Can the Wildcats bounce back against the Washington State Cougars at home?

After losing three-straight games including two on the road, the Arizona Basketball team returns home to hopefully finish the season on strong!

The Pac 12 Tournament and NCAA March Madness Tournament are right around the corner, and that means more intense Arizona Basketball action coming up!

The fortunate news is that anything can happen during that time, and many factors that have gone into Arizona’s recent struggles the past three games against strong Pac-12 opponents goes out the window. Especially as the Wildcats return to health with the return of star freshman, Josh Green.

Arizona Wildcats

With Green being out the past two games due to a back injury, it forced Coach Sean Miller to play with bigger lineups with players such as Stone Gettings, Ira Lee, and Zeke Nnaji all playing on the floor together which causes some spacing issues.

In college basketball most teams play the opposite way, going with more guards and guys who can switch to wings easier.

Lately, Sean has been struggling to find the right balance with what lineup to throw out on the floor, because his team is oddly constructed with having a lot of small guards with Nico Mannion, Max Hazzard, and Jemarl Baker. It has been hard for them to match-up well with tougher Pac-12 teams.

Josh has such an important role in Millers’ offense as he is very athletic and is always hustling on the offensive and defensive ends. His speed allows him to accelerate through defenders and get on the fast break with ease. Green excels playing in the half court offensive as it allows him to showcase his athletic ability while also being an incredible dunker. Having him against Wazzu will be huge!

To recap, the first time the Wildcats faced off with the Cougars was at Washington State. Arizona had a pretty easy win, beating the Cougs by 17 points, led by a big performance from the veteran Gettings who scored a season high 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds!

Both teams struggled from deep shooting a combined 19 percent from three, but Arizona overcame their poor shooting performance by out-rebounding the Cougars by 13 boards total in the game.

The key to a win against Washington State in this one is getting Nico good looks on the offensive end early, establishing his three-point jump shot. Nico is coming off one of his best performances of the season scoring 19 points while shooting 6-13 from the field and 2-6 from three.

We’ll see if the Cats can replicate that success!

A lot is on the line in Arizona’s final two games of the season where they face Washington State tonight and finish their season with the Washington Huskies on Saturday night where they look to finish the season on a strong note, hopefully attaining a 20+ win season!