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MORE COVERAGE FROM ALLSPORTSTUCSON.COM:
— Allonzo Trier displays dominance within Sean Miller’s structured system.
— Over the next week, Arizona senior forward Ryan Anderson and Boise State senior forward Lonnie Jackson — former Boston College — will play each other tonight and will come across their old team in Anaheim, Calif., next weekend during the DirecTV Wooden Legacy. Boston College is in the same side of the bracket as Boise State. For Anderson to play the Eagles, it would have to be on the final day.
— When asked earlier in the season about the prospects of facing his former team in Anaheim, Anderson told AZDesertSwarm.com with a laugh: “If we do, we gotta run a play for me. I’m just happy to see a lot of my old friends there, a lot of my old teammates will be there. One of my best friends from there transferred to Boise State, Lonnie Jackson, and we play them this year too. When you’ve been in college as long as I have, you’ve got friends all over the place, so it’s cool just to reunite with some of those guys, but I’d love to play (Boston College).”
— Anderson and Jackson — who both hail from California — were teammates at Boston College in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The highlight of their time together with the Eagles was when they upset No. 1-ranked Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in overtime on Feb. 19, 2014. Jackson sealed the 62-59 victory with four free throws in the final 26 seconds. Boston College was 7-19 overall and 3-10 in the ACC after the monumental upset over the Orangemen, who entered the game 25-0. Jackson had 10 points while Anderson contributed nine points and 14 rebounds.
— Jackson, a 6’4″ guard, barely played during last season for Boston College due to a lower leg injury while Anderson sat out the season after transferring to Arizona to gain more exposure and be closer to home. Jackson earned his undergraduate degree at Boston College and opted to transfer to Boise State this year as a graduate-eligible player. During his first three seasons with Boston College, Jackson averaged at least 23 minutes per game.
— Boise State senior guard Anthony Drmic, who was granted a medical redshirt fifth year after an ankle injury last season, has 1,573 career points, seventh all-time in Boise State history. He is 371 points shy of Tanoka Beard’s all-time record (1,944). If Drmic plays every game the rest of the season he would need to average 12.4 points per game to break the record. If he averages 14.3 points over 30 more games he would become the first 2,000-point scorer in program history.
— Junior forward James Webb III, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds in the win over NAU on Monday, was one of 26 college basketball players to attend the invitation-only Nike Basketball Academy June 26-30, in Santa Monica, Calif. The camp featured instruction from current NBA stars such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Anthony Davis, as well as Hall of Famers Scottie Pippen and Gary Payton. Webb was widely lauded for his performance at the camp with many analysts noting his shooting ability and athleticism. Respected basketball writer Frank Burlison called Webb the second-best jump shooter at the event.
— In a reversal of facing the nation’s youngest team — Boise State with 10 freshmen — the Wildcats play one of the oldest tonight. Boise State’s roster includes four redshirt seniors, a redshirt junior and two freshmen who did not enroll immediately after high school. As of the first day of official practice (Oct. 2), the average age of student-athletes on the Boise State roster was 20.97 years or 7,659 days.
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BOISE STATE (1-1) VS. NO. 12 ARIZONA (2-0)
Tip Time: 6:30 p.m. MST
TV: Pac-12 Networks (Daron Sutton/Matt Muehlebach)
Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network (Brian Jeffries/Ryan Hansen)
Series: First meeting
Sean Miller vs. Boise State: Never Met
Site founder and award-winning sports journalist Javier Morales has published his first e-book, “The Highest Form of Living”, a fiction piece about a young man who overcomes a troubled upbringing without his lost father (a Vietnam War POW) and wayward mother through basketball and hope. His hope is realized through the sport he loves. Basketball enables him to get past his fears. His experience on the court indirectly brings him closer to his parents in a unique, heartfelt way. Please order it at Amazon (for only $4.99) by clicking on the photo:
WHAT IS PRODUCTIVITY RATING?:
PP: Productivity Points (Points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocked shots, FGs made, FTs made added together and then subtracted by missed FGs, missed FTs, personal fouls and turnovers)
MIN: Minutes played overall
PR: Productivity rating per minute played (Productivity points divided by minutes played)
SEASON PRODUCTIVITY RATING
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Former Boston College teammates Ryan Anderson and Lonnie Jackson face each other tonight.
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HOW ARE THEY DOING?
Present RPI ranking of non-conference opponents Arizona has played. The Wildcats’ RPI rating is No. 104. Boise State has an RPI of No. 290.
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— Boise State is 2-37 all-time on the road against schools currently in the “Power 5” conferences. The Broncos have lost 15 straight such road games. Their last win came at Oregon State, Dec. 30, 2003. The other victory was at Washington State, Dec. 12, 1973. Under Leon Rice, Boise State
is 0-11 in road games against “Power 5” schools, but 5-1 in home or neutral-site games.
— The Wildcats have not lost at home since Pac-12 rival Cal exited McKale Center with a 77-69 victory Feb. 10, 2012. Arizona has won 26 straight non-conference home games, a streak started after Bucknell earned a 65-54 victory against the Wildcats March 14, 2012 in the first round of the 2012 NIT. The non-conference home winning streak is the seventh-longest active streak in the nation.
LONGEST McKALE WIN STREAKS
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ARIZONA’S TOP SCORING CENTERS
Rank: Overall school ranking.
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ARIZONA SCHEDULE/PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS
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New freshman walk-on Paulo Cruz will wear #51. #APlayersProgram pic.twitter.com/zh5TDGTDlH
— Arizona Basketball (@APlayersProgram) November 18, 2015
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He has also written articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
