Stanford Cardinal vs. Arizona Wildcats Prediction & Game Preview - 3/3/2022

Time: 9 p.m. ET

Venue: McKale Center, Tucson, AZ

Where to watch: ESPN2

DraftKings: Arizona -18.5

BetMGM: Arizona -18.5

Caesars: Arizona -18.5

Stanford: 15-13 (8-10 Pac-12)

No. 2 Arizona: 26-3 (16-2 Pac-12)

What a time for the Stanford Cardinal to be going into the Pac-12 tournament on one hell of a slide.

The Cardinal have lost three in a row and are coming off an abysmal showing losing 53-39 against the Cal Golden Bears on the road. Putting up less than 40 points against a ho-hum team? And now you're facing Arizona? God help you.

Spencer Jones led the way with 10 points, scoring nearly a quarter of the entire team. How bad do you have to be in order for such shenanigans to take place? Stanford shot just 23.5 percent from the floor and just 4 of 18 from 3-point range. Cal guard Jordan Shepherd scored 28 points, nearly outscoring the entire team. That's how bad things are looking right now.

The starters themselves shot 25 percent from the floor and the bench had only three makes. Imagine not making all the free throws they had (11 of 14) because that had all the makings of being bad if nothing materialized out of that.

Stanford has been about as average as their record would indicate this season. The Cardinal are scoring only 66 points per game while giving up a respectable 67.8. So the defense is actually somewhat worthy of coaching this late into the season, but no one else knows how to make a basket.

Because, you know, the name of the game of the thing is to put the ball through the hoop. In some cases, that would be asking for way too much than I think would be expected. But who am I to judge your basketball viewing?

The Arizona Wildcats needed a response after losing to the Colorado Buffaloes last week, and man did they ever? Going on the road to defeat the USC Trojans 91-71 in perhaps the most dominant and impressive effort Arizona has put together this season.

Bennedict Mathurin led the way with 19 points, and Kerr Kriisa made four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points to help pace the scoring. Arizona shot 56 percent from the floor and had five players score in double figures to knock off the talented USC squad.

"We know who we are; we took that ‘L' to the head," Arizona's Justin Kier said about Saturday's eye-opening 79-63 loss at Colorado. "We knew we had to fix some things from that game but we weren't too down on ourselves because we know we could have played better."

Arizona's offensive output once again was stellar. It's a group that averages 84 points per game and took it to USC early. The Wildcats led 51-27 at halftime and was able to coast soon after.

"Our guys are built for it," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. "They were excited to play and you saw that look in their eye early. I felt good about practice (Monday). I felt great about shootaround today. I was trying to not get too excited because that doesn't always translate to a win. This time, the guys brought us home."

Don't think you need to overthink this one. It should be an obvious one for Arizona and given it's the home finale, it should be a runaway victory for those in Tucson. Mathurin will have a big game and things will look bad for Stanford. Arizona by 20

The under is 24-10 when Stanford is an underdog.

Stanford is 10-3 ATS when failing to cover four or five of their last six.

Arizona is 39-36 ATS as a favorite the past three seasons.

PG: Michael O'Connell

SG: Spencer Jones
SF: Jaiden Delaire
PF: Harrison Ingram
C: James Keefe

PG: Kerr Kriisa

SG: Dalen Terry
SF: Bennedict Mathurin
PF: Azuolas Tubelis
C: Christian Koloko

Points: Harrison Ingram -- 10.8

Rebounds: Harrison Ingram -- 6.4

Assists: Michael O'Connell -- 3.5

Points: Bennedict Mathurin -- 17.2

Rebounds: Christian Koloko -- 7.1

Assists: Kerr Kriisa -- 4.9