Arizona Basketball tunes up against UTEP just before Maui

Arizona Basketball (2-0) has one last tune-up game at home against the UTEP Miners (1-1), before heading to the Maui Tournament.

The season is quickly moving along for the Arizona Basketball team, as we’re already to the third game of the season. On Wednesday, the Wildcats will prepare for UTEP just ahead of the Maui Tournament.

Already off to a nice start, Arizona will have another great opportunity to compete, improve as a group and get ready for a few tough challenges ahead.

Arizona Wildcats

So far, it’s hard to gauge just how good this team is. We knew that coming in, it may be a slight down year for the Cats, however, they still have plenty of talent and experience to compete.

In the two games played, Arizona has looked dominant, just as it has in years past, but the competition hasn’t been stellar by any means either. Nevertheless, we will soon get an idea of how this team is against better competition, but we must first get through UTEP.

More indicative of this team, is that they have looked like a complete team, getting major contributions from pretty much everywhere. Sophomore Brandon Randolph is perhaps making the biggest impact thus far.

Moving forward, Arizona will need to continue to get as many guys contributing as possible, and if they are going to make another run at a Pac-12 championship, everyone needs to step up.

So far, it seems like that’s the case, and the chemistry of this team could even be further along than it was all last season, which is a good thing!

Keys to the Game:

Find the hot hand(s) & stick with it- I feel like this is a team that can have anyone go off on any given night. There’s just enough talent there that can be impactful, but you just don’t know who that will be.

On Sunday, it was Dylan Smith and Ryan Luther. Prior to that, it was Randolph. I think if the Wildcats want to be successful in not only the game against UTEP, but moving forward, this team just needs to find its hot hand(s) on offense and just continue to feed them the ball.

For instance, Smith had been struggling offensively prior to their game against Cal Poly, but finally, the junior wing got things going, hitting four of seven shots from outside.

Continue to get guys with the hot touch involved more frequently, the more success we’ll find.

Avoid the slow start– This is something to be expected with young teams, as they progress through the season. However, the Wildcats need to do their best to come out strong.

It may work for now against inferior teams, but once the schedule gets tougher, Arizona can’t afford very many slow starts.

So far in their two, regular season games, Arizona is outscoring their opponents 74-58 in the first half. In the second half, it’s been a much different story. Against their competition, the Wildcats have outscored both their opponents by a 98-63 margin.

Arizona has definitely shown to be a second half team thus far, but it does need to at least improve. As stated, once the competition gets tougher, the Wildcats can’t afford a slow start where they get behind.

Free Throw shooting-  It hasn’t been completely terrible, but it also hasn’t been great. In the two exhibition games, the Wildcats were a combined 20 of 37 from the charity stripe, converting at 54 percent.

In their opening game against Houston Baptist, a much improved 28 of 36 (nearly 78 percent). But in the following game against Cal Poly, Arizona had a regression back to the mean, converting on just nine of 14 attempts (64 percent).

That’s an area that has to improve. Generally under Sean Miller, the Wildcats have been a solid free throw shooting team. While things are at least concerning at this point, I could also see this area vastly improving as the season progresses. Regardless, Arizona needs to do better, and while they’re playing inferior opponents, take advantage of those opportunities to get better.

Game Information:

Time: 6:00 pm MST/ 5:00 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 (2-0, 0-0): The Wildcats have opened the year with two, dominant wins over Houston Baptist and Cal Poly, and will enter this one heavily favored as well.

UTEP Miners (1-1, 0-0): Opened the year with a huge win over UT Permian Basin, but followed it up with a lopsided loss to New Mexico State.

All-Time Record: Since 1949-50, Arizona leads the overall series 31-25. These teams last met in 2014, when the Wildcats traveled to El Paso, TX, escaping with just a five-point win.

The Miners finished 22-11 (13-5) that season under then head coach Tim Floyd. Perhaps luckily for us, UTEP hasn’t put a season together like that since, and Floyd is no longer the head coach.

Arizona “should” be able to win this one fairly easily.

Watch Arizona’s highlights from their 82-61 win over Cal Poly:

At Zona Zealots, we’re excited for the continued basketball action, and hope the Wildcats come out strong just ahead of the Maui Tournament. Bear Down, Arizona!