Arizona went to Canada for a set of exhibition games over Labor Day weekend in early September, but now a team from Canada is coming to Tucson as the No. 10 Wildcats play their final exhibition game against the University of Victoria at 7:30 p.m. in McKale Center.
Sophomore forward Marcus Williams will play for the first time since spraining his ankle Oct. 24, and senior center Kirk Walters (concussion), who was cleared for full contact yesterday, may see limited playing time depending on how he feels during practice.
“”We’ll have Marcus back, and he’ll help out a lot,”” said forward Chase Budinger, who scored 24 points in the Wildcats’ first exhibition game, a 125-74 win Saturday over Team Georgia. “”We’ll have our complete team out there.””
While Arizona started 6-foot-10 Ivan Radenovic and 6-foot-9 Mohamed Tangara up front against Team Georgia, associate head coach Jim Rosborough said the coaching staff would like to see the team’s smaller lineup before heading to Virginia, where the Wildcats will take on the Cavaliers in the season opener.
With a healthy Williams, who practiced with no ill effects the last two days, Arizona will tentatively start guards Mustafa Shakur and Jawann McClellan and forwards Budinger, Radenovic and Williams.
During the second half of Saturday’s game, UA head coach Lute Olson started four perimeter players alongside sophomore forward Fendi Onobun, who stands 6-foot-6.
“”We’ll be able to go small, where we may have just one guy with some size in there,”” Olson said. “”It may be Fendi, it may be Ivan.””
Onobun scored six points and grabbed eight rebounds and was one of 10 Wildcats who received double-digit minutes against Team Georgia, but some players’ playing time will be shortened today.
“”I would expect you’re going to see double figures (minute) numbers out of seven guys,”” Olson said.
Against Victoria, who has no one over 6-foot-8 on its roster, the Wildcats may not get an accurate representation of some of the taller lineups they will face throughout the year, but they will get a chance to “”fix the last-minute things that we do need to fix-up for the regular season,”” Onobun said.
Victoria, a college team from British Columbia, was the runner-up in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports championship last season. They lost to ASU 58-53 last night in Tempe.
Facing the Vikes, McClellan said Arizona needs to have “”better defense and just try to shut them down.””
“”We’re going to score,”” he said. “”We have too many weapons, and (Olson) knows it’s not about scoring; it’s about the defensive end.””
Arizona held Team Georgia to 15.4 percent shooting on 3-point field goals while connecting on 51.9 percent from beyond the arc. Guard Nic Wise led the charge, going 4-for-4 on 3-pointers and tying fellow freshman Budinger for a team high with 24 points.
Wise will see action both in a back-up point guard role and as a shooting guard alongside Shakur, who just missed a triple-double Saturday with 14 points, 16 assists and eight rebounds.
Budinger’s 20 shot attempts may be scaled back a tad with Williams back, but the freshman is concerned with other facets of his game.
“”Just keep playing hard, focus on getting rebounds, just running the floor, finishing and stuff (and) working on my perimeter shot right now,”” he said.
As for Williams, the Seattle native will be trying to regain the rhythm he developed in the offseason and took with him to Canada, where he led the Wildcats to a 5-0 exhibition record.
“”I missed about a week and a half of basketball,”” Williams said, “”so I’m excited to get back with the guys.””
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Because students did not buy all of their allotted tickets, a limited number of public tickets are still available. Ticket prices range from $18 to $111.
– Cameron Jones contributed to this report.
