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Oregon State Basketball: Opponent Preview - Arizona Wildcats (Game 9)

Will the Beavers lose their eighth straight against Arizona?

By The_Coach
Sacramento State V Arizona Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

#11 Arizona Wildcats (6-0, 0-0)

  • Head Coach: Tommy Lloyd (1st Season, Overall: 6-0)
  • Points For: 91.5 PPG
  • Points Against: 57.7 PPG
  • Last Game/Streak: 105-59 Win vs. Sacramento State (6W)

The Skinny

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: NOV 21 Roman Main Event - Michigan v Arizona
Azuolas Tubelis is the leading scorer on a deep and balanced Wildcats squad.
Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
  • Azuolas Tubelis (16.5 PPG)
  • Christian Koloko (16.2 PPG)
  • Bennedict Mathurin (13.8 PPG)
  • Kerr Kriisa (10.0 PPG)
  • Justin Kier (7.7 PPG)
  • Oumar Ballo (7.0 PPG)
  • Pelle Larsson (6.3 PPG)
  • Dalen Terry (5.8 PPG)

Buckle up kids. This could be a rough one...

The Beavers head into Sunday’s battle with #11 ranked Arizona on a seven-game losing skid, that at this point, doesn’t need much more discussion about it. Oregon State looks disjointed and lacking chemistry. They’re not scoring at a high-enough level to win and in key moments, they lack the ability to get crucial stops to swing the emotion of the game. And that’s not even mentioning free-throws, effort, rebounding, etc.

But enough about the Beavers. This Arizona group has taken a turn completely for the better under new first-year head coach Tommy Lloyd, who has helped the Wildcats to find themselves as the most potent offensive group in the country. Arizona is currently averaging 91.5 points per contest, led by four players who average double-figures in scoring and four more who tally between 7.7 and 5.8 points per outing. Simply put, the Wildcats are deep, intelligent and relentless in terms of their ability to hit you in waves with a high-octane offense that closely resembles the efficient one that Lloyd worked in at Gonzaga.

The difference with Arizona compared to some other elite offense teams is that they can defend as well, which didn’t seem overly evident until they held a fourth-ranked Michigan squad to 62 points. When they want to, this Wildcats group is simply as good of a basketball team as you’re going to find in the land.

So while the prognosis may not be good for Oregon State, we’ll do what we always do here in Beaver Nation and hold out hope that Wayne Tinkle and his crew can find some way to muster an upset worthy of last year’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight run. But if I was a betting man, well, you might want to consider taking Arizona giving the points.

Game Information

  • Date: Sunday, December 5th
  • Time: 1:00 PM PT
  • Location: Gill Coliseum (Corvallis, Oregon)
  • Coverage: ESPNU