Scouting report: No. 23 Arizona Wildcats vs. UCLA Bruins

The Star's Bruce Pascoe previews all of the game day essentials, from projected starting lineups to storylines and series history, ahead of No. 23 Arizona's showdown with UCLA at McKale Center.

Game info

Who: UCLA (12-11, 5-5) at No. 23 Arizona (15-6, 5-3) 

Where: McKale Center

When: 8 p.m.

TV: ESPN2

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)

Probable starters: UCLA

G Tyger Campbell (5-11 freshman)

G David Singleton (6-4 sophomore)

F Jaime Jaquez Jr. (6-6 freshman)

F Chris Smith (6-9 junior)

C Cody Riley (6-9 sophomore)

How they match up

The series: The Bruins have won three of the last five, and the last two matchups at McKale Center, where Arizona bookended a 12-game winning streak between a 77-72 loss to UCLA in 2016-17 and an 82-74 loss in 2017-18. UCLA shot 51.6% overall from the field in 2017-18 and hit 11 of 23 3-pointers in what turned out to be the Wildcats’ only home loss that season. Last season, UCLA won 90-69 at Los Angeles in the teams’ only meeting, shooting 57.9% and outrebounding the Wildcats 57-40. UCLA leads the alltime series 58-45.

This season: The Wildcats and Bruins will meet again on Feb. 29 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

UCLA overview: After a slow first half of the season under first-year coach Mick Cronin, the Bruins appear to be catching on to a much different style of play, more deliberate and defensive minded than under former coach Steve Alford. The Bruins have the second-slowest adjusted tempo in the Pac-12 but excel in rebounding (with an offensive rebounding percentage of 35.2). They also use an effective pressure man-to-man that generates the second-highest steal percentage (11.0) in Pac-12 games.

UCLA went without a true point guard last season when Tyger Campbell suffered a torn ACL but Campbell has returned to produce a nearly 3-1 assist-turnover ratio and the 92nd best assist rate in Kenpom calculations so far. He’s also a strong driver to the basket. The starter at shooting guard, David Singleton doesn’t have big numbers he is a respectable 3-point shooter and a defensive asset who doesn’t make many mistakes. The Bruins’ biggest offensive firepower comes from big wings Chris Smith and Jaime Jaquez, who both possess considerable versatility, able to defend or play several possessions – and UCLA will exploit that to its advantage whenever possible.

UCLA lists forward Jalen Hill as questionable for Saturday after he missed Thursday’s UCLA-ASU game with a knee injury suffered in practice Wednesday. Hill is the Bruins’ second leading scorer and has blocked over one shot per game. Cody Riley started at center in his place against the Sun Devils, who shot 50% from the field in their 84-66 win over UCLA.

He said it

“When they played Utah and Colorado at home (last week), it was the closest I’ve seen to a Cincinnati team. Their defense was fantastic. They really competed. I would say all around this is a team you would say could be an upper-echelon team in the conference. (Their defense is about) creating on the ball pressure, denying off the ball, the ability to switch, have their defenders defend multiple positions. They throw a lot of different wrinkles at you. They definitely come out and guard you. They’re definitely looking to get out in the passing lanes in the half court. … Tyger Campbell is kind of the head of the snake. His ball pressure, his effectiveness on the ball really gets them going and Jalen Hill, you saw (at ASU) how ineffective their defense was in not having him.

"(Riley) is not as big as Jalen Hill but very skilled offensively. If Hill’s back certainly that presents challenges and if he isn’t that presents other challenges with regards to how we match up with their smaller units.

"(Smith) is difficult to match up with. You put a smaller guy on him, and he’s got great size, can score over the top. If you put a bigger guy on him, then they’ll take advantage and isolate him, look to drive. (Jaquez) is very similar to Chris Smith. A little bit smaller but another guy that they’ll look to utilize in mismatches. They’ll post him up and do different things with him. He’s also playing much better.”

-- UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Bruins

Key player (UCLA): Chris Smith

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The super-versatile 6-9 “guard” can do a little bit of everything no matter where he is on the court. He’s the Bruins’ leading scorer and second-leading rebounds, while averaging 14.5 points and 6.6 rebounds in Pac-12 play.

