Arizona men's basketball scouting report: No. 10 Wildcats vs. Utah, 6 p.m. Saturday

Utah (11-3, 2-1) at No. 10 Arizona (11-3, 2-1)

McKale Center — 6 p.m. Saturday — Pac-12 Networks — 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Probable starters

UTAH

G Rollie Worster (6-4 senior)

G Gabe Madsen (6-6 senior)

F Cole Bajema (6-7 senior)

F Branden Carlson (7-0 senior)

C Lawson Lovering (7-1 junior)

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)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads 38-32 all time, 17-4 in Pac-12 play and 3-1 in the Tommy Lloyd era – and the Wildcats haven’t lost to the Utes at McKale Center in 37 years. Last season, the Utes beat Arizona 81-66 in Salt Lake City, where the Wildcats shot just 35.2% from the field in a Dec. 1 game. Arizona then beat Utah 88-62 over two months later at McKale, when the Wildcats shot 56.9% and limited the Utes to 32.2%.

Utah overview: Sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble before they lost their final six games last season, the Utes are in early position to solidly make the field this time. Utah has combined a veteran core led by all-conference “stretch five” big man Branden Carlson with a few key transfer portal additions to challenge not only for an NCAA Tournament berth but also the Pac-12 title. The Utes won at Saint Mary’s and beat BYU at home while going 9-2 in nonconference play; they then swept Washington State and Washington at home before losing 82-70 at ASU on Thursday night, when the Sun Devils shot 50% from the field and hit 12 of 28 3-pointers.

Utah runs the 23rd-most efficient offense in Division I, according to Kenpom, shooting 53.7% from 2-point range (74th best nationally) and 38.4% from 3-point range (18th best) while setting up 60.2% of their shots with assists, the 30th-highest ratio in the country. Gritty senior point guard Rollie Worster runs the show with an intricate knowledge of coach Craig Smith’s offense, having played for Smith as a freshman at Utah State in 2020-21 and then starting every game he has played in since Smith took over at Utah in 2021-22.

Gabe Madsen and Washington transfer Cole Bajema are big wing players who take most of their shots from 3-point territory, with Madsen hitting 46.1% of his long-range shots and Bajema connecting on 38.3%. Georgia Tech transfer Deivon Smith is an aggressive driver off the bench who had 13 points on 6-for-13 shooting at ASU.

The addition of center Lawson Lovering from Colorado has allowed the Utes to play Carlson at power forward instead of center, though Carlson is equally comfortable inside or outside. He is shooting 53.8% from 2-point range, draws 5.4 fouls per 40 minutes and hits free throws at a 75.4% rate. From 3-point range, Carlson has hit 22 of 56 shots, a 39.3% rate.

Both Carlson and Lovering are also effective defensive rebounders and rim protectors, with Lovering blocking 5.9% of opponents’ shots when he’s on the floor and Carlson blocking it 4.8% of the time. The bigs are backed up by 6-8, 232-pound Malian sophomore Keba Keita, who had seven points and 11 rebounds against the Wildcats in Salt Lake City last season as a freshman, and Ben Carlson, who had 11 points and six rebounds in that game.

He said it: “It’s a well-constructed team. I think they’re very big. They have positional size. They’ve tried to play a little like us, they have two real bigs. They’ll duck in, they’ll post up. Carlson has made a big jump, obviously. He’s playing really good.

“Carlson is shooting 40% (from 3)... he’s doing most of his damage inside, posting up against smaller guys. (Having Lovering play center) has benefited him but Arizona State was able to kind of take advantage of it. Carlson had to guard (6-5 senior Jose) Perez, who goes for 26.

“(Keita) plays with incredible energy. You’ve gotta match his energy. He might look a little small for center but his production per minute is unreal in conference. … (Ben Carlson) very similar to those Wisconsin guys. Hard-nosed, plays really hard. Very comfortable in his role

“Madsen is as good of a shooter as there is in the conference. We can’t give up open looks to him. (Madsen, Bajema and Worster) are solid, they know the system.

“(Smith) is very aggressive. Definitely looks to shoot twos more than 3s. Has a lot of freedom. He’s different than what they had – he gives them someone who can attack.”

— UA assistant coach Riccardo Fois who scouted the Utes.

Key players

UTAH — Branden Carlson

Since top college basketball players who competed in 2020-21 can use their COVID-year exception to play an extra season — and collect NIL cash for doing so — it’s no longer unusual to see them sticking around for a fifth season. But Carlson is doing so at the only college he’s attended. Imagine that.

ARIZONA — Keshad Johnson

While Arizona has two 7-footers of its own to match up with Carlson and Lovering, Johnson might have to spend at least part of the game using his athleticism to chase Carlson around the perimeter — and make up for a five-inch deficit.

