Arizona men's basketball scouting report: No. 9 Arizona at Oregon State, 9 p.m. Thursday

No. 9 Arizona (14-4, 5-2) at Oregon State (9-9, 1-6)

Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Ore. | 9 p.m. Thursday | Pac-12 Networks | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

PROBABLE STARTERS

OREGON STATE

G Jordan Pope (6-2 soph.)

G Dexter Akanno (6-5 senior)

F Tyler Bilodeau (6-9 soph.)

F Michael Rataj (6-9 soph.)

C KC Ibekwe (6-10 soph.)

ARIZONA

G Kylan Boswell (6-2 soph.)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)

F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads Oregon State 72-22 overall and has won the last seven games and 14 of the past 15, losing in Corvallis only in 2019-20 during that span.

Last season, Arizona won 86-74 on Jan. 12 in Corvallis on Jan. 12, when OSU shot just 38.3% and both Azoulas Tubelis (25 points 10 rebounds) and Oumar Ballo (15 points, 14 rebounds) collected double-doubles. The Wildcats also won 84-52 at McKale Center on Feb. 4, when UA raced to a 26-point halftime lead and kept OSU to 35.6% shooting.

OSU overview: Continuing a slow rebuild after a disastrous three-win season in 2021-22 and subsequent roster-flushing, the Beavers won 11 games last season and nine of their first 13 games this season. They beat a fully staffed USC team on Dec. 30 before guards Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis were out for the Trojans’ game at McKale Center last week, but have since lost five straight games. Four of those losses were on the road, however, and the one home game was an overtime loss to Stanford. OSU’s only other loss at home this season was a 69-62 loss to UCLA on Dec. 28.

The Beavers returned 62.5 percent of their minutes played from last season but aren’t much better overall offensively, with the worst two-point shooting percentage in Pac-12 games (45.1), and what ranks as both the 11th slowest tempo and offensive efficiency in the Pac-12. OSU sets up only 41.8% of its field goals in conference games with assists but has become more efficient from 3-point territory in conference games, shooting 36.3% from long range.

Point guard Jordan Pope is the sixth-leading scorer in the Pac-12’s with an average of 17.0 points while he shoots 37.6% from 3-point range and 47.8% from two. Pope also averages 3.5 assists with a 2-1 assist-turnover ratio, and hasn’t had a turnover in three of his past five games. Dexter Akanno is a driver who picks up 5.3 fouls per 40 minutes and also hits 36.2% of his 3-pointers.

The Beavers are rugged inside, with the 6-9 Tyler Bilodeau, son of a first-round NHL draft pick, along with 6-10, 290-pound center KC Ibekwe and 6-9 sophomore Michael Rataj, who averaged 11.6 points for Germany while playing in the FIBA U20 European Championships last summer. Thomas Ndong, a tenacious Canadian freshman, made his first start of the season last Saturday at Colorado, too.

The Beavers make up for some of their offensive inefficiency at the line, converting free throws in conference games at a 73.1% rate that ranks fourth in the Pac-12. Pope converts 86.3% of his free throws overall, ranking 115th nationally, while Bilodeau has made 81.2% of his.

Defensively, OSU is worst in the Pac-12 in efficiency, allowing conference opponents to score 113.4 points per 100 possessions. The Beavers rank 11th in two-point percentage defense in Pac-12 games, giving up 53.6% shooting inside the arc, but they throw out a mix of man-to-man and array of zones that can make things tricky for opponents.

Oregon State is 9-2 overall at home this season, winning three of four games at Gill that went into overtime. While OSU lost to Stanford 88-84 in overtime, it beat Troy 81-80 in double overtime, Appalachian State 81-71 in overtime and Cal Poly 70-63 in double overtime on Dec. 4.

He said it:

“In every game at home, they've either won or been very competitive.

“You have to defend the 3-point line because they can get hot from 3. Jordan Pope is one of the best scorers in the conference. He's proven that over the last year and a half. You really have to do a good job containing him. If you sleep on him, or if you don't lock in, he can do what he's already done before. He easily could go for 20.

