Arizona ended up blowing out Cincinnati on Wednesday night, winning by 26 thanks to a 37-13 run over the final 14 minutes. Before that it was a slugfest, as most of the games have been during Big 12 play and how they all figure to be from here on out.
West Virginia
What to watch for when Arizona men’s basketball hosts West Virginia
Throw in the fact the Wildcats are one of three unbeaten teams left in college basketball, not to mention a unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time in school history, and it can all feel a little stressful being at the top.
Tommy Lloyd acknowledged that after the win over the Bearcats, then tapped into his experience being part of unbeaten teams from his time at Gonzaga.
“I’ve been on a few of these runs before and I think it’s important to know that winning is not a burden,” Lloyd said. “The winning shouldn’t feel heavy.”
Arizona (19-0, 6-0 Big 12) is two wins away from tying the school record for best start in school history. It can get one step closer on Saturday afternoon when it hosts West Virginia (13-6, 4-2).
Here’s what to watch for when the Wildcats and Mountaineers meet at McKale Center:
Further rotation tightening?
Arizona’s starters played 147 of a possible 200 minutes against Cincinnati, most of any game in Big 12 play and only fewer than at UConn (149) and the season opener against Florida (150). Tobe Awaka had his normal 20 minutes, which isn’t going to change with how Lloyd likes to rotate his frontcourt, but Anthony Dell’Orso only played 14 minutes and Dwayne Aristode 11.
Dell’Orso is mired in the worst slump of his UA tenure, if not his career. He’s missed his last 14 shots, his only points in the past three games coming on a pair of free throws against Cincinnati, and in six Big 12 games he’s averaging 4.5 points with 17 of the 27 coming at TCU.
Aristode is clearly the 8th man in the rotation, out there more to spell players at the 2, 3 and 4 than anything else, but Dell’Orso was a starter a year ago and Lloyd specifically had him come off the bench this season so he could provide offensive spark. That’s happened at times, like 20 against UCLA, 13 against Alabama and the TCU performance, but if he’s not scoring he doesn’t bring much else to the table.
“Hang with it,” Lloyd said when asked about Dell’Orso. “What you do is really hard. I love Delly. I love how he’s handling this and I have a real strong belief that we’re going to get the best from Delly when we need it. Not that you don’t want it or need it every night, but he is going to deliver. So I’m going to hang with him. I’m not going to change anything.”
Arizona is 27 of 87 from 3-point range in Big 12 play, a 31 percent accuracy that ranks 12th out of 16 teams. The Wildcats hit seven apiece at Utah and TCU but are 10 of 37 from outside in the last three games.
Brayden Burries has been the UA’s most prolific perimeter shooter, both in attempts (83) and makes (29), but as a 59 percent shooter on 2s he isn’t one to hunt shots from outside. Nobody on Arizona is, not like with Caleb Love last season or others in the past, which has resulted in the UA ranking third-to-last in the country in 3-point attempt rate.
So far, the lack of 3-point shooting hasn’t hurt Arizona. But it might at some point, so Lloyd is keeping a close eye on if something needs to change.
“I’m gonna let it play out,” Lloyd said. “It’s a figure it out as it goes deal, and it’s a game by game deal. I would have to see how a team is going to defend us just to force us to shoot a bunch of threes. When our guys are standing in the gym by themselves, they make threes. So are you not going to guard the whole team? I know isolating that single variable is so easy to do and get fixated on. There’s a lot of components to winning a basketball game.”
Arizona is getting almost 58 percent of its points on 2s, another 20 percent at the line. Against Cincinnati it had 48 points in the paint and went 20 of 28 from the line, and this season has outscored every opponent in the paint and had only six games where the other team took more free throws than it made.
Arizona only had 65 possessions against Cincinnati, per KenPom.com, third-fewest of the season behind the 63 each against UConn and San Diego State. West Virginia’s adjusted tempo for the season is 62.9, eighth-slowest in the country, and the fastest game the Mountaineers have had in Big 12 play was against Kansas when there were 67 possessions apiece.
“They try to get you in a possession game,” Lloyd said.
West Virginia is coached by Ross Hodge, its fourth different head coach in as many seasons. Hodge spent the previous two seasons at North Texas, where he had been promoted from assistant following Grant McCasland’s hiring at Texas Tech.
Hodge’s North Texas teams were even slower than this West Virginia one, but equally strong on defense. His current squad allows 40.3 percent shooting and 62.1 points per game, though in Big 12 play it’s allowing 70.6 per game.
“Ross is one of these guys who’s been around in the game,” Lloyd said. “He knows how to win basketball games, and his teams always have a real identity on the defensive end of the floor, and then offensively they’re a team that usually has a shooter or two that can knock down multiple threes.”
Leading scorer Honor Huff is shooting 39.5 percent from 3, while North Dakota transfer Treysen Eaglestaff was 6 of 9 from 3 in Wednesday’s win at ASU.