Key player (Arizona): Josh Green

While Green’s 3-point shooting is inconsistent, the effect on his open-court offense on himself and teammates is unmistakable. In a game when the Wildcats couldn’t easily close out USC, they still won thanks in large part to Green’s electric transition offense. On Saturday, UCLA’s big wings will challenge him on the other end of the court, too.

Sidelines

'Reef heading elsewhere (again)

Nearly two years after he decommitted from the Wildcats and headed for UCLA instead, forward Shareef O’Neal never had a chance to face them as a member of the Bruins.

O’Neal missed his entire freshman season in 2018-19 after undergoing open-heart surgery to repair a coronary artery that had grown in the wrong place because of a congenital defect.

This season, O’Neal averaged just 10.2 minutes over 13 games and he did not play for UCLA at all in a Jan. 19 win over California. Hours after that game, he announced he would transfer.

“A part of my heart will always be at UCLA figuratively and literally,” O’Neal posted on Twitter. “I’m looking forward to the next chapter, wherever that may be.”

That just might be, of all places, LSU. While still attending classes at UCLA through the end of winter quarter next month, O’Neal took a recruiting visit to his famous father’s old place last weekend and tweeted out four pictures of himself in Tigers uniforms.

Tighter rotation

UA coach Sean Miller gave just seven players 17 minutes or more Thursday against USC, but expressed regret in not playing shooting guard Max Hazzard significantly more than eight minutes.

“I really wish we'd have played Max more,” Miller said. “We've kind of bounced around with him, and it's time for us to give him more of an opportunity. When he's played 16 minutes I think that gives him the best chance to be himself. And then if he plays well, he can grow and that keeps us fresh.

“I think Max is just a phenomenal kid, his heart's in the right place. I feel bad because he's had a really good week of practice. I talked about our team maybe not practicing as well. That's not everybody. I thought Josh Green and Max Hazzard in particular, they gave great effort, really.”

Miller also played center Christian Koloko only two minutes against USC, saying he did so because of the physical matchups inside, while keeping former starting center Chase Jeter on the bench.

Jeter has played only 90 seconds in UA’s past six games because of apparent rebounding and back issues.

“We were playing nine players,” Miller said. “It's hard to play 10 and that's not to say Chase won't get the opportunity but you know we played the guys that we thought gave us the best chance here tonight. He's missed a lot of time.”

In good hands

Jemarl Baker’s turnover-free streak extended to 121 minutes on Thursday against the Trojans, a streak so improbable for a heavy ballhander that even Nico Mannion has trouble getting his head around it.

“Yeah, you think he'd slip up somewhere,” Mannion said. “But he’s a great player, a great ball handler. He knows how to get to his spots and get guys to his spots so he's been phenomenal for us.”

Thanks in large part to Baker, who also has dished 18 assists over those 121 minutes, the Wildcats as a team have committed just 20 turnovers in their last 116 minutes, dating back to the 16-minute mark of the first half against Washington on Jan. 30.

They had just six turnovers each against Washington State and USC, the only time in at least the past 23 seasons that the Wildcats have had back-to-back games with six or less (the Stats Inc. database that UA used to find that stat does not go back past 1996-97).

Mannion said it may have helped that the Wildcats know each other better on the court at this point but that it just may be the team’s nature.

“We’re a team that just has some good decision-makers, and we play well together,” Mannion said. “I just think we take care of the ball well.”

Numbers game

4

Years since Arizona shot as many as 40 free throws as it did Thursday against USC, having 44 against Colorado on March 10, 2016 in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament.

6.4

UCLA’s (positive) rebounding margin, the best in the Pac-12 and best at UCLA since 2007-08, when Kevin Love averaged 10.6 rebounds a game as a one-and-done freshman for the Bruins.

9

Of 14 UCLA players who are from or played high school ball in Southern California.

323

UCLA’s rank out of 353 Division I teams in “experience” as measured by Kenpom, which weighs the experience of each player on the roster based on minutes played.