UA Men's Basketball Team Opens Pac-10 Play Thursday

No. 21 Cats take on Oregon State

Arizona (9-3, 0-0 Pac-10) opens Pacific-10 Conference play Thursday against Oregon State (6-6, 0-0 Pac-10) in McKale Memorial Center. Since joining the league in 1978-79, Arizona is 21-8 in conference openers and is 11-1 opening Pac-10 play at home.

The Wildcats check in at No. 21 in both The Associated Press Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls. The Cats have been ranked in seven of nine polling periods this season, including the last five.

Arizona saw its six-game win streak come to an end with Saturday’s 76-63 loss at No. 2 Memphis. The Cats jumped out to an early eight-point lead, then went more than 12 minutes without a field goal and could not dig themselves out of the hole.

The Oregon State Beavers enter play Thursday with a 6-6 record after Sunday’s 60-59 loss to Montana State.

The game is the 64th meeting of the two schools, with Arizona holding a 46-17 series advantage. The UA has won 13 of the last 15 meetings in the series, which dates back to Jan. 28, 1975, including the last meeting, 72-66, on Feb. 8, in Corvallis. All-time, Arizona is 26-5 in series games played in Tucson, 18-12 in Corvallis, and 2-0 in neutral-site games.

Arizona hosts Oregon on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for noon MST and will be televised nationally by Fox Sports Net. The Cats then head to Tempe, Ariz., on Jan. 9 for a game at Arizona State.

Jerryd Bayless returned from injury on Saturday with a career-high 33 points against Houston.
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