Men's basketball scouting report: No. 3 Arizona vs. No. 21 Michigan State, 2 p.m. Thursday, Palm Desert, Calif.

Probable starters

ARIZONA

G Kylan Boswell (6-2 sophomore)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)

F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)

MICHIGAN STATE

G A.J. Hoggard (6-4 senior)

G Tyson Walker (6-1 senior)

F Jaden Akins (6-4 junior)

F Malik Hall (6-8 senior)

C Carson Cooper (6-11 sophomore)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads 5-2 after Kadeem Allen drove the length of the court to make a layup with 1.3 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 65-63 win in an Armed Forces Classic game at Honolulu to begin the 2016-17 season. The Wildcats also beat Michigan State 80-61 in the 2000-01 NCAA Tournament semifinals but lost 74-71 during the 2005-06 Maui Invitational and 74-60 at East Lansing, Michigan, in 2001-02. The teams have played two games at McKale, two games in East Lansing, two in Hawaii and the Final Four semifinal in Minneapolis.

Game agreement: Arizona and Michigan State are meeting in an unbracketed game as part of the Acrisure Classic, which qualified as a “multi-team event” because Arizona faced UT Arlington on Sunday and Michigan State hosted Alcorn State in add-on games. The MTE participation allowed UA and MSU to schedule two extra games on top of the NCAA scheduling maximum, for a total of 31.

Michigan State overview: Ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25, thanks to four returning starters and what 247 ranks as the fifth-best recruiting class in the country, the Spartans slipped in the polls after losing 79-76 at home to James Madison for their season opener on Nov. 6. They also lost 74-65 to Duke in Chicago on Nov. 14 but have since beaten Butler and Alcorn State.

The Spartans are so deep that they have 10 players averaging in double-figure minutes, and they bring two McDonalds All-Americans off the bench, guard Jeremy Fears and forward Xavier Booker. They turn instead first to a veteran perimeter trio of point guard A.J. Hoggard and wings Tyson Walker and Jaden Adkin, while senior Malik Hall has emerged in the starting lineup alongside either Carson Cooper or Mady Sissoko. Booker and another highly-rated freshman, Coen Carr, add left-handed inside skills off the bench.

The Spartans’ leading scorer (23.0 ppg), Walker did not play on Sunday against Alcorn State because of flu-like symptoms but has since recovered and is expected to play. So is Hall after reaggravating a minor ankle sprain on Sunday.

MSU features a host of elite perimeter players and a deep frontcourt that has helped it limit opponents to just 37.3% shooting inside the arc, the fourth-best defensive two-point percentage so far this season. They also block a shot on 16.0% of opponents’ possessions (ranking 24th) and steal the ball on 10.5% of opponents’ possessions.

Offensively, MSU sets up baskets with assists 63.0% of the time, the 28th highest ratio in Division I, but its 3-point percentage shooting is down notably from last season. MSU ranked third nationally with 39.3% 3-point shooting, with both Walker and Akins surpassing 41%, but has made only 26.3% so far this season, ranking 308th.

The scout says

“Inside, they’re doing a great job challenging and contesting shots at the rim, really choking off the paint. I think Malik Hall has done a great job defensively. Cooper is a really big physical presence down low and Sissoko is a big, physical center as well and now they bring him off the bench. So they can kind of come at you in waves.’

At power forward, “Coen Carr and Booker, those two guys are bring a different type of athleticism and skill. Hall’s experienced. He’s played in big games and was one of their first guys off the bench last year, so he understands what it takes to play in these games and Cooper and Sissoko complement each other really well. They bring a physicality and intensity that would be really hard to emulate over the course of 40 minutes. But when you’re splitting it 20 and 20 or, 22 and 18, they’re able to go out there and play as hard as possible.”

In the backcourt, “Jeremy Fears is one of the top freshmen in the country. He’s a really strong defender. Really good point guard. They’re like us. They have a lot of talented guys coming off the bench with great depth.

“AJ Hoggard, he’s an experienced guy who is physical at the point guard position. He does a really good job, and it’s one of those things where you’re surprised if he ever makes a bad play, because he’s just so solid out there.

