Sporting News writer: Arizona Wildcats are best bet to beat Kentucky Wildcats

The Arizona Wildcats began the season ranked second in the nation, behind only Kentucky.

Twenty-five games — and 22 wins — later they are ranked seventh, and depending on the week you will find people who think they are destined for a deep NCAA Tournament run or an early exit from the dance.

Of course, most pundits have Kentucky’s Wildcats, not Arizona’s, winning the national championship, and given the way John Calipari’s top-ranked squad has run roughshod over college basketball to the tune of a 25-0 record, it’s not exactly a novel or unreasonable thought.

At the beginning of the season, when Sporting News NCAA writer Mike DeCourcy was asked who he thought had the best chance to knock off Kentucky, he pointed to Sean Miller’s team.

“When Arizona plays its best basketball I still believe that for these reasons,” he told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday. “Athletically, they match up better than most, with two unbelievably athletic wings. Really, more athletic than the guys they’re going to have to play against if they play Kentucky. You’ve got a point guard who knows his way around the floor as well as anybody. You’ve got size inside — not Kentucky size, but you’ve got size.

“And you are a defense-first team, a team that can guard the lane and make the game difficult.”

Arizona’s starting lineup features 6-foot-1 point guard T.J. McConnell, 6-foot-7 shooting guard Stanley Johnson, 6-foot-7 small forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, 6-foot-9 forward Brandon Ashley and 7-foot center Kaleb Tarczewski. Their main reserves are 7-foot center Dusan Ristic, 6-foot-3 guard Gabe York and 6-foot-5 guard Elliott Pitts.

McConnell and Hollis-Jefferson, specifically are twof of the best defenders in the country.

DeCourcy noted that the teams that have played Kentucky close have made life difficult for them, and while Duke and Wisconsin are great offensive teams, neither are particularly effective on the defensive end of the court.

Arizona is not quite as good defensively as it was last season, but is still quite good at stopping its opponents. The ‘Cats allow just 59.3 points per game, which is 22nd in the country, and they are allowing opponents to shoot just 40 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from three-point range.

“But if you put a very capable offensive team on the floor, Arizona at its best, and an excellent defensive team,” DeCourcy said, before musing about how the Wildcats lost three games to lesser teams UNLV, Oregon State and Arizona State, all of whom faced little resistance at times. “But when they’ve been really good, you haven’t been able to score on them at all.

“So I still think they’re the best built to beat Kentucky, but they’ve got a long road to get there.”

As of now, most projections have Arizona as a two-seed in the West region, and assuming Kentucky earns the top seed in the South, a meeting between the two would not be possible until the national championship game.

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