Arizona men's basketball scouting report: No. 21 WSU at No. 4 UA, 9 p.m. Thursday

No. 21 Washington State (20-6, 11-4) at No. 4 Arizona (20-5, 11-3) | McKale Center | 9 p.m. Thursday | FS1 | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Probable Starters

WASHINGTON STATE

G Myles Rice (6-3 freshman)

G Jaylen Wells (6-8 junior)

F Andrej Jakimovski (6-8 senior)

F Isaac Jones (6-9 senior)

C Oscar Cluff (6-11 junior)

ARIZONA

G Kylan Boswell (6-2 soph.)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)

F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)

How they match up

The last time: On a single-digit temperature day outside Beasley Coliseum on Jan. 13, cold-shooting Arizona managed to hit just 34.7% of its field goals, including a potential game-tying 3-pointer from Caleb Love with six seconds left, and missed 17 of 28 layups in a 73-70 loss to Washington State. Forward Isaac Jones led WSU with 24 points and 13 rebounds, while guard Myles Rice had 18 points, four rebounds and five assists.

The last time at McKale Center: WSU handed Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd his first-ever loss at McKale Center, holding Arizona to just 31.7% shooting in the Wildcats’ 74-61 loss on Jan. 7, 2023. The loss snapped Arizona’s 28-game homecourt winning streak, a stretch that dated back to a game against Oregon late in the COVID-restricted 2020-21 season. WSU center Mouhamed Gueye had 24 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Cougars, a performance that helped him earn a second-round NBA Draft pick last June.

Series history: Arizona leads WSU 70-18 and has won 19 of the past 22 matchups – but lost two of the last three. The Wildcats avenged their loss at McKale Center last season by later beating the Cougars 63-58 in Pullman, where Azuolas Tubelis had 18 points and 12 rebounds.

What’s new with the Cougars: Nationally ranked this week for the first time since 2008, WSU has become the hottest team in the Pac-12. The Cougars have won all of their past 11 games except a Jan. 20 overtime game at Cal. They started the hot streak by winning at USC and then beating UA in Pullman. Their current seven-game win streak includes an overtime win at Washington on Feb. 3 and a sweep of the Oregon schools the following weekend.

WSU has done it with a low-risk, efficient system on both ends of the floor. The Cougars run a defense that switches frequently between man-to-man and zone, while third-year freshman Myles Rice runs a careful offense that shoots 3-pointers selectively while often going through post players Isaac Jones and Oscar Cluff inside.

The Cougars have gone with a big starting five since their win at USC featuring 6-8 junior Jaylen Wells and 6-8 senior Andrej Jakimovski on the wings, with Rice at point guard. Kymany Houinsou added more size to the perimeter at 6-7 and 205 pounds off the bench, while Jakimovski can slide over to the four in smaller formations.

He said it: “They're playing with a ton of confidence. Myles Rice, I don't know if there's enough you can say about him. He’s a really talented guard, and Isaac Jones is a really tough cover. Those two guys are kind of like 1A and 1B. And it’s not just those two guys. If you look at them as a team, ever since they inserted Wells in the starting lineup, his shot making and shooting has really opened up their offense and the team's taken off.

“(Center) Rueben Chinyelu had a great game against us, was a force, and Cluff and Jones are really good players. They’re a tough, physical hard-nosed team, and they've figured out a way to defend really hard and aggressively and physically without really fouling much.

"They're a good 3-point shooting team, but they also are very good in the paint. They're tough and physical, and if you're in the high-50s (for shooting percentage) from two and getting the free throw line, that's a pretty efficient offense, and that's what they're sticking with.

“Clearly we have to finish around the rim better (than in Pullman on Jan. 13). We had some opportunities there that we just we didn't finish on and we have to do a better job on Jones and Rice."

— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Cougars

Key players

WSU – Isaac Jones

After toiling in relative obscurity for over four seasons of college basketball – three in junior college and last season at low-major Idaho – Jones made a splash on the big stage with his production against Arizona last month. He’s a rugged rebounder who shoots 61.7% from two-point range, blocks 3.1% of opponents’ shots when he’s on the floor and draws an average of 5.3 fouls per 40 minutes.

ARIZONA — Kylan Boswell

Boswell has averaged 14.0 points and 4.7 assists in his past three games,  heading into a game against a team that made things miserable on Jan. 13 at Pullman. In that game, Boswell went scoreless while missing all five field goals and both free throws he tried, with no assists and a turnover in 25 minutes.

SIDELINES

Different deal, same guy

The Arizona Board of Regents is set to vote on a new five-year contract for Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd that would put him among the 10th highest paid coaches in college basketball, with a total guaranteed pay package of $5.25 million next season.

Yet Lloyd says he isn’t changing his routine.

“There's obviously a business side to everything and I'm pretty fortunate to end up on a good side of it,” he said Wednesday, referring to his proposed new deal. “But I slept last night like I usually sleep, ate the same microwave dinner I usually eat. So I don't think nothing's really changed in how I'm approaching things.”

Maybe not. During his radio show Monday, Lloyd even described how he is somehow still married to a clunker of a laptop computer.

Lloyd said most of his staffers use lighter Apple products for viewing video and other scouting products, but that he prefers using a software that works on his PC.

“I tried to learn the other way and I couldn't do it," Lloyd said. "I was like, `Yeah, no, you guys got to get me a PC.' So I have a laptop PC that weighs about 35 pounds. That works for me.”

No pain, no gain

Including the Feb. 8 game at Utah in which Kylan Boswell appeared to severely injure his left shoulder at Utah, the UA point guard has scored at least 14 points and dished at least four rebounds in every game since then.

Lloyd has credited Boswell’s toughness, while Boswell said Wednesday it helped that he had more time last week to get massages and work on the shoulder while the Wildcats played only ASU.

The real mystery might be what happened. Boswell appeared to have only light contact with Utah’s Gabe Madsen before walking off the floor in obvious paid.

“He kind of went to go get a loose ball; I don't know” what happened, Boswell said. “I think my arm just kind of got bumped up. It just felt like a few pops …In the game I was a little scared but nothing crazy.”

Horse sense

Not only does Lloyd and his staff have only about 37 hours to prepare for a game with Washington on Saturday after the WSU game ends, but the weekend work also means Lloyd can't easily take his horse-loving daughter, Maria, to the Tucson Rodeo.

“She's into it, but I've been a little busy,” Lloyd said. “Not a good time of year for me. I'm ask Tucson if can they move the rodeo to the offseason.”

Lloyd and his wife, Chanelle, have figured out a way to cater to Maria’s passion. Well, at least Chanelle has. Lloyd said on his radio show that the family has acquired two horses, a horse trailer and a truck to pull them with.

“Thank goodness for Chanelle,” Lloyd said. “I really don't participate much in the horse stuff but she does it. If you ever see a good-looking lady driving around in a Dodge Ram 4500 dually (a truck with dual rear wheels on either side), that's Chanelle. I've never drove it and she hooks up the trailers, backs them up, does all this stuff. She's a lot tougher than I am.”

Numbers game

2: WSU’s Kenpom ranking in average height (6 feet, 7.3 inches), a measure that takes average listed height of every player on the team weighted by minutes played.

5: Of the past six weeks that Rice has won the Pac-12’s Freshman of the Week award, starting with the Monday after WSU beat UA on Jan. 13.

71.4: UA Center Oumar Ballo’s shooting percentage during UA’s six game winning streak.

— Bruce Pascoe