Preview: Arizona Basketball travels to SoCal to take on the Trojans

Following a split weekend against the Oregon schools, Arizona Basketball (14-5,5-1) returns to action to take on the USC Trojans (10-8, 3-2).

Last week was good and bad for Arizona Basketball. Last Thursday, in front of a home crowd against Oregon, the Wildcats were out-muscled and out-performed in a 59-54 loss to the Ducks. Luckily, they followed that up with one of their grittier and better performances of the season, beating Oregon State without junior big man, Chase Jeter.

Now the Wildcats will have to overcome a little more adversity. On Thursday night, they will be in Los Angeles, CA, with Jeter’s status is still uncertain after taking a nasty spill versus Oregon State. Arizona will take a talented, but under-performing USC team.

Arizona Wildcats

The Trojans enter at 10-8 (3-2) on the year, but still have tons of talent to compete and give the Wildcats a tough fight. Plus, with Emmanuel Akot having transferred and Jeter’s status still unknown, a win won’t come easy.

USC will enter with a ton of size and a ton of talent in the post, which will provide a lot of challenges for an undersized Wildcat team.

The Trojans are largely led by senior big man Bennie Boatwright, who is averaging 17.3 points per game, and junior big man Nick Rackocevic right behind him with 15.2.

Additionally, they have solid guard and wing play getting a ton of production from Jonah Matthews, Derryck Thornton, Kevin Porter, Jr., and Shaqquan Aaron.

While the Trojans have no problem scoring points, where they do struggle is on the defensive side of the ball, ranking 231st overall in scoring defense.

Don’t let their 2018-19 struggles fool you, winning at the Galen Center is no easy feat.

Keys to the Game:

Attack!- When Arizona is being aggressive offensively and not forcing shots, they look much better as an offensive unit.

Against the Beavers, the Wildcats looked more comfortable, more fluid and overall more confident as a group. Granted shooting 48 percent from three helped, but the offensive production surely showed as they went on to win 82-71.

Against the Trojans, they need to work for easier buckets, only take smart shots, but attack.

Spacing & Take smart shots – To reiterate to the last point, be aggressive, but be smart. Against the Ducks, as Arizona wasn’t hitting shots, the attempts became more and more desperate as the game went on.

Stay patient, work on spacing and spreading the floor, but more importantly, work for good looks and go for high percentage shots. Easier said than done, but if they stick to this recipe, that’s only going to help them on the offensive side of the ball.

Avoid the turnovers – Really goes without saying, but taking care of the basketball leads to greater chances of success. Against the Beavers, the Wildcats turned it over just 11 times, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence they performed well because of it.

Against the Ducks, it was the opposite. Arizona had 14 turnovers to Oregon’s nine and that resulted in a loss. In games like this, don’t give the opposition more opportunities to score, and by all means, take care of the ball.

Game Information:

Time: 7:00 pm MST/ 6:00 pm PST

Location: Los Angeles, CA- Galen Center (10,258)

Line: Even

Television: FS1

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

Team Records:

Arizona Wildcats (14-5, 5-1): Arizona is back in the win column, after scoring a gut-check win against Oregon State. The Wildcats came to play and competed hard for 40 minutes.

At 5-1 in the conference, they still control their destiny a bit, but they need to continue to play tough if they want to get to postseason play.

USC Trojans (10-8, 3-2): The Trojans haven’t quite lived up to the hype this year, but as stated earlier, this is an incredibly talented group that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Winning in Los Angeles isn’t easy, and the Wildcats will have their hands full on Thursday night as they take on the Trojans.

All-Time Record (since 1949-50) : 61-27 Arizona. The Wildcats have won the last, five-straight games between these teams, with the last one coming in the 2018 Pac-12 Championship game.

Arizona will look to continue their dominance on Thursday evening.

Listen to coach Sean Miller in his weekly press conference prior to USC:

Update on Chase Jeter and if he will be ready, Miller is hopeful:

At Zona Zealots, we’re hoping the Cats can come out strong again and put together a great road trip in Southern California! Bear Down, Arizona!