Stanford still a concern for Arizona despite record

Arizona is set to face Stanford Wednesday night at Maples Pavilion to open the second week of Pac-12 Conference play. It will mark the first conference road game of the season for the Wildcats and it will be an interesting test for Sean MIller's squad. The Cardinal has never had a win against a Miller-led Arizona squad, but there have been some more entertaining battles.

Stanford (7-7, 0-2 Pac-12) got off to a rough start last week to open the Pac-12 slate with losses to USC and UCLA. Meanwhile, Arizona (11-4, 2-0) knocked off Colorado before earning an overtime victory against Utah.

Despite the weeks both teams are coming off of Miller remains concerned about what Stanford brings to the table led by its top three scorers who are all entering Wednesday night's game averaging double figures.

Sophomore forward KZ Okpala leads the way with 16.6 points per game for the Cardinal and at 6-foot-9 he has the chance to create some matchup issues for the Wildcats as he is also the leading rebounder with 6.5 boards per game as well. Point guard Daejon Davis is a player Miller recruited to UA for a time and he is right behind Okpala averaging 11.9 points and a team-high 4.2 assists for the Cardinal heading into the game.

Cormac Ryan, a freshman guard from New York, averages the most minutes for Stanford and he is sitting at 11.3 points for his team this season.

All three players have Miller and Arizona's attention heading into Wednesday's contest.

"I think Okpala as a freshman a year ago was one of our conference's overall best freshmen," Miller said this week. "He's such a unique player because he's a perimeter player, but he's 6-8. A year ago although he could really drive the ball and score he really didn't shoot the 3-point shot. To his credit you can tell he's put a lot of work in. ... I think you add the 3-point shooting to what he could already do ... he's a very, very good player at Stanford.

"Daejon Davis, I would say the same thing about him. He played a lot of point guard last year and he's doing the same thing this year. He's a big, strong, physical guard and he's picked up right where he's left off. Again, he's their second-leading scorer. So you have those two guys and they have a very talented freshman Cormac Ryan. ... I think he's one of our conference's best freshmen this year."

Miller went on to add that his team is as equally focused on itself as it is Stanford heading into Wednesday night's game, but there certainly elements of the Cardinal that the UA head coach knows his team will have to be ready for at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford could mix up its look in the front court with Josh Sharma being the bigger body and more traditional big man while Oscar da Silva and Jaiden Delaire being a different type of combination for the Cardinal.

UA is going to prepare for both and maybe even a bit of a different style from Stanford than usual with Reid Travis now moved on to Kentucky.

"I would say Stanford this year might be a little more perimeter oriented without Reid Travis," Miller said. "That's stating the very, very obvious."