Game of the Week- Thursday

It is a big weekend in Tucson, Ariz. with the top of the Pac-10 conference standings at stake. The weekend starts Thursday as the Pac-10’s fourth ranked team, Washington State, takes on first place Arizona at the McKale Center.

For Washington State, the game provides a big opportunity to boost their résumé in hopes of an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. A win over the 12^th ranked Wildcats on the road would give the Cougars a signature victory come Selection Sunday. The Cougars will likely rely heavily on their stars Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto in this game. Thompson has found himself in a bit of a scoring slump in recent weeks, but the sharpshooting guard has the potential to score in bunches in given game. Inside, Casto has been perhaps WSU’s best player in the past few games. A seemingly renewed offensive star, Casto gives the Cougars the ability to work the ball inside and take some pressure off of guards Thompson, Reggie Moore, and Faisal Aden.

Arizona will hope to continue a winning streak that has stretched since the last time these two teams met in January. The Wildcats put their six-game winning streak on the line behind superstar forward Derrick Williams. At 19.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, Williams is one of the most dominant post players in the country. However, he has had plenty of help from his teammates. Kyle Fogg broke out of a slump in a big way Sunday against Arizona State, scoring 26 points, including 6-9 on thee pointers. Lamont “MoMo” Jones also helps pick up the scoring load, averaging 9.4 points per game.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Arizona got the best of Washington State by just two points in their first matchup in Pullman. A last-second shot to tie from the elbow by Thompson bounced right off the rim, and Aden could not get a put back attempt up in time as the Wildcats snuck out of the Palouse with an important win in hand. Will the roles be reversed this time? Or will the Wildcats once again prove to be the superior team? The Cougars did a decent job slowing down Williams in the scoring department last game- he scored just 17 points, several late in the game- but they got abused by him on the offensive and defensive boards- Williams pulled down an incredible 19 rebounds. Similarly, Arizona held Thompson to just nine points on 4-16 shooting. Thompson did come fairly close to a triple-double however, also pulling in eight rebounds and dishing off seven assists.

KEY PLAYERS

For the sake of not stating the obvious, we will leave Thompson and Williams out of the key player section.

Faisal Aden- The one-time hot shooting guard for the Cougars has fallen on tough times recently. Aden is shooting a combined 10-39 from the field in the past four games. If the Somalia-native can rediscover his stroke, it could go a long ways towards helping the Cougars grasp a signature victory.

Josh Fogg- Speaking of rediscovering one’s stroke, Fogg certainly did that against Arizona State. Now the Wildcats hope he can keep it going. When Fogg and Jones are knocking down threes, it gives Arizona a dynamic inside-outside game that is tough for even the best defensive teams to guard.