Arizona men's basketball scouting report: No. 10 Wildcats vs. Colorado, 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Probable starters

COLORADO

G KJ Simpson (6-2 junior)

G Julian Hammond (6-2 junior)

F Luke O’Brien (6-8 senior)

F J’Vonne Hadley (6-6 senior)

C Eddie Lampkin (6-11 senior)

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 Colorado 24-16 and 3-1 in the Tommy Lloyd era but is 11-0 against the Buffaloes at McKale Center since they joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12. The teams only met at McKale last season. Colorado took an early 18-6 lead thanks in part to four Arizona turnovers in the first two minutes, but the Wildcats rebounded to lead by up to 17 points en route to a 78-68 win.

This season: Colorado will host Arizona in the return game on Feb. 10 in Boulder.

Colorado overview: Long known as probably the Pac-12’s most stable program, Colorado has leapt into the thick of the conference race with a core of veterans led by KJ Simpson and Tristan da Silva while mixing in five-star freshman Cody Williams and TCU transfer Eddie Lampkin.

Colorado is ranked No. 29 in both Kenpom offensive and defensive efficiency. The Buffs rank seventh nationally in 3-point percentage (40.8) and 24th in 2-point percentage (56.4). It doesn’t pay to send them to the line, where they hit 78.0% of their free throws (14th best nationally). But they are subject to ballhandling issues, turning it over on 19.6% of their possessions.

Defensively, Colorado holds opponents to 42.2% shooting overall and 68.8 points a game, and they can crush opponents on the glass, with a defensive rebounding percentage of 78.0 (ranking sixth nationally) and offensive rebounding percentage of 35.8 (ranking 33rd).

It’s unclear if Colorado will have da Silva (ankle) or Williams (wrist) available Thursday, but the Buffaloes beat Washington and Washington State last weekend in Boulder without both of them. Before injuring an ankle in practice last week, da Silva was again proving a matchup nightmare as a forward who takes nearly half his shots from 3 and is equally comfortable around the basket. He flirted with a triple-double in Colorado’s 90-63 win over Miami in Brooklyn, collecting 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists with only two turnovers. Williams, the former Arizona recruiting target out of Gilbert Perry High School, shot 62.3% while becoming Colorado’s third-leading scorer before missing the past five games.

Simpson is a scoring point guard who has been productive and efficient across the board: He shoots 60.4% from 2-point range, 47.1% from 3 and 87.1% from the line while drawing six fouls per 40 minutes, and he has a 2.6-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. When everyone’s healthy, the Buffaloes will pair him with Williams at shooting guard, da Silva at small forward, 6-6 J’Vonne Hadley at power forward and Lampkin at center, while 6-8 Luke O’Brien and 6-2 Julian Hammond have received spot starts as needed on the perimeter.

Hammond (47.7%) and O’Brien (40.6%) are both dangerous 3-point shooters and veterans deeply familiar with a CU offense that can find them looks, while Hadley, a 57.3% shooter from 2, is in his second season in Boulder after transferring from Northeastern.

Lampkin is the same big guy who pulled down 14 rebounds (10 on the offensive end) against Arizona in the second round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament, having transferred to Colorado last summer.

While da Silva missed last weekend, Colorado received big wing Javon Ruffin back after rehabilitation from a third knee procedure last spring. Ruffin hit 3 of 7 3-pointers at McKale Center last February in what turned out to be his last game of the season, with knee issues keeping him out for the Buffs’ final 11 games.

He said it

“They’re off to a great start. They’re one of the one of the frontrunning teams for the conference championship. It’s very early, but you have to give Colorado that respect. (Tad) Boyle has done a great job there over the years, and they have a great mix of experience, talent and youth to where they could have a special team this year.

“They do a great job offensively of getting open shots, understanding shot selection and having the right guys taking them. KJ Simpson obviously has elevated his game. … He puts pressure on the defense. When he shoots the ball like he is this year, it really opens up his game because you have to guard him probably a little tight around the perimeter. He’s so quick and athletic getting downhill. And da Silva shoots the ball really well too. He gets in a rhythm with catch-and-shoot 3s. He’s dangerous and he can put the ball on the floor. He’s unselfish, he can pass it and he’s a post presence. He does everything for them.

“Cody Williams, in the games that he played, he was coming around, he had a big game (21 points) at Colorado State. His confidence was growing. You could tell he was getting more comfortable in the offense with the physicality. He’s a long, skilled athlete who can shoot on the perimeter.

“Those three guys are legitimate NBA prospects. And then Lampkin is a big, physical presence. He kind of gives them what (former CU center Evan) Battey gave them a couple of years ago. He does a great job with his physicality in the post both offensively and defensively. I think you could throw him into any system and that’s going to shine through. Colorado is maximizing what he does well.

“Hadley is an experienced guy, a strong, athletic four-man who plays his role to perfection. O’Brien has gotten a lot better. I think Hammond is a great shooter, whether he’s starting or off the bench. Ruffin just came back this last weekend. So they have a lot of a lot of depth, a lot of experience, and the guys that are new are either experienced like Lampkin or really talented like Cody Williams.

