Arizona Basketball: 3 keys to Wildcats beating Wright State in Round of 64
Let the Arizona forwards work
The first key to an Arizona win in the first round would have been a key no matter who they played, and that is to take advantage of the big leg up they will have in the middle against Wright State. The Wildcats have three players, Christian Koloko, Oumar Ballo, and Azoulas Tubelis in their rotation that stand 6’11 or taller. That is going to pose a big problem for Scott Nagy’s squad because their current rotation consists of two players that are taller than 6’8.
Lloyd would be smart to have his guards, whether that includes a returning Kerr Kriisa from an ankle injury or not, feed the forwards in this game until they all eat enough that they are overstuffed. This could also be bad news for Wright State on the glass because the Wildcats pull down over 41 rebounds per game and the glass is the one place that the Raiders must compete in order to stay in the game.
Wright State averages 35 rebounds per game, but the problem for them will come on the defensive glass because not only does Arizona have the size advantage, they are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, they rank 17th in offensive rebounding percentage (34.5%) according to KenPom and 18th in second-chance conversion percentage according to Haslametrics.