Arizona men's basketball scouting report: No. 8 Arizona at Utah, 6 p.m. Thursday

No. 8 Arizona (17-5, 8-3) at Utah (15-7, 6-5) | Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City | 6 p.m. Thursday | Pac-12 Networks | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Probable Starters

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)

UTAH

G Deivon Smith (6-0 senior)

G Gabe Madsen (6-6 senior)

F Cole Bajema (6-9 senior)

F Branden Carlson (7-0 senior)

C Keba Keita (6-8 soph.)

How they match up

The last time: Utah hit 7 of 18 3-pointers and scored nine points off 10 UA turnovers in the first half, while trailing the Wildcats just 42-39 at halftime on Jan. 6 at McKale Center. But UA went on runs of 12-0 and 9-0 in the second half to roll on to a 92-73 win while both Oumar Ballo and Pelle Larsson reached the 1,000-point scoring mark for their college careers. All five UA starters scored in double figures, led by Caleb Love with 23.

The last time at the Huntsman Center: After a week off to enjoy its Maui Invitational title, Arizona abruptly fell down to earth on Dec. 1, 2022 in a 81-66 loss at Utah. Arizona made just 4 of 28 3-pointers and shot 35.2% overall, with point guard Kerr Kriisa going 1 for 9 and former Utah transfer Pelle Larsson going 0 for 5 on his old floor. The UA bench combined for 3 for 13 shooting. Arizona made just 4 of 28 3-pointers and shot 35.2% overall. The Wildcats trailed for the entire game, missing their first five field goals and trailing by double-digits most of the time to a team that won just four Pac-12 games a year earlier.

Series history: Arizona leads the all-time series with Utah 39-32, is ahead 18-4 in Pac-12 play, and 4-1 in the Tommy Lloyd era. But Utah has won the past 3 of 4 games played at the Huntsman Center.

What’s new with the Utes: No Pac-12 team dramatizes the home-road split as well as the Utes, who are 6-0 at home in conference play but 0-5 away from the Huntsman Center. In all games this season, Utah has averaged 83.1 points and a 19.5-point winning margin at home, while shooting 49.9% overall and 38.8% from 3-point range. On the road, Utah has averaged 70.7 points, lost by an average of 6.8 points while shooting 43.1% overall and just 32.7% from 3-point range.

Over their 11 conference games, the Utes have proven to love the 3. They rate first in the Pac-12 in ratio of 3s to field goals (41.4%) during conference games and hit them at a 35.8% rate that ranks sixth. But Utah has been more efficient inside, ranking third in the Pac-12 with a two-point field goal percentage of 53.3. Puzzlingly, the Utes are hitting only 58.6% from the free-throw line in conference games, the worst rate in the Pac-12.

Defensively, Utah leads the Pac-12 in two-point percentage defense (45.9) in conference games, though opponents are shooting 37.3% from 3-point range against the Utes, the fourth-worst defensive 3-point mark in conference play.

The loss of point guard Rollie Worster to an unspecified lower leg injury for the Utes’ past six games has been their greatest change since they appeared at McKale Center last month. Utah has moved Georgia Tech transfer Deivon Smith into his starting spot, gaining a more athletic look as a result, and Utah coach Craig Smith said he didn't think Worster would play this week.

Meanwhile, Utah received center Lawson Lovering back last weekend from a foot injury after he missed the previous four games. Utah had been starting the 6-8, 230-pound Keba Keita at center in his absence, and also started him against Colorado; it’s not clear if the Utes will start Lovering or Keita at center against Arizona.

He said it: “I think they play a little faster with Smith. He's obviously a very good athlete, very quick, explosive. He has the ball in his hands a lot like Worster, but he's more aggressive than Worster. So he gives them a more athletic and more scoring option at that point.

"One of the low key things of their losses against Washington State and Washington and Stanford for was injuries. They still don't have Worster but certainly they are is closer to being what they thought.

"It certainly helped that they play their last game at home. To me, at home they are closer to being  who they really are. They’re a good team, probably an NCAA tournament team.

"It's a big team. They have positional size. Basically one through five because Madsen and Bajema are really big guard-wings and then they have two seven footers so that poses a lot of problems. We gotta solve that

"They have a really good player in Carlson. I'm not sure where they feel they have an advantage (inside) but Lovering and Keita have been two of their best players."

— UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois, who scouted the Utes

Key players

UTAH – Branden Carlson

The veteran “stretch-five” just might be a darkhorse candidate for the Pac-12 Player of the Year award if the Utes can win some road games and make a serious run for the conference title. He’s dangerous both inside and outside, also drawing 4.6 fouls a game and hitting 73.1% of his free throws when he gets to the line.

ARIZONA — Caleb Love

Love had one of his most efficient games of the season against Utah on Jan. 6 at McKale, hitting 6 of 7 two-pointers and 3 of 8 3-pointers for 23 points while grabbing six rebounds and dishing six assists. His ability to attack the basket might also help the Wildcats in case they have a rough shooting night from the perimeter, having made just 4 of 28 3-pointers at Utah last season.

