Notebook: Arizona Wildcats at Washington

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Allonzo Trier’s availability to play against Washington remains a game-time decision according to Sean Miller

— Should Sean Miller save Allonzo Trier another week and not play him until Friday night when the Wildcats host UCLA? In an interview with The Arizona Daily Star’s Bruce Pascoe, it sounded like Miller is thinking a wait until next week is a good alternative to allow for another six days for healing and for Trier to engage in practice more before returning to the court. “We’re at four weeks tomorrow (Trier was slated to be out four to six weeks with the broken hand) and, really, it’ll be a game time decision,” Miller told Pascoe. “We could play him (against Washington). I don’t know if we will. The thing that’s tough is when you’re no-contact in practice for a couple of weeks, he’s not around then all of sudden he’s around — so it’s not like you just put him in there and he plays the entire game.” … Arizona should concern itself too with the possibility that Trier could land on the floor with his hand bracing the fall, which is something to think about with him not going through contact drills in practice. … Miller added that waiting until the UCLA game is a “normal return” for Trier …

Sean Miller says Allonzo Trier is "game-time decision" but UW game planning for him. "I'm sure Allonzo Trier will play this game," Romar sez

— Bruce Pascoe (@BrucePascoe) February 5, 2016

Then again, as Romar noted, 'We lost to them by 30 without him, so…"

— Bruce Pascoe (@BrucePascoe) February 5, 2016

— Arizona’s record in Seattle against Washington is even at 18-18. The Wildcats have defeated the Huskies in their last two trips to the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion in 2013 and last year. Arizona has not won three consecutive games there since winning four straight from 2000 to 2003. The longest streak is five straight when the arena was only called Hec Edmundson Pavilion from 1986 through 1990. … The Huskies have won four of their last five games when taking on a top 25 opponent at home. …

— Arizona and Washington are two of the nation’s best teams at getting to the free throw line. The teams lead the Pac-12 in free throws attempted this season with the Huskies ranking 12th in the nation (608 attempts) while the Wildcats are 16th (590 attempts) after Thursday’s games. Ryan Anderson has attempted 141 free throws, making 104 for 73.8 percent. Five of Arizona’s top six players in free throw attempts are shooting at least 74.2 percent. Mark Tollefsen leads the team shooting 85.3 percent from the line but he has attempted only 34 free throws, making 29. … Washington counters with the league-leader in free-throw attempts, senior guard Andrew Andrews, who has made 180 of his 241 attempts good for 84.1 percent. …

— Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said in a press conference today that talented 6’4″ freshman guard Dejounte Murray, who slightly sprained his ankle Wednesday against ASU, didn’t practice Thursday as a precaution, but should play against the Wildcats. Murray set the Washington freshman single-game scoring record with his 34 points against the Sun Devils. …

— Over the last five games, another freshman standont, 6’9″ forward Marquese Chriss has scored in double-figures in every game and is averaging 16.2 points while shooting 68.8 percent from the field, up from his Pac-12 average of 11.9 points a game and 57.8 percent from the field. … Against Arizona in the previous game, Chriss had 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting before fouling out. …

— A sellout is expected at the 10,000-seat arena prompting Romar to say that it is a sign the Huskies are “headed back in the right direction.” Perhaps. Since Washington won the Pac-12 regular season title in 2011-12, the Huskies have gone 18-16, 17-15 and 16-15 in the last three seasons. A significant factor for the sellout is the popular draw of Arizona visiting. Washington averages 6,539 fans a game at home, which ranks seventh in the Pac-12. “Order – not has been – but is being restored,” Romar continued. “That’s what I would say. Not has been because we could go 0-8 in these next games. So we have not arrived by any stretch of the imagination. But we’re headed in the right direction.” …

