Kansas Jayhawks at Arizona Wildcats Preview: A Ranked Opportunity

The Kansas Jayhawks take their undefeated report on the rod tonight within the hardest take a look at so far. The Arizona Wildcats are a Prime 15 workforce that shall be very tough to deal with, particularly on the highway. However after tonight, we should always have a superb indication of simply how sturdy this workforce might be.

With that, let’s take a deep dive into tonight’s opponent. What is going to Kansas have to beat to remain undefeated?

Opponent Overview

Group: Arizona Wildcats

File: 7-0

Massey Score: twelfth (twenty ninth offense, tenth protection)

Line: ARIZ -8.5

Group Kind

The Wildcats are coached by head coach Adia Barnes, who has coached all seven years of her head teaching profession at Arizona. She has amassed a 117-74 report in her time in Tuscon, and he or she is 1-0 towards the Jayhawks.

The Aggies are coming off a season the place they completed 21-8 general and 10-6 within the Pac-12 Convention. They earned a 4-seed within the NCAA Event final season, advancing to the second spherical earlier than being defeated by North Carolina.

Based on Massey, they’ve the twenty ninth rated offense and tenth rated protection towards the 136th rated Power of Schedule up to now. On the season, the workforce is taking pictures 48.9% general and a blistering 40.3% from three-point vary, with a good 66.9% from the free throw line. Regardless of that, they hardly look to shoot the three, with solely 27.8% of their pictures coming from past the arc. 

Arizona averages 88.1 factors per sport, 39.9 rebounds per sport, 14.0 steals per sport and so they flip the ball over a mean of 12.3 instances per sport.

Gamers to Watch

The Wildcats have gamers able to massive performances throughout the lineup, however there are a couple of that stand out. Shaina Pellington leads the workforce in scoring at 15.6 factors per sport. The senior guard has scored no less than 15 in 4 of the 5 video games she has performed this season, and her however she is not a 3 level risk, solely having taken 5 pictures past the arc this season. She will get most of her factors going downhill in the direction of the basket, and her capacity to make use of her velocity to open issues up for others is a big asset.

As an alternative, that honor belongs to Jade Loville, who’s second in scoring common because of her red-hot taking pictures from past the arc. She is the one participant that has greater than 20 makes an attempt from lengthy vary, and he or she is hitting them at a 48.6% clip. Nonetheless, she does not get to the free throw line, which appears lucky giving how terribly she is taking pictures from the road. However she performs stable protection, and is an important piece to a unbelievable Arizona lineup.

Within the put up, Kansas should fear about each of the senior 6’2″ senior forwards, Esmery Martinez and Cate Reese.  Each are an enormous presence on the within, averaging double digits within the put up.

Martinez averages about 3 minutes extra per sport, and is a dominant rebounder within the paint. She leads the workforce with 9.6 rebounds per sport however can also be a superb inside passer, averaging 2.4 assists per contest. Her protection results in a mean of 1.7 steals per sport, and he or she is the higher of the 2 from the sphere. 

Reese is not fairly pretty much as good as a defender, however continues to be very succesful. And she or he has been the higher shooter from the road, and he or she leads the workforce in free throw share, excluding gamers with lower than 5 free throw makes an attempt on the season.

Matchups to Watch

It is fairly clear what the Wildcats do nicely, and that’s to attain in droves. They’ve scored 77 or extra factors in every of their video games this season, and the smallest margin has been 17 factors. Nonetheless, upon nearer inspection, many of those video games hinged on the power of Arizona to only outscore their opponents that could not sustain.

The protection for Arizona has not been nice, but it surely does not matter when you’ve that nice of an offense. Nonetheless, the Jayhawks have been capable of rating as nicely, tallying 72 or extra in every sport regardless of some points with their three level taking pictures.

The important thing right here is straightforward: Rating. That implies that both the Jayhawks want enchancment of their three level taking pictures from a mix of Holly Kersgieter (31.8%), Wyvette Mayberry (25.0%), Mia Vuksic (33.3%) and Sanna Strom (30.0%), or Taiyanna Jackson goes to need to win the battle down low persistently.

Prediction

That is by far the most effective workforce that Kansas has performed up to now so far, however I do not anticipate the Jayhawks to be intimidated by the surroundings. That being mentioned, Kansas has been struggling from three, and so they have had so lengthy stretches the place they’ve struggled to attain. I do not anticipate that to fully go away, and it is also arduous to see Arizona getting stopped for lengthy stretches. So whereas I feel that we’ll see a aggressive sport, I can not pull the set off on a Kansas win. Let’s hope I am unsuitable.

Arizona 82, Kansas 76.

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