A bit premature considering we haven’t played Duke yet, but I’ll provide some general thoughts anyway.
First off, caveat applies because I’ve only seen Arizona play 1 half of basketball vs. Drexel.
That being said, Arizona is absolutely loaded. In fact, I think they’re the best team I’ve seen all year in college basketball. The first thing that jumps out at you is their size and athleticism in the frontcourt.
Offense - they have size and athleticism in the frontcourt and they use it. They have 4 bigs capable of putting up 15-20 points on any give night. They feed the post often in their halfcourt offense, with Tarczewski looking the most comfortable with post moves. The guy is absolutely huge, and he establishes post position very well. Ashely is another player capable of getting buckets with his back to the basket. Jefferson is more of a slasher than a true post big. Gordon is the ultra athletic garbage man, not really comfortable in the post, but geez that guy is active. Nick Johnson is their best athlete and scorer from the wing spot. Doesn’t look to have good mechanics on his shot, but his 3p % is good. Their PG is simply a setup man to keep the offense moving, and isn’t really a threat to score.
Defense - Arizona looked pretty good on D, they play man to man and apply ball pressure from the wing and it is very difficult to finish at the rim because of their superior size. Good rebounding team that is active on the glass and has good helpside rotations on the screen and roll. Nick Johnson is their best wing defender, I assume one of Stauskas/GR3 will be limited because the guy has the rare combination of size, lateral movement, strength, and jumping ability.
Overall - this is definitely not a favorable matchup for Michigan, this team has size, skill, and athleticism on the frontline. Watching Arizona’s frontcourt makes me jealous, because their bigs are everything our bigs are not (save Mitch) - active, skilled, and tough. I would pay to have a frontcourt like that. Anyway, It is going to be very difficult to stop Arizona to be honest, we simply don’t have the personnel or defensive intensity to match them in a halfcourt game. They actually have multiple players that can mitigate Mitch as well. On offense, we’re going to have to run a lot of screen and roll to put their bigs in spots where they have to close out on 3s, which may open up driving lanes. Honestly, the only way I can see us winning this game is if we’re hitting the 3 ball at a high clip, because there is simply no way we can beat them in a half court game. The only weakness they really have is at the PG spot. We have to win the TO battle and shoot >35% from 3 to be competitive. If we can do that, perhaps it will force Arizona to go to a smaller lineup that will benefit us. If not, I can see Arizona winning this game in blowout fashion.