The Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team’s NCAA tournament hopes might have been revived with Thursday night’s 78-74 road win over first place California, but it won’t mean a thing if they can’t take care of business today in Palo Alto against the Stanford Cardinal (16-6, 6-4).
Once thought to be conference frontrunners along with their NorCal neighbors, three double-digit losses in their last four games have dropped Stanford into a tie with Arizona for third place.
Separated by just two games, six teams in the Pac-12 are currently sharing the top three spots heading into today’s action.
Here are three themes to watch for during today’s game…happening now!
Coming together
Thursday’s game against Cal was one of the few occasions this season where the Wildcats actually looked like a real team.
The kind of team capable of winning games despite adversity.
Arizona can’t do anything about the lack of size and experience this year’s team is struggling with but as we saw against the Golden Bears, as long as the Wildcats play inspired defense, attack on offense (draw fouls, get to the free throw line, create opportunities, etc.) and limit their turnovers they’ll have a chance against anyone.
Arizona was able to overcome another night being outrebounded by recording an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2/1, double up the amount of trips to the stripe and knocking down 7/11 shots beyond the arc.
Registering just six points, junior forward Solomon Hill’s scoring came back down to earth after a career-high 28 against Washington, but fellow team leaders Kyle Fogg and Jesse Perry were there to pick up the slack.
The seniors combined to score 41 of their team’s 78 points.
Even freshman F/C Angelo Chol, known more for his defense, stepped up his game with a career-high eight points off the bench.
Four players scored in the final five minutes.
The Wildcats are going to need similarly balanced attack today against the heady and scrappy Cardinal.
Close calls
Twelve points are the difference between the Wildcats being undefeated in Pac-12 play and their current conference mark of 6-4.
Arizona’s last three losses have come by a combined five points.
The key for the Wildcats on Thursday was starting the comeback in early.
Down as many as 13 points in the first half, Arizona was able to close the gap well before halftime.
The Wildcats used the second half to build and play with a lead for once, rather than spend all game chipping away at one only to run out of gas late.
Bad timing
With an 11 p.m. tip against Cal on Thursday and a noon start time against Stanford on Saturday, Arizona better have saved something for the Cardinal because quick turnarounds have not been the Wildcat’s friend this season.
Each of Arizona’s last three losses has come on the back-end of the Wildcats Thursday-Saturday scheduling blocks.
Arizona doesn’t even have the luxury of blaming travel considering two of the L’s went down at home.
The Wildcats need to prove to the March Madness selection committee that they can win on limited rest against competitive teams or no one is going to want to see Arizona in the postseason.
Be sure to check out the game…
Time: 1 p.m. (Now!!!)
TV: FSAZ
Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
Spread: Stanford by 4
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