Arizona's non-conference journey makes stop in Texas
Arizona has played an aggressive and demanding road schedule in the early part of the 2016-17 campaign, with games in Hawai'i, Missouri, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. That road grind continues Saturday when the 19th-ranked Wildcats battle Texas A&M on Saturday in the first game of the Lone Star Shootout at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Former Southwest Conference rivals Texas and Arkansas play in the second game of the showcase.
Arizona is 9-2, with both of its losses coming in neutral-site games (against Butler in the Las Vegas Invitational and against eighth-ranked Gonzaga in the Hoophall LA in Los Angeles). The Wildcats also defeated 12th-ranked Michigan State in the Armed Forces Classic in Honolulu and beat Santa Clara in Las Vegas in their other neutral-site games and even tossed in a true road game win on Dec. 10 at Missouri.
The matchup with Texas A&M will mark just the second time in 15 seasons that the Wildcats will face two Southeastern Conference opponents in the same year. Arizona's 2011-12 squad faced Mississippi State in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic before playing at Florida three weeks later.
Saturday's game against the Aggies will be Arizona's final game prior to the demanding Pac-12 Conference schedule.
Arizona outlasted Grand Canyon 64-54 on Wednesday in Tucson as Kobi Simmons scored 13 points and Lauri Markkanen and Rawle Alkins each had 11 points and eight rebounds. All three of those players are freshmen, making Arizona one of only two programs in the nation (Auburn is the other) to have its top three scorers all be freshmen averaging at least 10 points per game.
The Wildcats had 19 turnovers in the victory, with 10 of those coming from their three post players.
"It was a very physical, hard-fought game and it should do well to prepare us for playing Texas A&M and for the Pac-12 schedule," Arizona coach Sean Miller said after the win Wednesday. "It caught us off guard for a while but our defense was really good. We took advantage of our size but our turnovers were out of control."
The Wildcats have won three straight. Arizona has been ranked in the AP poll for 84 consecutive weeks, trailing only Kansas for the longest active streak in the country.
"We have no depth to speak of and three freshmen are playing huge roles for us, but I think we have a tough team, with some hard-nosed guys that will not back away from a challenge," Miller said. "This game against Texas A&M will be another test for our team, another step in being the team we want to be."
Arizona is 24-26 (.480) against current SEC institutions in program history. That 48.0 winning percentage is the second lowest versus all 32 conferences faced, trailing only the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), against which Arizona is 2-4 (.333).
Texas A&M (7-2) has also won three straight games and will be led by reigning SEC Player of the Week center Tyler Davis, who averaged 18 points and eight rebounds while shooting 73.1 percent from the field in wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Denver and South Carolina State last week.
Both of the Aggies' losses this season are to Pac-12 teams, at home to USC (65-63) and to UCLA (74-67) in the Wooden Legacy Classic in Anaheim, Calif.
"We match up well size-wise with Arizona," Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. "Arizona is big at the 3-4-5 positions, and we know that playing, and hopefully beating, a team like Arizona will help us in the long haul. Our practices have been good but we have to make shots -- they are the best defensive team we've played so far this year."
Saturday will be A&M's fourth neutral-site game of the season, having defeated Cal State Northridge and Virginia Tech at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Gym and falling to then-No. 14 UCLA. It will be Texas A&M's fourth game inside the Toyota Center (1-2).
"Our energy is great in practice so we just have to bring that level of intensity to the games," Davis said. "We nearly kill ourselves in practice every day and we need to find a way to bring that mentality when we're playing someone else."
The state of Texas has not been kind to the Wildcats throughout program history. Despite a record of 4-1 (.800) in neutral-site games in Texas, Arizona's all-time record in the state is 54-75 (.419). The Wildcats last played in Texas on Dec. 19, 2014, in a 60-55 win at UTEP, which pushed Arizona's record in Texas to 3-0 under Miller.
