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The Arizona Wildcats have been so good over the years that a run to the Pac-12 title is just an annual occurrence. And when other teams in the conference show promise, those are the ones that grab the headlines. UCLA garnered plenty of preseason attention with its ridiculous recruiting class. Oregon also received plenty of ink following their deep tournament run last season. But it all seems to come back to the Wildcats, who go for the sweep in the Northwest and look to hold down the top spot in the league with a matchup against the Washington Huskies.
At 8 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN2 for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Saturday, February 18, 2017, at Alaska Airlines Arena. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
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Take Arizona out of the McKale Center and you might have a chance at beating them. Two of the Wildcats’ three losses came during the non-conference schedule at neutral sites while the other was a blowout defeat at Oregon two weeks ago. But you better have a pretty damn good team as well, because just anybody isn’t going to knock off the Wildcats. Arizona’s three losses have come at the hands of the Ducks, Gonzaga and Butler, teams with a combined record of 70-10. And the two early defeats were by a combined 11 points.
There wasn’t a lot of promise for the Huskies this season, but things have gotten much worse over the course of an eight-game losing streak. Washington might have blown its last chance to get a third conference win by falling 83-81 to Arizona State on Thursday. The Huskies were a 1-point favorite in that game and failed to cover for the fifth consecutive game. During Pac-12 play, the Huskies are 3-10-1 ATS and they are 0-4 SU and ATS in their last four home games.
Injury Report
Working around injured players is nothing new for the Wildcats this season, and they’ll move forward likely without the services of two starters for Saturday’s game. Point guard Kadeem Allen missed Thursday night’s game due to a dislocated pinky finger and center Dusan Ristic exited in the first half with a sprained ankle. The status of both players against Washington is doubtful.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who missed several games earlier this season, was able to pickup for Allen in the backcourt. He had a career night scoring 20 points while playing 35 minutes. The Wildcats have players who can step up when needed, and Jackson-Cartwright is going to be needed. The injuries do hurt the team’s depth, which gives the Huskies a chance if they can take advantage of the situation.
Player to Watch
Playing defense is a just a suggestion for the Huskies, and their inability to stop opponents is a major reason why they are languishing at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings. Washington can score the basketball, and with Markelle Fultz on their side, that process becomes a bit easier. However, the Huskies just haven’t scored enough and they haven’t done it consistently. But don’t blame Fultz for that.
A projected lottery pick, Fultz leads the conference and is fifth in the country scoring 23.2 points per game, and his ability to fill it up is the only reason fans watch the Huskies. He returned to the lineup Thursday after missing the previous two games with a knee injury and tossed in 19 points in a loss to Arizona State. It was the three points he didn’t get at the end of the game that hurt, however. Fultz scored just 16 points in Washington’s loss at Arizona on Jan. 29 and hit only 8 of 23 shots.
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Losing eight straight is not a good look and the Huskies are pretty ugly right now. They did get Fultz back after he missed a pair of games, but he wasn’t able to snap U-Dub out of its funk. Washington could be catching a break with Arizona down two starters and looking ahead to home games against USC and UCLA next week. That might be the only positive for them right now. And even that won’t be enough.
With the conference race so tight, the Wildcats can’t afford a letdown, and we aren’t going to see one on Saturday. They’ve been able to plug Allonzo Trier and Jackson-Cartwright into the starting lineup and haven’t skipped a beat. There are some issues with depth caused by the injuries, and that could be a factor in keeping this game below the total, but Arizona will get the cover win on the road.
College Basketball Odds: Arizona 81, Washington 64
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