After a down year, the Pac-12 is back as a marquee league, and two of the conference’s best square off in Eugene tonight as Oregon plays host to Arizona.
For the past few years, the idea of #Pac12AfterDark has been a bit of a running joke. The Pac-12 has been the least successful of the Power 5 conferences in college basketball for the last several seasons, but the league is in the midst of a big resurgence this year.
There are a lot of great teams in the Pac-12 this year, and two of the conference’s best squads face off in Eugene Thursday night as Oregon plays host to Arizona. We’ll start with the visiting Wildcats, who are poised to return to the NCAA Tournament this year after missing the 2019 edition in a rare rough year for Sean Miller’s team.
Arizona stumbled a bit at the end of the non-conference season, dropping three of their last four non-league games, but got off to a good start in the Pac-12 by picking up a blowout win over Arizona State. A strong freshman class has led the way for Arizona, with Zeke Nnaji (team-high 16.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game), Nico Mannion (14.3 points and a team-high 6.3 assists per game), and Josh Green doing most of the heavy lifting for the Wildcats.
The Ducks provide an interesting contrast to Arizona in that they rely on a core that is much more experienced. The unquestioned leader for Oregon is senior point guard Payton Pritchard, the last remnant of the Ducks’ Final Four team from 2017, who leads the team in scoring (18.7 points per game) and assists (5.9 per game).
Oregon has also tested itself extremely well in the non-conference schedule, losing by a point to Gonzaga in the Battle 4 Atlantis and picking up wins over Seton Hall, Michigan and Memphis earlier in the season. That kind of battle testing will do wonders for Oregon as they have to navigate a tougher-than-usual Pac-12 loaded with potential tournament teams.
Both of these teams love to score the basketball, so there is huge shootout potential in this game. That should create a very fun atmosphere for the latest hoops edition of #Pac12AfterDark.
How to watch Oregon at Arizona
Date: Thursday, Jan. 9
Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
Location: Eugene, OR
Venue: Matthew Knight Arena
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Odds: Oregon -2.5 (The Action Network)
Prediction: Oregon