Rush The Court

While Washington has a couple of big challenges this week in New York City, we’ve chosen Arizona’s trip to Florida as the Pac-12 game of the week, largely for the contrast in styles and the expectation that these Wildcats are getting close to turning it on. There were high expectations for the freshman backcourt duo of Josiah Turner and Nick Johnson coming into the season, with both players regarded as top 25 recruits. But, as is often the case, both players took some time adjusting to their new surroundings. Johnson has had some ups and down, but has been a pretty consistent scorer for the Wildcats, averaging 10.8 points per game and earning his first start of the season a week ago against New Mexico State. The odds are good that he may never leave the starting five again. Turner, meanwhile, started the opener against Valparaiso, but lost his job to sophomore Jordin Mayes. Just yesterday, however, Sean Miller was hinting that Turner could earn his way back into the starting lineup as early as tonight’s game. Of course, that was all before Turner missed the final practice before the team’s trip to Gainesville and was suspended. With Turner out, sophomore Mayes will retain his starting spot and be called upon to put in plenty of extra minutes against a talented Gator backcourt.

Even with Turner in the backcourt, the Wildcats were bound to have their hands full with Florida’s athletic and dymanic quartet of guards: Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Mike Rosario, and Bradley Beal. All four are capable of knocking down shots from increasingly improbable range, while sure to keep the defense honest with a quickness off the bounce that could earn them easy hoops in the lane or free throw opportunities. Boynton has been criticized at times for being a little too loose with his shot selection, but so far this year he has been knocking down shots at such a high rate (47.3% from three, with an effective shooting percentage of 65.9%) that his green light from Gator coach Billy Donovan has been justified. Walker, the senior point guard, is playing the best ball of his career thus far, handing out assists on over 30% of his team’s hoops while he’s in the game, and knocking down his own shots at a pretty good clip as well (56.6% eFG). Then there’s the freshman, Beal, who may be the best of all of them, despite struggling with his shot at Syracuse this past weekend. A major bonus out of the 6’3” Beal has been his ability to rebound with the big boys while often playing out of position at the three, grabbing double-digit rebounds three times in his seven games and averaging seven rebounds per game.

To make the Gators that much harder to handle, they have a future NBA stud up front in 6’9” worth of chiseled stone named Patric Young, while 6’10” junior stretch forward Erik Murphy, who hit eight of his 14 three-point attempts in Florida’s first four games, is expected back from a knee injury that has cost him the last three games. Sophomores Will Yeguete (who is sixth in the nation with offensive rebounds on over 18% of his team’s misses) and Casey Prather provide more rebounding talent up front for a team that has been exceptional on the offensive glass this year.

For the Wildcats, that’s a lot of ground to cover. Not only do the Arizona guards need to keep the attacking Florida guards under control, but their relatively undersized frontline will need to keep the Florida bigs from getting easy buckets off offensive rebound opportunities. Offensively, the Wildcats have been running a lot of their offense through versatile combo forward Solomon Hill, and while Florida offers no obvious match-up for Hill, he will need to spend time and energy, alongside senior center Jesse Perry, keeping a body on the Gators rebounders. Expect Arizona junior wing Kevin Parrom to be called on to help out up front, as well as providing some scoring alongside Kyle Fogg. But, neither Fogg nor Parrom are guys who are going to create a lot of opportunities for themselves. That takes us back to Johnson and Mayes, who we began with. For Arizona to stick around in the O-Dome, they will need that backcourt duo to play like upperclassmen rather than youngsters. They will need Mayes to handle the defense pressure that Walker is sure to apply and they will need him to create open looks for his shooters in the halfcourt. Likewise, Johnson is capable of creating open looks for himself off the dribble even getting into the lane and drawing contact. He will need to have all of his offensive weapons at the ready. While one of the Arizona freshman guards is still very much behaving like a freshman, Johnson has a great opportunity to step up and become a focal point of this Wildcat team.