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Sean Miller has not lost three consecutive games at Arizona since his first season of 2009-10
— For the third time this season, Arizona has a modest two-game losing streak. The Wildcats were swept by UCLA and USC in Los Angeles. They followed a loss at Cal with one at home against Oregon at the end of January. They were swept at Colorado and Utah last week. After the previous two skids, if you can call them that, Arizona responded with a 99-67 win against Washington (following the L.A. sweep) and an 80-63 triumph over Oregon State (after losing to Cal and Oregon), both games at McKale Center. Losing two in a row did not happen under Sean Miller in the previous two seasons. Miller has lost three straight twice at Arizona, both times in his first season of 2009-10. He lost three consecutive games only once at Xavier, in his first season there in 2004-05. If Arizona loses tonight, it would be the first three-game losing streak for Miller outside of his first year as a coach at a particular school. Never has he lost more than three straight games. …
— ESPN college basketball analysts Andy Katz, Jeff Goodman and C.L. Brown were posed this question: Who is built for a longer run in March, Arizona or Cal? Their published answers this morning unanimously favored Cal, which is not a shock given the Golden Bears’ seven-game winning streak entering tonight’s game after Arizona faltered on the road against two NCAA tournament teams last week in Colorado and Utah. “The Bears are healthier, have the depth and more scoring options,” Katz reasoned. Goodman: “I’m going with Cal — which is playing well and has all the pieces. Ty Wallace is healthy, Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb are playing well.” Brown: “I’d give the nod to the Golden Bears’ talent. It took them a while to figure things out, but now the Bears are rolling.” …
— One thing to keep in mind about Cal: In the Bears’ seven-game winning streak, five of those games were at Haas Pavilion, where they finished 18-0 this season. The two victories on the road in the streak occurred at Washington and Washington State, which is the easiest road swing in the conference. The Huskies and Cougars finished a combined 7-11 at home in conference games this season. Washington was 6-3. If Cal pulls off the upset tonight, then yes, it can be claimed that Cuonzo Martin has the Golden Bears hitting on all cylinders. …
— With its win over USC this past Sunday, Cal completed February with a 7-0 record, giving the Bears their first undefeated February since Pete Newell’s 1959-60 squad finished 6-0 during the month. During the run, Cal has posted several impressive numbers – 80.3 points a game, a plus-10.6 rebounding margin and a plus-14.6 scoring margin. Only one of Cal’s wins was
by less than 12 points, and the Bears hit the 80-point barrier four times (compared to none
in their first nine Pac-12 games). … Speaking of 80-point barrier, Arizona has reached that mark 15 times with a record of 14-1 this season. The Wildcats are coming off a 64-point performance in the loss at Utah last Saturday, their lowest output since a 61-42 victory over Northwestern State on Nov. 22. How much do you think Arizona and Miller want to break out to their normal productivity tonight? …
— Ryan Anderson has grabbed 1,000 rebounds during his collegiate career, which includes 716 rebounds in three seasons at Boston College. In comparison, Arizona has only two 1,000 rebounders for a career in Al Fleming (1,190) and Bob Elliott (1,083). Anderson is 276 points short of joining Elliott in the 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound club. He has 1,724 career points. …
— The bad news is Arizona sophomore Parker Jackson-Cartwright is nowhere close to being as good on the road as he is at home. The good news for Arizona is that the Wildcats do not have a true road game again this season. Jackson-Cartwright is averaging 8.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists in Pac-12 home games while shooting 57.6 percent from the field and 61.9 percent from three-point range. In the nine conference road games, he averaged 3.4 points, 1.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 36 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from beyond the arc. …
— Rooks, Kerr and Mason will make their return to McKale Center tonight … their sons that is. Kameron Rooks and Nick Kerr play for Cal while Trey Mason (Harvey’s son) is a walk-on at Arizona. Sean Rooks’ son Kameron had one of his best games in his career in the Bears’ win over the Wildcats at Haas Pavilion with what was then a career-high seven rebounds. The younger Rooks later pulled down 12 rebounds against Stanford and Jakob Poeltl and 14 against Washington … Steve Kerr’s son Nick is a walk-on graduate player at Cal after starting his career with San Diego. …
— Since scoring 28 points in Cal’s win over the Wildcats, guard Jordan Mathews has not cracked 20 points. He made 6-of-12 three-point attempts in the game at Haas Pavilion. He was in a recent 9-of-25 stretch from beyond the arc before making 4 of 9 against USC on Sunday night. …
— With their careers winding down, the records watch of Tarczewski and York increases. With a win today, Tarczewski will be all alone in second place in the Arizona career charts with 108 victories, trailing Matt Muehlebach’s record mark of 109. Tarczewski is also slated to make his 127th career start today. Only four other players have reached that plateau at Arizona — Jason Gardner (135), Sean Elliott (133), Mustafa Shakur (129) and Solomon Hill (129). … Tarczewski is only the third Arizona player in history to be ranked in the top 40 in career scoring (1,139 points) and top 10 in rebounding (825) and blocked shots (109). Anthony Cook and Channing Frye are the others. …
There are just under 60 @ZonaZooOfficial spots open for tonight's game against Cal after some cancellations this morning. #FillTheZoo
— Arizona Basketball (@APlayersProgram) March 3, 2016
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NO. 18 ARIZONA (22-7, 10-6)
AT NO. 25 CALIFORNIA (21-8, 11-5)
Tip Time: 7:05 p.m. MST
TV: ESPN (Dave Pasch/Bill Walton)
Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network (Brian Jeffries/Ryan Hansen)
THE SERIES
Overall: Arizona leads 59-31
In Tucson: Arizona leads 32-10
Current Streak: Cal won 1
Last Meeting: Cal won, 74-73, in Berkeley (1-23-16)
Sean Miller vs. Cal: 8-4
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 vs. Cal:
CAL 74, ARIZONA 73
PRODUCTIVITY RATING
* — STARTERS
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Previous game:
UTAH 70, ARIZONA 64
PRODUCTIVITY RATING
* — STARTERS
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HOW ARE THEY DOING?
Present power 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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ARIZONA’S 1,000-POINT SCORERS
Overall
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Before Arizona
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1987-88 (by end of that season)
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Before Arizona
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THREE-POINT GOALS SEASON
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ARIZONA’S TOP SCORING CENTERS
Rank: Overall school ranking.
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MOST CAREER REBOUNDS
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MOST CAREER VICTORIES IN GAMES PLAYED
Note: Gabe York is at 102 wins.
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MOST CAREER STARTS
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THREE-POINT FIELD GOALS CAREER
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ARIZONA SCHEDULE/PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS
*-John Wooden Legacy in Fullerton/Anaheim (Calif.)
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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.
