To this point in the Big 12 schedule, Arizona has spent its weekends on the road and played at home on Wednesday nights. This is the week things change a bit, with the Wildcats playing consecutive conference games at McKale Center.
This week can also be considered the calm before the storm, as the schedule starts to get a lot tougher next week.
Top-ranked UA (18-0, 5-0 Big 12) hosts Cincinnati on Wednesday night and West Virginia on Saturday night before playing three of the next four on the road,
starting with the much-anticipated showdown Monday at No. 13 BYU. That’s the first of seven games left on the schedule against ranked opponents, including four in a row and six of seven at one point.
It’s easy to look ahead to those games, but the ones this week can’t be overlooked. Cincinnati (10-8, 2-3) has won its last two, including an impressive victory over then-No. 2 Iowa State, while West Virginia has a win over Kansas under its belt.
Arizona swept these schools on its first Big 12 road trip last season, and Cincinnati is making its first trip to McKale Center.
Here’s what to watch for when the Wildcats and Bearcats battle:
An old friend returns but probably won’t play
Since Tommy Lloyd took over the program in 2021-22, Arizona has 13 players enter the NCAA transfer portal including four from last season’s team. The Wildcats have yet to face any of their former players, at least in a game that counts, as ex-UA wing Paulius Murauskas came back to Tucson with Saint Mary’s for an exhibition in October.
That streak is likely to continue, though a polarizing former Wildcat will be back in McKale on Wednesday. Cincinnati’s roster includes point guard Kerr Kriisa, who played for the UA from 2020-23.
Kriisa, who is averaging 7.3 points and 3.8 assists this season, has missed the last four games with a shoulder injury.
Since leaving the UA, Kriisa has become a college basketball nomad. He spent 2023-24 at West Virginia, averaging a career-high 11 points while shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range, then went to Kentucky for what was supposed to be his final season of eligibility, but a broken foot suffered nine games in knocked him out and enabled him to get a sixth year.
For his career, Kriisa has played in 122 games, 76 of those with Arizona. He led the Pac-12 in assists in 2021-22, Lloyd’s first season, and led the conference with 83 3-pointers in 2022-23.
A defense-first opponent
Cincinnati has hung its hat on defense under 5th-year coach Wes Miller, and this unit might be his best yet. The Bearcats rank 7th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com, holding opponents to 41 percent shooting and 66.2 points per game. Arizona is 3rd in adjusted defense.
The numbers haven’t been as good in Big 12 play, allowing 46.3 percent shooting and 68 points per game, and conference opponents are making 39.8 percent of their 3-point shots. But they’re still forcing turnovers on nearly 20 percent of possessions, resulting in 19 points per game off takeaways in Big 12 play.
Cincinnati needs all the help it can get from its defense because the offense is lacking. Ranked 180th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, 75 spots lower than anyone else in the Big 12, it is shooting 42.7 percent for the season (42.9 in conference).
Senior forward Baba Miller is averaging a double-double, at 13.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, and combined with 7-foot-2 center Moustapha Thiam poses the toughest frontcourt Arizona has faced in Big 12 play. Guards Sencire Harris, Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas all can score, but none shoot well.
Can Delly get right?
Lloyd has cited Arizona’s “winning DNA”in his team’s ability to overcome rough nights from a player or two because of its overall balanced attack. That was evidenced at UCF, where Motiejus Krivas and Brayden Burries both had bounceback games after consecutive bad ones for each, making up for Koa Peat going scoreless for nearly 32 minutes to start the game.
Arizona still has seven players averaging at least 9.1 points, one of two teams in Division I along with Virginia Tech, but Anthony Dell’Orso is about to fall out of that group with another night like he’s had a lot of recently.
Dell’Orso was 0 for 6 at UCF and hasn’t made a shot in the past two games, this after scoring 17 at TCU. He has seven double-figure scoring games this season, including 20 against UCLA in November, but in Big 12 play he’s averaging 5.0 and shooting just 27.3 percent, making only 3 of 16 3-pointers.
