UA News

The Wildcats are currently bunched in second place with four other Pac-10 teams and with only seven games remaining in the season.

The Arizona men's basketball team (12-11, 6-5 Pac-10) opens a three-game homestand Thursday night against the University of Oregon (12-10, 4-6 Pac-10) in McKale Center.  Arizona is one of five teams currently tied for second place in the Pac-10 standings, one game behind league-leading California.

To say the Pac-10 has no clear leader is an understatement. Neither of the two major polls has any of the conference's teams anywhere on their radar screens.

Last Saturday, Washington State outplayed Arizona in just about every way imaginable as it pulled away for the 78-60 win in Pullman. It was the Cats' worst road loss and their worst Pac-10 loss this year.

WSU shot better, rebounded better and made all the hustle plays before breaking it open in the second half. Arizona cut the deficit to two possessions twice in the second period, the last coming at 5:03, but a 12-0 Cougar run sealed it.

Derrick Williams led the Cats with 16 points and seven boards, while Kyle Fogg added 13 points and four rebounds.

The Oregon Ducks enter Thursday's game 12-10 overall and 4-6 in the Pac-10 following Saturday's 62-42 loss at Oregon State. While they are currently tied for eighth place, the Ducks are still only 2.5 games out of first. Individually, three Duck players average in double figures, led by Tajuan Porter's 11.9 ppg figure. Joevan Catron leads the team with a 5.8 rebounds per game average.

Thursday's game is the 66th meeting of the two schools with Arizona holding a 42-23 advantage going back to January 1979. Arizona is 24-7 against Oregon at McKale Center.

The Cats have won three of the last six games in the series, including 74-60 last month in Eugene, where Derrick Williams collected his first career double-double. The Cats jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never trailed and limited Oregon to 33.3 percent shooting. Nic Wise and Kyle Fogg each added 19 points.

Wise's next trey, incidentally, will be the 150th of his career. He also is just five shy of 1,200 total points, six minutes short of 3,000 and two steals from moving into a tie for 10th place on the Arizona career steals list – a spot currently held by Mustafa Shakur, who played from 2003 to 2007.

Some others to keep an eye on include freshman Kevin Parrom, who held Washington State's scoring machine Klay Thompson to 14 points, well below his season average.

Lamont "MoMo" Jones continues to progress, scoring 16 points, six assists and two steals coming off the bench in the two games in Washington. His four assists Saturday against WSU equaled his season high.

Sophomore Alex Jacobson hasn't played often but has missed only two shots all season, connecting on 9-of-10 field goals and 3-of-4 free throws in his 13 appearances. The 7-foot center also has 12 rebounds on the season.

The Wildcats will host Oregon State this Saturday, with a 6 p.m. tip-off. It will be televised locally on KWBA-TV and nationally on FOX College Sports.