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“Tyson Walker’s a big-time offensive player. They run a lot of stuff for him. They’re gonna have the ball in his hands. He puts a lot of pressure on your defense. Akins does a great job running the floor. He’s a really good athlete. He’ll get out in transition and finish. He’s a much better shooter than he’s shown so far this year. This is a good basketball team we’re about to play. This is a top level team and very physical. We have to be ready to go.” — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Spartans.

Key players

Michigan State — Tyson Walker

Walker has hit just 5 of 17 3-pointers so far this season (29.4%), but history suggests that will change soon. A second-team all-Big Ten pick last season, Walker has shot over 41% from 3 over each of the past two seasons and can score from just about any other level, too. He leads the Spartans in scoring at 23.0 points per game.

Arizona — KJ Lewis

Fearless and aggressive off the bench as a freshman, Lewis is one reason why UA — like Michigan State — does not have a big dropoff from its starters to key reserves. Lewis might be entering the game at the same time as McDonald’s All-American Jeremy Fears and hot-shooting sophomore guard Tre Holloman, too.

Sidelines

Bye-bye Wooden Legacy

Originally scheduled to appear in the Wooden Legacy multi-team event this week, Arizona wasn’t too wild when that traditionally lightly attended event in Orange County event initially had only BYU lined up.

At the same time, a Michigan State booster named Greg Williams runs a financial technology and insurance company that owns the naming rights to the new Acrisure Arena — and became interested in having the Spartans play the first college basketball game there.

On top of that, Fox was looking to fill a window with a high-profile college basketball game after showing the traditional Thanksgiving Day game involving the Detroit Lions, who will face Green Bay at 10:30 a.m.

A partner was needed, and Arizona was willing. The Wildcats pulled out of the Wooden event, and the Acrisure game was eventually completed.

“Coach (Tom) Izzo, I’ve known him for years, and he’s been really good to me,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “It was put together by other people, but I think there was a mutual respect there. I’ve bugged him a little bit here and there to see if we can schedule a home and home type thing or something like that. That hasn’t happened yet, but we’re grateful for this opportunity for sure.”

As it turned out, the Wooden Legacy was basically erased anyway. It was moved to Las Vegas and renamed the “Vegas Showdown,” with games at Michelob Ultra Arena scheduled for Thursday and Friday involving BYU, ASU, NC State and Vanderbilt.

Bradley’s good vibes

After starting most of last season at Alabama, then struggling to adjust to a reserve role in Arizona’s first four games this season, guard Jaden Bradley heads into Thursday’s game after a breakthrough of sorts.

Against UT Arlington on Sunday, Bradley had 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting while collecting four rebounds and dishing two assists without a turnover in 25 minutes.

“Just a couple of games under my belt and coach has been in my ear, my teammates are in my ear, just giving me that confidence,” Bradley said after that game. “It just felt great.”

Lloyd said Bradley took advantage of opportunities the Wildcats’ offense created instead of forcing it.

“He’s been rock solid for the most part,” Lloyd said. “He’s a really good player and I want him to find his way in this program. For a guy to become authentically good, which he will be and he is, you can’t script it. That’s got to come within the system.”

Not in the box score

While UA sophomore guard Kylan Boswell has put up some eye-popping shooting so far this season, hitting 64.9% overall from the field and 15 of 22 from 3-point range (68.2), there’s one change he’s made that isn’t visible in box scores: Lloyd says Boswell has improved his ability to inbound the ball in the post.

“That’s an important part of our system, those early post-ups in transition,” Lloyd said. “Sometimes some of these young players struggle to see through the bodies. There’s a lot of bodies on the court and there’s bodies in front of you. There’s a big advantage if you can see through the trees a little bit so I thought he had a little bit of a breakthrough with that (against UTA), which is exciting.”

Numbers game0 — Losses for Lloyd in November since becoming the Wildcats’ head coach before the 2021-22 season. UA went 6-0 in both 2021 and 2022 and is 5-0 so far this month.

2 — Head coaches at Michigan State in the past 48 seasons: Jud Heathcote and Tom Izzo.

63.5 — Oumar Ballo’s shooting percentage in his last eight games against Top-25 opponents.

— Bruce Pascoe