Arizona Basketball looking to get back on track against Utah

After two straight losses, the Arizona Basketball team (11-5, 1-2) is reeling, but finally returns home to take on the Utah Utes (10-5, 1-2). 

Things haven’t been so pleasant in Tucson of late. After the Arizona Basketball team entered the year with high expectations, things have been less than stellar for the Wildcats dropping three of their last four games, including two straight.

Despite playing the No. 4 Oregon Ducks tough, the Wildcats followed that game up with being throttled by an inferior Oregon State team on Sunday night, dropping to 11-5 (1-2) on the year.

Arizona Wildcats

Without sounding too doom and gloom, this is a crucial weekend for the Cats. Arizona has the talent to be much better, but for some reason, this team hasn’t really played to their potential just yet.

While it’s still early in the year, the time to win is now, and for the Wildcats this match-up against Utah is crucial.

Led largely by the play of Timmy Allen, Both Goch and Rylan Jones, together this trio has helped pace the Utes to a 10-5 record, and have some great offensive talent.

With Arizona’s defensive deficiencies, these three will certainly challenge the Wildcats, and this team is going to have to do some serious soul searching this week if they’re going to turn things around.

With that said, here’s what we need to know about Arizona’s upcoming match-up against Utah!

Keys to an Arizona win:

Defense- Arizona has been just okay defensively this season, ranking 95th overall. However, this group has been rather inconsistent of late, and really where they’ve struggled especially against some of the better teams has been from outside the arc.

Against Oregon State, the Beavers shot over 44 percent from three, converting on eight of 18 attempts.

If Arizona is to not only get the win against Utah, but more importantly getting future wins, the defense has got to improve. The Utes are a solid shooting team from outside, ranking 91st overall, and should the Cats run into similar issues they had against Oregon State, it’s going to be tough to come away with the win.

The bench has to step up- Again, this team has been wildly inconsistent, and it’s mostly been along the bench. Outside of the play of Arizona’s freshmen, this group doesn’t seem to get much consistent production from anyone else and that’s very concerning.

It seems like when Nico Mannion isn’t on the floor, the offense suffers greatly. The best teams in the country are typically the deepest teams, and while many, including myself thought this was a deep team coming into the season, it seems like that may not quite be the case after all.

Bench production and play has to improve significantly and quickly if Arizona is to get a win not only against Utah, but really moving forward.

Offense- While Arizona fares okay offensively, this group currently sits at 14th overall in scoring offense. However, again as we alluded to earlier, it really seems to struggle when Nico or Zeke aren’t in the game. Also, it seems that Arizona is a better offensive team when they push tempo and are in transition.

Miller is notoriously controlling when it comes to his teams, so he’s really got to loosen up his style of play a bit and play to his teams’ strengths. I feel this offense has so much more potential than what it has, and the Cats need to find the strengths on offense and get more consistent production. Bad shooting nights like they had against OSU, and it’ll be a long night.

Game Information:

Date: Thursday, January 16th

Time: 6:30 pm MST/ 5:30 pm PST

Location: Tucson, AZ- McKale Center (14,655)

Line: TBD

Television: Pac-12 Network

Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network, TuneIn Radio, 1290 AM & 107.5 FM

Team Records:

• Arizona Wildcats (11-5, 1-2): lost back-to-back games against the Oregon schools, to go along with losses to Baylor, Gonzaga and St. John’s.
• Utah Utes (10-5, 1-2): The Utes have been inconsistent this year, losing to Tulane, Coastal Carolina, San Diego State, Oregon and Colorado.

Overall Series: Since 1949-50, Arizona holds a 34-30 lead, with the Cats having won 16 of the last 18 match-ups. The last time these two met was on February 14, where the Cats lost in Salt Lake by a 83-76 final.

Prediction: Arizona 79 Utah 65 – I think Arizona responds from their back-to-back losses and gets back in the win column against Utah. This is a crucial game, and I think the Cats come out more focused, getting the comfortable win at home.

Here was coach Miller following the teams’ loss to Oregon State on Sunday.

At Zona Zealots, we’re hoping the Wildcats can get back on track and can get the win against the Utes. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!