Arizona-Stanford Preview

Matthew Goetzfried

Stanford will look to build off a win vs Arizona State as they host our Wildcats on Saturday afternoon. Stanford has struggled in recent time losing three straight to Washington State, Washington and Cal. At 6-4 in the conference and 16-6 overall they will look to jump ahead of Arizona in the conference standings. Stanford has only one loss at home which came by the Butler Bulldogs. Arizona currently holds a five gaming winning streak vs Stanford which dates back to January 4^th 2009.

Stanford like most teams has struggled against Arizona; the all time record stands at 53-29 with Zona holding the edge. The Cardinals have averaged 71.8 points per game to go along with 37 boards while averaging 13 assists per game. Stanford is a team who generally shoots well from beyond the arc but in their last 4 games has really struggled to find their stroke.

The Cardinals are lead by Josh Owens, the 6-8 senior has been tremendous, and he knows how to board, block and score. Against Arizona in his career he is averaging 10.2 points on 4 games. This year he is averaging 12.6 buckets made to go with 6.2 boards. His career highs consist of 31 points against Oregon and 12 rebounds against UCLA, both occurring last year

The second leading scorer on this team is freshman Chasson Randle. Randle was highly recruited and with good reason. As a senior in high school he average 22.3 and 7.7; he was dubbed “Mr. Basketball” in Illinois and was named the Gatorade Illinois basketball player of the year. This year Randle is averaging 12 points, 3.1 boards and 2.1 assists. Also averaging 12 points is 5-11 guard Aaron Bright. Aaron is a solid guard who has no problem knocking it down from beyond the arc. In addition to his 12 points, he is also averaging 3.3 assist.

This is a fairly deep Stanford team; they can run 12 deep and have consistent production from 5 additional guys on their squad. Stanford started off their season looking strong but the majority of their wins came from lesser opponents. Although they have played well at home they have been somewhat exposed in conference play. Saturday’s matchup should be a good one and I will look to Solo to lead this team and produce a double double. My prediction; Arizona 71-65