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Sidelines

Theories, or facts?

Never one to dwell on theories about some peripheral aspects of the game, UA coach Tommy Lloyd pivoted humorously this week when asked about the high elevations of Utah and Colorado during his weekly press conference.

“I’m not a doctor. I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I have no idea,” Lloyd said. “I've played there a bunch of times over the years and yeah, I'll tell you guys get winded, but usually they battle back. I'm sure there's lots of theories on it, I don't know. We're gonna go there and give it a rip. We're not gonna overthink that stuff.”

The facts: In Lloyd’s two previous seasons at UA, the Wildcats are 1-2 at Utah and Colorado (they didn’t make the trip to Boulder last season) and they’ve shot a collective 28.3% from 3-point territory in those three games.

The only win UA recorded was a 97-77 win over Smith’s first Utah team in 2021-22, when the Utes went just 4-16 in the Pac-12.

While Lloyd said he didn’t plan to tweak or alternate his rotation in case fatigue hits differently — “we’ll watch it play out in front of us and we’ll react accordingly,” he said — the Wildcats’ rebounding and shooting also could be slightly altered.

Before Arizona made its first Pac-12 road swing through the mountains in 2011-12, Texas-Southwestern sports cardiologist Benjamin Levine told the Star that basketball players may be thrown off by a ball that spins and arcs differently because of the lesser air resistance at high elevation.

"The same push sends the ball farther and (the air) slows the curve," Levine said.

UA assistant coach Ricci Fois, who spent two years as the Suns’ director of player development, didn’t have a problem with that sort of theory.

“In the NBA we always used to say when you play the (Denver) Nuggets, that it's gonna be long shots, long rebounds with the thin air,” Fois said. “I think certainly there is some truth to that. I have no reason to doubt it.

"But you’ve then you gotta get the rebound. It doesn't matter if you know there's gonna be more air or less air. At the end of the day, like you're playing basketball and it’s the same for them and you.”

Judicial assist

Utah might be scrambling at point guard at all these days if U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey didn't rule in West Virginia in December to temporarily keep the NCAA from enforcing its rules requiring two-time, non-graduate transfers to sit out.

Fourth-year point guard Deivon Smith, having already played at Mississippi State and Georgia Tech, lost a waiver attempt entering the season and had to sit out the Utes’ first nine games of the season. He began playing once it became clear that the waiver would extend at least until after the season, ensuring Smith would not be subject to punishment.

“Honestly, I didn’t really know how to feel,” Smith said after his first game, against Utah Valley on Dec. 16. “I hadn’t played a game since last February. To come to a new home, a new place and feel so welcome and see people who actually want to see me play, it’s a blessing.”

Smith’s availability became a blessing for the Utes especially after point guard Rollie Worster began missing the first of six games with a lower leg injury, giving the Utes a slightly more uptempo look when he’s on the floor.

Smith scored 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting, with 11 rebounds and eight assists to power Utah past Oregon 80-77 on Jan. 21. He also had 20 points at Washington on 8-for-14 shooting on Jan. 27.

Then, last Saturday, Smith flirted with a triple-double in the Utes’ win over Colorado. He had 17 points while shooting 6-for-11 from the field and 5 for 5 from the line, while collecting 11 rebounds and nine assists.

“I would say we’re a different team without Rollie for sure,” Utah center Branden Carlson said. “But Deivon has been a leader for us and doing some amazing things. He’s helped our team in a lot of ways.”

Loving his game

When Utah coach Craig Smith was asked Tuesday how the Utes might slow down UA guard Caleb Love, he chuckled.

Love had 23 points, six rebounds and six assists against the Utes last month, and he’s had four games of 20 or more points since then, including a 36-point outburst at Oregon.

“That's a great question,” Smith said. “He's a dynamic player. He can do so many different things and is so talented, with unlimited range. I mean, that guy can shoot a 26-footer just effortlessly. It's just so easy for him.

“As the NBA guys would say, he’s a three-level scorer. He can shoot it as soon as you cross half court. He's got an excellent pull-up game and he's a guy that gets to the rim and gets fouled. He's really good off a pick and roll. He's really good at transition, as is their team, but he's a willing runner. He doesn't just saunter up the floor. He spreads the floor and so he puts a ton of pressure on you that way.

“I don't know that you can just do one thing (to defend Love). I think you gotta be able to mix up your coverages, throw different things at him.”

Numbers game

9: Seasons since Utah went undefeated at home (16-0 in 2014-15). The Utes are 12-0 at home this season with games remaining against UA, ASU, Stanford and Cal.

26.4: Caleb Love’s scoring average in five Pac-12 road games so far this season.

8,319: Utah’s average attendance for home Pac-12 games, third-highest in the conference behind Arizona (14,621) and ASU (8,894).

— Bruce Pascoe

Photos: No. 11 Arizona Wildcats beat Stanford Cardinal at home, 82-71

Photos: University of Arizona cruises past Cal 91-65, Pac 12 basketball