Pac-10 Quarterfinals
Oregon St Beavers vs Arizona Wildcats
Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Thursday, March 10, 2010, 5:30 pm Eastern, TV: Fox Sports Net
Opening Line: Arizona -10 1/2
Current Line: Arizona -11
Opening Total: 142
Current Total: 140 1/2
Money Line: Arizona -700 / Oregon St +500
Arizona won the Pac-10 regular season title and their reward is a quarterfinal match-up with a bad Oregon St team. Arizona is 25-6 overall and 14-4 in the Pac-10. They are ranked #16 in the AP poll and #15 in the ESPN poll. Oregon St finished the regular season 11-19 overall and 5-13 in the Pac-10. They pulled a mild upset over #8 seed Stanford last night 69-67 in the first round to advance to this game. Not only is Arizona a much better team but the Beavers face a short turnaround from last night. The game against Stanford ended around 8:00 pm Pacific and they have to play Arizona in an early afternoon game the next day. Oregon St did split the season series with Arizona as the Beavers beat Arizona at home January 2 76-75. Arizona won at home 70-59 last Thursday in the rubber match. Oregon St lost 7 out of 8 games to close out the season before beating Stanford last night. The win was also against Stanford. Arizona was swept at the Southern California schools two weeks ago but rebounded by sweeping the Oregon schools at home to clinch the Pac-10 title. They beat Oregon 90-82 Saturday in their last game.
Arizona leads the overall series against Oregon St 72-20. The Wildcats have won 19 of the last 24 in the series. Arizona is 3-0 in the series in neutral site games. The teams have split the last 6 games in the series but Oregon St is 5-1 ATS in those games and the over is 3-2-1 in those games.
Oregon St has no significant injuries right now. The Beavers are led by guard Jared Cunningham who averages 13.6 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2.8 steals a game. He leads the team in scoring and steals. Guard Calvin Haynes averages 9.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.2 steals a game. Guard Roberto Nelson averages 8 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists a game. Forward Omari Johnson averages 7.6 points, 6.3 rebounds to lead the team, and 1.1 assists. Joe Burton leads the team in assists with 2.3 a game. Oregon St is being outscored 73-69 on the season. The Beavers are shooting 42.4% from the field and 29.9% from 3-point range. Beaver opponents are shooting 46.1% from the field. OSU makes 68.8% of their free throws. The Beavers average 34.4 rebounds a game and have a rebounding margin of -0.1. Oregon St averages 12 assists and 15.2 turnovers a game. The Beavers force 16.3 turnovers a game on defense. They average 9.4 steals and 2.1 blocks a game.
Arizona has no significant injuries right now. Arizona sophomore forward Derrick Williams is a candidate for Pac-10 player of the year. He leads the Wildcats in almost every statistical category except assists. He is averaging 18.8 points a game, 8.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.9 steals and 0.7 blocks a game. Though he doesn’t shoot a lot of 3-pointers he has shot 60.4% from behind the arc. Guard Lamont Jones averages 9.6 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists a game. Guard Kyle Fogg is averaging 8.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists to lead the team and 0.9 steals a game. Forward Solomon Hill averages 7.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.8 steals a game. Arizona is outscoring opponents 77-67 this season. The Wildcats are shooting 47.3% from the field and 39.7% from 3-point range. Arizona opponents are shooting 43.9% from the field. The ‘Cats make 75.2% of their free throws. Arizona averages 34.7 rebounds a game and has a rebounding margin of +4.3. Arizona averages 14.2 assists and 13.1 turnovers a game. They force 12.7 turnovers a game on defense. Arizona averages 2.7 blocks and 5.3 steals a game.
On paper Arizona is clearly the superior team here. Yes, Oregon St beat them early in the Pac-10 schedule in Corvallis but that almost 3 months ago. Arizona has improved a lot and Oregon St has regressed somewhat since then. Oregon St coach Craig Robinson might need to call his brother-in-law President Obama to get a bailout after this game. Arizona should win easily.
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