“They have a lot of interchangeable parts. Big, strong, athletic guys on the perimeter who can switch and do different things defensively and then offensively can present problems.

“I think right now they’re kind of flying under the radar. I think they’re one of the best teams in the country. This is gonna be one of our hardest games of the year. ”

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

Key players

Colorado — KJ Simpson

Pac-12 play has barely begun, but the Buffaloes’ versatile point guard has already installed himself as a conference Player of the Year candidate. As it is now, he’s the only Pac-12 player on Kenpom’s analytically driven list of college basketball’s top 10 players, ranking No. 6 nationally as of Wednesday.

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ARIZONA — Pelle Larsson

Even if Colorado doesn’t get back da Silva or Williams, Larsson and the Wildcats have plenty to prove Thursday, with a perimeter defense that has been shaky in losses to Purdue, FAU and Stanford. One of the Wildcats’ best defenders, Larsson also struggled offensively at Stanford.

Sidelines

Bracing for Buffs’ best

Boyle says he doesn’t know, and Murphy isn’t about to guess whether da Silva or Williams will play Thursday.

So both those guys are firmly in the Arizona scouting report.

“Look, I don’t know how bad (da Silva’s) ankle sprain is but if it happened a week ago I would think he’s probably going to play. It’s a big game on the road,” Murphy said. “Da Silva’s missed the last two games, and we’re preparing like he’s gonna play. Cody Williams has missed the last month or so. We’re preparing like he’s gonna play. You have to. These guys are really good players.”

Buffzone.com reported that da Silva rolled an ankle in practice last Thursday, forcing him out for the first time in his four-year college career (he also missed two games with COVID in 2021-22). Williams has been out since Colorado’s Dec. 3 game against Pepperdine because of an unspecified injury to his left (non-shooting) wrist.

“I don’t know if we’ll have either of the kids back or not,” Boyle told the Star on Tuesday. “I just take it day by day with both of them. They’re both progressing well, but I don’t have a feel.”

Boyle also told Buffzone that he didn’t know but added “getting closer on Cody, but not 100% sure yet.”

It could be worse

Simpson managed to shake off an ankle sprain suffered at Cal early last season, only to find out he wouldn’t get back to his normal self until the offseason.

The former UA signee, who chose Colorado instead after Sean Miller was fired in 2021, missed only a Jan. 5 game against Oregon and returned two days later against Oregon State.

“I don’t like being out,” Simpson said.

But while Simpson started and played heavily during 14 games after the injury, his struggled offensively. Buffzone noted in an early March story that “Simpson hasn’t been the same player since that one-game layoff.”

Only after a scary moment did Simpson figure out why.

“When I got back, I’d say a week or two into it, I just didn’t feel like myself,” Simpson said. “I didn’t really know what it was. My ankle still (hurt), but it wasn’t really that. I just didn’t feel right.

“I played through it and I felt awful. I had headaches. My stomach was hurting. I couldn’t eat nothing. ...

“We had practice and I passed out. Then they did blood tests and everything and made sure it wasn’t my heart.

“We found out I had mono. I had no clue I had mono. I was just out there playing with it for who knows how long.”

As it turned out, Simpson was lucky. He missed the Buffaloes’ final five games but escaped a worse fate.

“When I had it, my spleen was double the size it was supposed to be,” Simpson said. “If I would have gotten hit, it would have ruptured.”

Hello again

Thanks to some off-court issues that led to his transfer out of TCU last spring, Lampkin will be right in Arizona’s face again Thursday.

He’s the 6-foot-11, 265-pound senior whose career-high 14 rebounds helped TCU take Arizona into overtime of the second round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Lampkin went on to start 19 of 24 games for the Horned Frogs last season but left the team before the Big 12 Tournament. According to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lampkin posted to Instagram screenshots of text messages between his mother and TCU coach Jamie Dixon, as well as between himself and another unnamed coach — and in the text exchange, his mother accused Dixon of player mistreatment and of making “racial comments.”

(The Star-Telegram said it spoke to multiple Black parents and a Black club coach who has had multiple athletes play for Dixon, reporting that all said their children and players have never told them of any racist or racially insensitive comments made by Dixon.)

In any case, Lampkin appears happier this season. Leading the Buffaloes with an average of 7.7 rebounds, Lampkin told Buffzone this week that he has felt Boyle’s trust in him.

“My confidence is so high right now and I just feel comfortable,” Lampkin said.

On Thursday, Lampkin will also have some personal motivation. After all, Arizona did pull out that second-round tournament game, 85-80, in overtime.

“I owe them from two years ago,” Lampkin told Buffzone. “They beat us in March Madness, and I’ve been waiting on this for two years. I hope they’re ready.”

Numbers game

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

25: Points Pelle Larsson needs to hit the 1,000-point mark for his college career, which includes 204 points at Utah in 2020-21 and 771 at Arizona since then.

30: Points KJ Simpson needs to hit the 1,000-point mark for a college career that began at Colorado in 2021-22.

— Bruce Pascoe