Following four games in 10 days, Arizona took some much-deserved time off for the holidays. Big 12 Conference play is just around the corner, but before that league opener is one more nonconference tilt.
The top-ranked Wildcats (12-0) host South Dakota State (7-7) on Monday night seeking a perfect preseason, something they’ve done four times before including in 2022-23.
Arizona is one of six unbeaten teams left in college basketball, including fellow Big 12 school Iowa State. There were four at this point last season including Florida, which went on to win the NCAA title, and the last NCAA champ to have more than one regular season loss outside of league play was North Carolina in 2016-17.
Tommy Lloyd isn’t putting too much stock in Arizona’s perfect start, especially since he’s already had one and that season ended with a first-round NCAA tourney loss to Princeton.
“That was four years ago,” Lloyd said after Arizona’s win over Bethune-Cookman last week. “I’m a grandpa now, I wasn’t then. So lots has changed. Life keeps moving. So I really don’t draw any comparisons. I’m not really good at that stuff. I like this team, I like where we’re at, and I like where I think we can go, but we’re gonna have to continue to get better and stay the course to get there.”
Here’s what to look for when the Wildcats and Jackrabbits battle:
Continuing to spread the scoring
At 14 points per game, Brayden Burries would be Arizona’s lowest leading scorer since the 2018-19 team had no one average more than 12.4. But that team went 17-15, finishing below .500 in the Pac-12 and missing the NCAA tourney, and also averaged only 70.9 points per game.
The current UA squad is scoring 89.6 per game, which would be second-best in school history. And yet there’s been no one player doing the bulk of the scoring.
Instead they just take turns.
Burries led the way with 20 against Bethune-Cookman, a game that saw seven players reach double figures. That was Burries’ 4th 20-point effort, third in the last four games after a slow start to his career, while Jaden Bradley has gotten to at least 20 twice and each of Anthony Dell’Orso, Ivan Kharchenkov, Motiejus Krivas and Koa Peat have done so once.
The San Diego State game might have been the best indication of how balanced Arizona is on offense. In scoring a season-low 68 points and shooting below 40 percent it still had five players get in double figures but none had more than 11.
“I’m happy when that happens, but it’s not like something we game plan for,” Lloyd said. “We don’t tell guys, okay, you score 12 points, start letting your teammates score. It’s just kind of how the game ends up sometimes. And we have lots of good players and we’ve kind of really settled in on that eight man rotation. And I think those guys are getting comfortable finding their spots and so if we can have six or seven guys in double figures on any given night, that’s a good thing.”
An ill-timed nonconference finale
The Big 12 dropped from 20 to 18 conference games for this season, giving schools an extra two spots to fill on its schedule. That meant squeezing one in between the holiday break and the start of league play, which begins Saturday at Utah.
Arizona’s game against South Dakota State is one of 11 nonconference games for Big 12 schools scheduled for Sunday or Monday. Five schools, including ASU, opted to cram all 13 non-league games in before Christmas and then have an extended layoff before jumping into the conference schedule.
“I didn’t want to go 10 days without a game before the Big 12,” Lloyd said. “Sometimes it’d be great to play on the 20th against San Diego State, then go home, but we’re just fitting the games in where we have to. We’re not really overthinking it. I’m okay playing a nonconference game after we get home from Christmas.”
Last season Arizona’s inaugural Big 12 game was on Dec. 30. During the final seasons of the Pac-12, thanks to a 20-game league slate, the Wildcats had some conference games prior to Christmas.
The last time the UA faced a nonconference opponent between Christmas and New Year’s Day was 2012, when it beat San Diego State in the Diamond Head Classic championship game in Hawaii on Dec. 25. The last post-Christmas nonconference home game was in 2009, the infamous “Jimmer” game against BYU.
About the Jackrabbits
South Dakota State has traditionally been one of the best teams from the Summit League, earning its automatic NCAA Tournament bid seven times since 2012. It has also been a springboard for some notable coaches, including Iowa State’s TJ Otzelberger and Eric Henderson, who is in his first season at Drake after averaging 21.5 wins the previous six seasons with SDSU.
The Jackrabbits were picked to finish third this season under first-year coach Bryan Petersen—no relation—and have split their 14 nonconference games. Three of those have been against non-Division I opponents, though, while their only other game against a P4 opponent resulted in an 83-69 loss at Oregon in November.
Four players score in double figures including 6-foot-10 sophomore Damon Wilkinson, who is the team’s leading rebounder despite coming off the bench the last 12 games. Wilkinson also draws nearly seven fouls per game, a good tuneup for Arizona’s defensive frontcourt before regularly facing solid bigs in Big 12 play.
SDSU is allowing 69 points per game on 41.7 percent shooting, but against D-I opponents those numbers climb to 72.4 and 42.9 percent, respectively.
