

Arizona held a public tribute for Olson at McKale on Sept. 12, timed so that many current and former Wildcat players would be able to attend before their seasons began. But coronavirus concerns kept the school from being able to hold one shortly after his death and from doing anything during the 2020-21 season, when fans were not permitted to attend games at McKale Center.

He can scout, too

Despite having played in only six games for Arizona, senior forward Kim Aiken knew two of the Wildcats' first six opponents better than anyone on the roster, having played Big Sky games against NAU and Sacramento State.

So before the Wildcats faced Sac State last Saturday, Lloyd and guard Dalen Terry took advantage of that knowledge.

“Coach Lloyd actually asked me, saying `You were the Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Sky, right?’ and I said ‘yeah,’ “ Aiken said. Lloyd said “So you know about (Sacramento State standout) Bryce Fowler? I said, `Yeah, he likes to pump fake and go left and everything like that. So I kind of helped him out and D.T. asked me a little bit some of some things too on Bryce because he was guarding him a majority of the time.”

It appeared to help. Entering the game with an average of 16.2 points while shooting 48.5% from the field, Fowler labored for 10 points on 3-for-12 shooting in the Wildcats’ 105-59 win.

Numbers game

1 — Arizona’s ranking in two-point percentage defense, 35.9.

3 — Arizona wins so far by 45 points or more; the Wildcats are the only Division I team to have as many by that margin.

197 — Combined seconds that Arizona has trailed over its six games so far, the smallest amount in Division I, according to EvanMiya.com