By Jack McCarthy
This Saturday is a day college basketball fans have circled on their calendars, featuring two top-four matchups that could closely resemble the Final Four field come April. Cameroon Boozer and No. 3 Duke trek up to New York City to face Yaxel Lendeborg and No. 1 Michigan at Madison Square Garden, in a non-conference matchup for the ages. Before that battle takes
place, the top two teams in the Big 12 face off for the sole position of the top spot in the conference.
No. 4 Arizona, coming off a strong home win against No. 23 BYU, heads to No. 2 Houston to face a Cougars team fresh off a back-and-forth road loss to No. 6 Iowa State. Following the Wildcats’ 23-0 start, Arizona has hit a bit of a wall, both on and off the court. They lost two tight games to top-15 teams, but have also lost freshman phenom Koa Peat for at least a week with a lower leg injury. Dwayne Aristode is also out with an illness that head coach Tommy Lloyd said has gone through some of the team.
Without Peat and Aristode, the Wildcats will have to rely on their depth to outlast the physicality of Houston. The Cougars, led by potential lottery pick Kingston Flemings and long-time Houston Cougar Emmanuel Sharp, run at one of the slowest tempos in the sport, countering Arizona’s ultra-fast pace that comes in at 33rd quickest in the country. Whoever can control the flow of the game longer becomes all the more likely to come out victorious.
Depth will play a factor with multiple rotation players out for the Wildcats. In their last game against BYU, the Wildcats saw a surge from Anthony Dell’Orso, who had his best game of the season with 22 points. Dell’Orso has struggled to find his shot this year, but when called upon to step up, he did just that. Freshman Sidi Gueye, who has gotten minimal minutes this season, got an uptick in playing time in the last game, something that will likely continue with key players out.
The Wildcats go into this matchup on the edge of the 1-seed line, and a win would be a major boost to their No. 1 overall seed resume.