“(Akanno) is a strong driver downhill, he puts pressure on the defense and in transition he's looking at spot up at the 3-point line. He's made shots there. So you have to guard these guys.

“And I think their young bigs are are talented. Bilodeau and Rataj, they both had 18 against us last year (at Gill Coliseum). We can't take anybody lightly.

“I think Ibekwe at the five is getting more and more confidence this year. They're starting him quite a bit. He's got good feet. He's got good hands. He does a great job ducking in, using his size and his body. He's an impressive player.

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"Their front line is very formidable. They have good size, athleticism, and you add that to Pope. You’ve got to come in and respect them and kind of take them out of what they want to do."

— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Beavers.

Key players

OREGON STATE — Jordan Pope

The Pac-12’s highest-scoring freshman last season, when he tied the OSU freshman scoring mark with 403 points, Pope has picked up where he left off. While averaging over 36 minutes a game, Pope has become the sixth-leading scorer in the conference this season (17.0) despite being a focal point of opposing team’s defenses.

ARIZONA — Jaden Bradley

While pushing from Kylan Boswell at the point guard spot and continuing to be a selective shooter, Bradley has also become one of the Wildcats’ more reliable perimeter defenders. No doubt he’ll be asked to help slow down Pope and Akanno, the Beavers’ high-scoring backcourt duo.

SIDELINES

Perennial zonies

While it has become more of a trend for opponents to throw out zone defenses against the Wildcats lately, they were bound to face them this week anyway.

Both Oregon State and Oregon are known for mixing in zones with man-to-man coverage, the Beavers sometimes even with a 1-3-1 zone defense and the Ducks with a baffling tendency to switch even within possessions sometimes.

Whatever the case, Lloyd says his guys will be prepared.

“Both of them have some variation of zone in their arsenal and obviously we've been zoned a little bit recently,” Lloyd said. “So we plan on maybe seeing zone every game from here on out. That's how the seasons go.”

Men in black

After wearing black warmup T-shirts as part of a cancer awareness promotion last Saturday against UCLA, the Wildcats boarded their charter flight to Oregon on Wednesday wearing new black sweatsuits.

The sweats, unrelated to the promotion and handed out by equipment manager Brian Brigger after Tuesday's practice, have a red block A on the top right side of both the top and pants, with discreet black Nike logos on the left side.

“I like them. I think the team likes them too,” guard KJ Lewis said. “So shoutout Briggs for that.”

Disappearing Beavs

It was one thing that Oregon State was swept at Utah and Colorado last weekend, something all Pac-12 teams are vulnerable to this season.

But even before that, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle wondered what happened to the Beaver team that beat USC 87-70 on Dec. 30, then lost at Washington and WSU, as well as dropping a home game to Stanford in overtime on Jan. 11.

“We’re not there yet. We’re not tough enough yet,” Tinkle said after the Stanford game. “We just got on our heels, made uncharacteristic turnovers, panic set in (when) driving into traffic.”

Tinkle said then that he hoped the Beavers would find some momentum ahead with the Utah-Colorado trip and home games this week with UA and ASU, which are both ties with Oregon at 5-2 for first place in the Pac-12.

Success in those games “will prove to our guys, like I thought the USC game would, that if we have each other’s backs both offensively and defensively we can be pretty good,” Tinkle said. “It’s just been inconsistent with this group.”

Numbers game

4: Oregon State players among the Top 10 sophomore scorers in the Pac-12: Jordan Pope (1st), Tyler Bilodeau (2nd), KC Ibekwe (8th) and Michael Rataj (9th).

10: Or fewer Oregon State turnovers in four of the Beavers’ past five games.

24: Points Oumar Ballo needs to become the 54th player in Arizona history to score 1,000 points as a Wildcat.

45.6: Oregon State’s shooting percentage in the second half and overtime periods this season, compared with 40.5% in the first half.

— Bruce Pascoe