— This note from Arizona’s media-relations department: Arizona has already faced a sold out (6,000) crowd at The Kennel at Gonzaga. Official attendance in Tempe against ASU was 8,044, which was 56 percent larger than the Sun Devils’ average crowd of 5,153 going into the game. The crowd in Pauley Pavilion in January was officially 12,026 on Russell Westbrook Night at UCLA. That crowd was 5,010 larger than their average crowd entering the game, an increase of 71.4 percent. Two days later, USC had a crowd of 6,854 awaiting the Wildcats after averaging 3,054 entering the game. Stanford saw an increase of 1,256 for Arizona’s game in Maples Pavilion from its 4,019 average before Cal upped its attendance by 2,131 two days later. The average attendance at Pac-12 schools increased in every game Arizona played at, including four increases of more than 50 percent, a season ago. The Wildcats were the biggest draw of the season for seven of the nine Pac-12 teams it
played on the road last season. …

— Romar is leery of Arizona’s inside strength against his perimeter-oriented team. The Wildcats out-rebounded Washington in Tucson 43-26 as Anderson tallied 21 points and nine rebounds and Kaleb Tarczewski had one of his best games with 16 points and 13 rebounds. “It’s difficult,” said Romar, whose top rebounders had only five each (Murray and Chriss). “It’s a challenge. They’re playing with a couple of 7-footers on the floor. Then Ryan Anderson is playing very big right now. (He had) 31 points in this last game. He hurt us down in Tucson when we played them before. We got to be very scrappy and very aggressive. We have to guard their size as a team. And it would help if we keep the ball in front of us out front.” …

— Tarczewski is six wins shy of catching Matt Muehlebach’s school-record 109 career victories in games in which he played in. Tarczewski’s start against Washington State made him only the sixth player in the program’s history to reach 120 career starts. He is also three points shy of A.J. Bramlett’s 1,098 career points. If he passes Bramlett against Washington, Tarczewski will become the No. 7 scoring center in school history and No. 42 scorer overall. … Tarczewski is in a mild slump. After his double-double against the Huskies on Jan. 14, he has averaged 9.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in the last six games while shooting. He made only one of his eight field goal attempts against Washington State. …

— Fellow senior guard Gabe York is one made three-pointer from becoming the school’s lone No. 4 shooter from that range in school history. He presently is tied with Jason Terry and Kyle Fogg for fourth with 193. York is also 34 points shy of becoming the 51st Arizona player to reach 1,000 career points. …

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NO. 23 ARIZONA (18-5, 6-4) VS.
WASHINGTON (15-7, 7-3)

Tip Time: 2:30 p.m. MST
TV: Fox (Tim Brando/Steve Lavin)
Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network (Brian Jeffries/Jeff Dean)

THE SERIES
Overall: Arizona leads 49-28
In Seattle: Series tied, 18-18
Current Streak: Arizona won 5
Last Meeting: Arizona won, 99-67, on 1-14-16 in Tucson
Sean Miller vs. Washington: 7-5

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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PRODUCTIVITY REPORT
ARIZONA PAC-10/12
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR:
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Previous result:
ARIZONA 79, WASHINGTON STATE 64
PRODUCTIVITY RATING
* — STARTERS
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ARIZONA’S TOP SCORING CENTERS
Rank: Overall school ranking.
[table “” not found /]

MOST CAREER VICTORIES IN GAMES PLAYED
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CHASING 1,000 POINTS
Rank is school rank
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Congrats to Ryan Anderson (@M12terAnderson) on being named a Karl Malone Award finalist as a top PF #APlayersProgram pic.twitter.com/AtUT1ErwnI

— Arizona Basketball (@APlayersProgram) February 4, 2016

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HOW ARE THEY DOING?
Present RPI ranking of non-conference opponents Arizona has played according to KenPom.com.
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PAC-12 POMEROY RATINGS
Present RPI ranking of Pac-12 teams according to KenPom.com.
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THREE-POINT FIELD GOALS CAREER
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MOST CAREER STARTS
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ARIZONA SCHEDULE/PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS
*-John Wooden Legacy in Fullerton/Anaheim (Calif.)
[table “” not found /]

ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.