TUCSON, Ariz. – After a successful road sweep in the San Francisco Bay Area to open Pac-12 play last week, the Arizona Wildcats return to the friendly confines of McKale Center to host the Utah Utes at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 5 on Fox Sports 1. It will be the only meeting between the two programs during the regular season as UA will not travel to Salt Lake City this season.

No. 17/17 Arizona vs. Utah
Thursday, January 5 at 8:00 p.m. (MST)
TV: Fox Sports 1 (Aaron Goldsmith & Bill Raftery)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Stats: www.arizonalivestats.com
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 

• Arizona returns home to Tucson where is has won 62 of its last 63 games inside McKale Center, which includes an active 13-game winning streak. The Wildcats are 55-8 (.873) in conference play at home under Sean Miller, and they have won their last six consecutive games versus Utah in Tucson going back to the 1986-87 season.
• UA is coming off a 39-point victory at Stanford on Sunday evening that saw the Arizona offense operate at the highest efficiency. The Wildcats nearly set a season high across the board as they went 30-48 (.625) from the field, 10-14 (.714) from beyond the arc 21 of 23 (.913) at the free throw line. Freshman guard Rawle Alkins led all players with 19 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. The Arizona big men of Chance Comanche, Lauri Markkanen and Dusan Ristic combined for 44 points and 19 rebounds on an impressive 16 of 20 (.800) shooting from the field. The 91-52 victory was UA's biggest margin of victory in Palo Alto in program history.
• Junior Dusan Ristic opened Pac-12 play by averaging 16.0 points per game in wins at California and Stanford on a combined 15 of 20 (.750) shooting from the field. He leads all Pac-12 players in field goal percentage in conference play with at least ten field goal attempts.
• The Wildcats are one of only five programs in a Power 5 conference to wrap up the opening weekend of conference play with eight away games (road and neutral site) already played. Arizona is joined by Arizona State, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Florida in that distinction out of the 65 total teams from those five conferences. Florida has 12 games played outside of The Swamp but have only left the state of Florida twice in those dozen games.
• Starting with his 16 points and seven rebounds versus Gonzaga on Dec. 3, freshman Rawle Alkins has been a constant threat for a double-double from his guard position. The freshman is averaging 14.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in his last eight games. His 13 points and 11 rebounds versus New Mexico made him the first UA guard in over three seasons to record a double-double.
• Head coach Sean Miller is 9-1 against Utah as Arizona's head coach. That 90.0 winning percentage versus the Utes is Miller's second-best mark in the Pac-12, trailing only his perfect 13-0 mark against Stanford.