Arizona Basketball returns to action against Cal Poly Mustangs

Arizona Basketball (1-0) returns to action with a Sunday afternoon showdown against the visiting, Cal Poly Mustangs (1-0).

We’re already heading into the second game of the season as Arizona Basketball prepares for an upcoming showdown with Cal Poly.

The regular season started off much as many had anticipated, a lightly contested win over an undoubtedly inferior foe, regardless the Wildcats needed to show up and play.

Arizona Wildcats

In the 30-point drubbing of visiting Houston Baptist, Arizona at least did struggle through much of the first half, leading the Huskies by only nine. However, the Wildcats would wake up a bit in the second, finally putting some space between them and Houston Baptist.

After Houston Baptist cut Arizona’s lead to six points, the Wildcats would go on an 11-0 run over the course of the next six minutes.

Arizona would eventually pace themselves to the 90-60 win. Brandon Randolph would once again lead the way, scoring 25 points in 31 minutes played. The sophomore wing would finish 8-12 from the field, going 2-5 from beyond the arc.

Brandon Williams would add 13 of his own on a rough shooting night, and Chase Jeter would finish with a double-double (11 points and 10 rebounds), in his first career start for Arizona.

Moving forward, Arizona will continue to need performances like this as well as strong contributions from others if they are going to succeed. Cal Poly will be another great opportunity for the Cats to get things going and get more young guys reps and playing.

Keys to the Game:

Come out strong early- Against Houston Baptist on Wednesday evening, the Wildcats didn’t quite get off to the hottest start, leading the Huskies only by nine at the half. Luckily, they put together a strong second half to pull away.

For this key to the game, Arizona needs to come out stronger in this one. While it’s hard to gauge just how Cal Poly is in relation to Houston Baptist, Arizona will undoubtedly be a big favorite in this one.

Come out strong, build a big lead, cruise to another victory!

Rebounding– So far, we’ve seen that this may be a glaring weakness for the Wildcats this season, especially when the competition gets better. We don’t have the size we’ve had the past few seasons, so naturally the production is going to go down.

Against Chaminade, Arizona grabbed just 33 rebounds to Chaminade’s 33. Not an ideal performance from this group. Against Houston Baptist, the Wildcats had a 50 to 39 advantage which is nice, but not quite the dominant performance you would expect against an inferior group.

Moving forward, the Wildcats need to focus in improving their rebounding efforts. As the competition gets better, they won’t have that definitive advantage. So against Cal Poly, this group needs to increase the effort, follow their shot, and be physical down low to grab the ball.

Attitude-  This team is going to need it this year. Not many are expecting much from this group, so Arizona needs to have that chip on its shoulder.

So far, Miller has cited Williams as having the right attitude, essentially bringing a different mindset and toughness greatly needed with this years’ group. That is certainly a welcomed change that I feel has been missing the past few seasons.

Continuing to play with toughness and having that ‘us against everybody’ mentality, is only going to be invaluable for this team as the competition gets harder.

Game Information:

Time: 3:00 pm MST/ 2:00 pm PST

Location: Tucson, AZ- McKale Center (14,545)

Line: TBD

Television: Pac-12 Network

Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network Arizona Wildcats (Try TuneIn Radio) or 107.5 KHYT (Tucson)

Team Records:

Arizona Wildcats (1-0, 0-0): The Wildcats opened the year with a convincing 30-point win over visiting Houston Baptist. Arizona played it fairly close in the first half, before unloading a huge second half to take the opening game of the season.

Cal Poly Mustangs (1-0, 0-0): Opened the year against Menlo College, a small school in Atherton, CA. The Mustangs seemingly struggled a bit, playing a close game, before ultimately winning by 7-points.

All-Time Record: 1-0 Arizona. These teams last met in 2013, when the Wildcats won in a close, opening season, 11-point battle that Arizona ultimately won. They will compete once again this season!

Watch Arizona’s highlights from their 90-60 win over Houston Baptist:

Here’s to hoping Arizona can come out strong again in their match-up versus Cal Poly and once again get better and come away victorious! Bear Down, Arizona!