Arizona @ California preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 21, 2019 ) California 51, Arizona 76

Arizona could have a few new faces in its starting lineup for Thursday’s road game against California. Coach Sean Miller is looking to reboot his offense after his team was held to its lowest shooting percentage in the McKale Center's 47-year history in last Saturday’s 65-52 loss against UCLA.

Freshmen Nico Mannion, Zeke Nnaji and Josh Green have been as good as advertised this season, but the Wildcats had to settle for a weekend split against the Los Angeles schools after the trio shot a combined 7-of-33 against UCLA. Senior guard Dylan Smith’s lengthy shooting slump continued on Saturday, when he missed all seven of his shots from the field and saw his streak of missed 3-pointers extend to 17. “With Dylan I think the hard part is when he’s been off, he's really been off, and he’s in in a tough slump,” Miller told reporters. “But we win as a team and lose as team; it doesn’t fall on Dylan not making shots. We have a number of guys who could play better. There's a number of things we're trying to do coaching wise to be better. So we have to go on this trip and be the best that we can be.” The Bay Area swing begins against Cal, which is 0-10 away from Haas Pavilion but 10-3 at home with victories over conference foes Washington, Stanford and Oregon State.

TIME: 10:30 p.m. ET. TV: Fox Sports 1

ABOUT ARIZONA (16-7, 6-4 Pac-12): Mannion is averaging 14 points and 5.5 assists per game while Green is close behind at 11.9 points and 4.5 rebounds. Nnaji recorded his 12th double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in the loss to UCLA, which struggled to contain the 6-11 forward near the basket. “The guy is impressive. We couldn’t get enough people on him at time,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin told reporters. “He was literally out-rebounding us one on four at times. He’s not the reason they didn't win, I can tell you that.”

ABOUT CAL (10-13, 4-6): The Bears turned in an encouraging effort in a six-point loss to Colorado last Thursday but coach Mark Fox said his team appeared tired in a 60-45 loss to Utah in Salt Lake City on Sunday. The bulk of the Bears’ scoring comes from sophomore guard Matt Bradley, who is averaging 17.6 points and five rebounds and was the only player to score in double figures (13) against the Utes. Senior point guard Paris Austin was averaging 13.3 points over the previous four games but was held to five points on 2-of-7 shooting against Utah.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Arizona has won the last seven meetings against Cal and owns a 66-31 lead in the all-time series.

2. Cal forward Grant Anticevich is averaging 9.4 points and 6.8 rebounds at home in conference play.

3. Arizona leads the Pac-12 in scoring at 78.8 points per game, while Cal is last (62.7).

PREDICTION: Arizona 81, Cal 66