Arizona Wildcats (13-5)

• Head Coach: Sean Miller (10th Season)
• Top Performer: Brandon Randolph (16.3 PPG, 3.5 RPG)
• Points For: 74.8 PPG (T-155th)
• Points Against: 66.1 PPG (T-45th)
• Last Game/Streak: 59-54 Loss v. Oregon (1L)

The Skinny

After being ranked in the top spot of our most recent Pac-12 basketball power rankings, Arizona squandered their six-game winning streak at home against Oregon behind a horrid offensive output.

They’ll now try to bounce back in their second consecutive meeting of their Beaver State opponents, when Oregon State travels to Tucson on Saturday afternoon.

The Beavers may want to implement their 1-3-1 zone defense that stunted Arizona State’s prolific offense in the second half of a close defeat, as most of the issues that cost Arizona against the Ducks seemed to come from their discomfort against Oregon’s press and zone defenses.

The Wildcats’ leading scorer, Brandon Randolph (16.3 PPG), was held to just 5 points in their loss to Oregon, looking disjointed in their uncomfortable offensive approach. Instead, Arizona relied much more firmly on forward Chase Jeter (13.4 PPG) and freshman guard Brandon Williams (11.5 PPG), the latter of whom has begun to overcome some of his early first-year hurdles.

For the Wildcats to bounce back against the Beavers, either guard Justin Coleman (9.2 PPG) or swingman Ryan Luther (5.9 PPG) must display some more consistency, as the duo shot an atrocious 1-11 from the field in their last outing, finishing with a combined 7 points. Dylan Smith (5.3 PPG) may also need to play a bigger role, especially if the aforementioned Randolph has another slow night from the field.

Overall though for Arizona, Sean Miller’s squad needs to compete with more intensity than they did on Thursday against Oregon, if they want to remain tied for second place in the league. Either way, it’ll be the Beavers or Wildcats are heading into the next week of the season with two conference losses, after starting this set of games undefeated.

And so, life in the Pac-12 becomes borderline unjust once again, even in the most chaotic of campaigns for the conference.

Player To Watch

Chase Jeter (Junior): The 6’ 10” forward has blossomed into the prospect he was once considered to be coming out of high school and halfway through his first season at Arizona, he’s looking like one of the more complete forwards in the Pac-12. Jeter could also be matched-up against Tres Tinkle defensively, which adds to his value on the floor. Currently, the one-time scarcely used Duke big man leads the Wildcats in rebounding and is second in scoring.

Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Game Info

• Date: Saturday, January 19th
• Time: 4:00 PM PT
• Location: McKale Center (Tucson, AZ)
• Coverage: Pac-12 Network