Arizona vs. California: Game Preview, Prediction

By Tim Letcher
Casey Sapio, USA TODAY SPORTS
Casey Sapio, USA TODAY SPORTS

The seventh-ranked Arizona Wildcats visit the California Bears on Saturday night in Pac-12 action.

Arizona got past the Stanford Cardinal 87-82 on Thursday night, using great scoring balance to get the road victory. The Wildcats had five players in double figures in the game, but none scored more than 19 points.

Cal, on the other hand, was crushed 79-44 by the Arizona State Sun Devils on Thursday. The Bears shot 33.3 percent from the floor and committed 19 turnovers in the loss.

On Saturday (10:30 ET, Pac-12 Network), these teams seemingly headed in opposite directions meet in Berkeley for what could be an ugly game.

Arizona is 17-2 on the season and 5-1 in the Pac-12 under head coach Sean Miller. The Wildcats are led in scoring and rebounding by freshman forward Stanley Johnson, who scores 14.8 points and grabs 6.8 rebounds per game.

Junior Brandon Ashley scores 11.5 points per game for Arizona, while sophomore forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson averages 10.9 per contest.

Cal is now 11-8 on the year and 1-5 in Pac-12 play. Cuonzo Martin has seen his team lose five straight after winning their first conference game. In fact, only one of the five losses has been close, as the team seems to have hit a wall.

Junior guard Tyrone Wallace leads Cal in scoring at 17.4 points per game, and in rebounding at 8.2 boards per contest. Sophomore guard Jordan Mathews averages 14.9 points and senior forward David Kravish posts 10.6 points per outing.

Martin will have his Cal team fired up to play a Top 10 opponent, but the fact is, the Bears don’t have enough talent to beat Arizona. It would take a real fluke for Cal to pull the upset in this one.

Final score prediction: Arizona 75, California 50

Tim Letcher is a contributing writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimLetcher , on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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