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There is a big game on tap Thursday night as College Basketball truly gets into full swing with two ranked teams: The Arizona Wildcats come to Oregon to face the Ducks. Oregon is a -3 favorite.
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TIME: 9 p.m. ET TV: ESPN
ABOUT ARIZONA (11-3, 1-0 Pac-12): The Wildcats were swept by Oregon last season including an ugly 73-47 loss in their home finale March 2, shooting just 19.2 percent from the field in the second half including 1-of-12 from 3-point range. However, a strong freshman class led by athletic 6-11 forward Zeke Nnaji, who leads the team in both scoring (16.6) and rebounding (8.1), and the standout backcourt of point guard Nico Mannion (14.3 points) and Josh Green (13.0), has added plenty of firepower to the Wildcats who lead the Pac-12 in scoring (83.1) and field goal percentage (49.1) and rank third in 3-point shooting percentage (37.0). Mannion, a likely one-and-done, also leads the conference in assists (6.29) and assist/turnover ratio (2.51).
ABOUT OREGON: (12-3, 1-1): Senior point guard Payton Pritchard leads the team in scoring (18.7), including a team-leading 19 in the victory over the Utes, and assists (5.9) and needs 44 more assists to pass Kenya Wilkins (614) for the school's career record. Junior guard Chris Duarte is second in scoring (12.3) while sophomore guard Will Richardson (10.4) also is averaging in double figures while shooting 54.5 percent from 3-point range, and had 14 points off the bench in the win at Utah to go along with six rebounds and five assists. "You could say it was gritty win," Richardson told goducks.com. "We had to fight them off. It tells us how hard we've got to work to get to where we want to be at."
Oregon has 6-2 Straight Up versus Arizona in the last eight.
- Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com
