A quick little chat with Arizona Wildcat hoopybucket-knower Brian J. Pedersen
Just three short weeks ago, who saw K-State coming into tonight’s tilt versus Arizona as riding high on a five-game winning streak – three over ranked foes – including road wins at Hilton and a home walloping of KU?
Not me.
Not you either. Put your hand down.
But here we are.
K-State takes on the #13 Arizona Wildcats (17-6, 11-1 in Big 12) in the Octagon of Doom Tuesday evening; Arizona comes in tied for first in the Conference (with Houston) and on their own 6-game winning streak. With the talk around Tang and the Gang going from “buyout” to “backdoor into the NCAA Tournament” and, statistically speaking, the best team in the country over that five game span, we connected with Brian J. Pedersen at our sister-site Arizona Desert Swarm for a quick Q&A. You can go check out their questions about K-State here.
Without further ado:
Eric Rubottom: Arizona’s sitting at the top o’ the Big 12 at 11-1 in conference (tied with Houston)…but that non-conference 6-5 record is jumping out at me, especially with the two eyebrow raisers: A 15-point road loss where you gave up 103 to that wrestling school up in Madison, and the loss to a pretty mediocre OU squad. How much of that non-conference was learning, and how much of the recent success might suggest the Big 12 isn’t as great top-to-bottom as we might like?
Brian Pedersen: I don’t think the Big 12 is nearly as good as it’s been in recent years, but the nonconference was definitely a product of figuring out what worked for this team. The current starting 5 (minus the last game, when Trey Townsend sat because of concussion protocol) has been in place since starting 4-5. Before that it was a matter of learning who worked best with whom, what roles everyone should play and plenty of growing pains.
The Wisconsin game was a buzzsaw, where the Badgers couldn’t miss and kept getting to the line, and the Oklahoma game was all Jeremiah Fears. Since then the Wildcats have done much better at neutralizing an opponent’s best player(s), as was the case against Iowa State two weeks ago and holding Texas Tech to its two lowest shooting games.
We’ve seen a lot of new faces in Manhattan year over year, so it bears asking about Caleb Love now that he’s on his second stanza in Tucson: How has he progressed from his first year with Arizona last year?
BP: Caleb Love recently became the 12th player in Division I history with 1,000 points at multiple schools, and he’ll reach 2,500 career points with his first basket on Tuesday. He’s been very up and down this year with his shooting, which isn’t really a new development, but what is has been his dedication to playing defense. He has 15 steals the last eight games and is regularly defending the opponent’s top ball handler or perimeter scorer.
Love is also passing up a lot of shots he would have previously taken, and in many cases that leads to an easier basket as his assist-to-turnover ratio in Big 12 play is almost 2:1.
Walk us through the euphoria of a 50-footer to send that game against Iowa State into overtime…
BP: After Justin Jefferson missed the first free throw with 2.2 seconds left, keeping the door open for a tie, fellow writer Jason Scheer of WildcatAuthority.com said ‘Caleb Love hitting a 3 here would be the funniest thing ever.’ But that wasn’t the original play called; it was to throw into the frontcourt to 7-footer Henri Veesaar, with point guard Jaden Bradley racing up the side for a handoff and a Valpo play attempt, but Iowa State had that covered and it ended up in Love’s hands.
The press seats at McKale Center are at an angle that had Love and the basket directly in our line of sight and the shot looked very good out of his hands. Once it went in and the arena erupted, there was no chance Arizona was losing.
Getting to watch all the angles of the shot after the fact, either from video taken by the school or fans (including former UA quarterback Khalil Tate, who was sitting courtside) was fun. Arizona solicited requests for music, and we asked for One Shining Moment:
— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) January 28, 2025
What does Arizona *have* to do to win on the road on Tuesday?
BP: The simple answer is to stick with what’s worked during the 6-game win streak, which has been defensive intensity and rebounding. Opponents are shooting 41.1 percent during the win streak and Arizona has outrebounded them by an average of 9.7, with the last three margins +14, +15 and +13.
Tommy Lloyd made sure to mention over and over again on Saturday night how good Kansas State has looked of late, a way of driving home the importance of this game even with the showdown against Houston coming next weekend. There was a little looking ahead to Iowa State against Colorado but not last week at BYU ahead of Texas Tech, so staying present has not been too much of a problem.
Does Arizona come in to Manhappiness and grab one on the road, or does K-State hold court?
BP: I thought Arizona would lose at BYU after an emotional week against Iowa State and Arizona State and it had one of its most impressive performances of the season. I can definitely see it losing this game and then beating Houston, but this group seems locked in right now and it would take K-State completely stifling Arizona’s frontcourt for an upset to happen. The good Wildcats come out on top by 6-8.