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Sidelines

Scouting Sandler

Because comedic actor Adam Sandler was seen throwing no-look passes, dribbling between his legs and flicking in reverse layups during an impromptu pickup game with UA managers Thursday afternoon at McKale, Fois said he wondered if he was “maybe like (NBA All-star Nikola) Jokic.”

But overall, this was the “scouting report” Fois came up with Friday:

“Not a great shooter. Close out short. Not a great athlete,” Fois said. “I think our managers didn’t play great. That’s what I heard. The scouting report was that he was OK. But our managers were worse.”

At 57, Sandler is known to be a strong and avid recreational player, often organizing or engineering pickup games wherever he goes. The New York Post reported last July that he and actor Timothee Chalamet even joined in a 3-on-3 pickup game in Soho.

Sandler’s McKale appearance at McKale actually stemmed from a November interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, when he mentioned that his sister had received medical treatment in Tucson.

“She had to deal with some stuff,” Sandler said. “She went to a hospital in Tucson, Arizona and the staff took amazing care of her, the nurses and two doctors particularly. Took care of her the whole time. Just wanted to tell them, thank you very much for looking out for my sister.”

After seeing the interview, Arizona athletics officials reached out to Sandler’s management and told them he would be welcome anytime. Leading up to Thursday, Sandler asked if he could take UA up on it, and time was found before the Wildcats and Buffaloes began warmups.

“They told us just about an hour before,” Fois said.

Double-billed

While Thursday’s game might be the only Bill Walton-Dave Pasch telecast from McKale Center this season — barring changes in ESPN assignments the rest of the way — having two “Waltons” may have made up for it.

Comedian and impressionist Frank Caliendo sat between Walton and Dave Pasch during the first half Thursday, going on a long-winded introduction of the Sonoran Desert with a voice and style that could only be Walton’s.

“The desert. Here we are. The cacti — that’s plural for cactus, as if you didn’t know. Look at the beauty…” Caliendo said, looking over at Walton at one point to note that, “you’re not getting a word in.”

Caliendo continued, saying “Here it is, loving and enjoying the Earth we’re in, the McKale Center …”

When Caliendo stopped for a breath at the end of that intro, Walton grinned and said, “Where have you been?” making a reference to how it was like when actor James Austin Johnson impersonated him on Saturday Night Live last season (after which Walton told the Star that “it was very nice to have someone to talk to”).

Caliendo also did impressions of in Stephen A Smith, Sandler, Tommy Lloyd and Liam Neeson. He later called his performance on X “The Walternative.”

Vacuum cleaner

Among Kylan Boswell’s four assists against Colorado on Thursday was one that you just don’t see very often. In fact, Pasch said he wasn’t sure if he ever had.

With just under four minutes to go in the first half, Boswell grabbed an errant pass from Colorado’s Julian Hammond under the basket, dribbled to the Buffs’ free-throw line — then bowled a pass directly toward Arizona’s basket.

It bounced twice and almost a third time before Larsson reached down to grab it, then rose for a layup.

When asked after the game if he and Boswell have worked on that pass, Larsson chuckled.

“Maybe yes,” he said. “But I’m just trying to make sure he doesn’t get a turnover. So if he throws it, I’ll go get it.”

Mutual respect

Both UA coach Tommy Lloyd and Utah coach Craig Smith took over their programs before the 2020-21 and both are competing for the Pac-12 title this season. So it’s no surprise that Lloyd and Smith both complemented each other’s program, with Smith also crediting the UA fans who will be greeting him Saturday.

“They have an elite home-court advantage,” Smith said after Utah lost at ASU. “Their fan base is electric. They show up and they show out and they make their presence known.

“They’re a really good team. They have great size, they have excellent shooting, they have great playmaking in terms of their guard play. They are defending at a much higher level than they’ve defended, at least in my two years here. So they cause a lot of problems on the offensive end. They can score at the rim, they’ve got great pull-up guys and they’ve got guys who can shoot the 3.

“But that’s what you expect. That’s what you want. … This is one loss and it’s difficult, but you’ve got to grow and move forward.”

Numbers game

2 – Utah’s ranking in average height (6-foot-7.2 inches) out of 362 Division I teams, as determined by a Kenpom formula that takes the average listed height of every player on a team and weighs it by minutes played.

7 – Points Larsson needs to hit the 1,000-point mark for a college career that includes 204 points at Utah in 2020-21 and 771 at Arizona since then.

17 – Points Oumar Ballo needs to hit the 1,000-point mark for his college career that includes 60 points at Gonzaga in 2020-21 and 919 at Arizona since then.

— Bruce Pascoe

Photos: Arizona Wildcats Pac-12 home opener against Colorado is all Wildcats, winning 97-50, men's college basketball