TUCSON, Ariz. – The 2017-18 regular season heads down the home stretch as the Arizona Wildcats will host the Bay Area schools for a pair of home games. The week begins with Stanford on Thursday night on Fox Sports 1
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No. 19/22 Arizona vs. Stanford
Thursday, March 1 at 8:00 p.m. (MST)
TV: FS1 (Joe Davis, Steve Lavin & Matt Muehlebach)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 
Arizona will play its final two home games of the season with Stanford and California coming to Tucson. The Wildcats own a home record of 80-3 (.964) inside McKale Center since the start of the 2013-14 season, which is the nation's best home record during that span. UA has not lost multiple home games in the same season since going 14-2 at McKale Center in 2012-13.

The Wildcats split their road trip to the state of Oregon in a pair of overtime games, defeating Oregon State before dropping the Oregon game. The two games marked the first time Arizona had played back-to-back overtime games since the 1985-86 season.

Deandre Ayton had another massive week at the Oregon schools. The freshman averaged 23.5 points, 15.0 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 66.7 percent from the field and 91.7 percent at the foul line on 12 attempts. Ayton's week was punctuated by his 28 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks in the Oregon game on Saturday. Ayton now owns three of the top seven rebounding games in Arizona freshman history.

UA has won 16 consecutive games versus Stanford, which is the longest active winning streak between two Pac-12 programs. That Cat's 73-71 win in the last meeting pushed the win streak to the longest in the head-to-head series, surpassing Arizona's 15-game win streak over the Cardinal from 1989 to 1995.

Dusan Ristic enters Thursday in a three-way tie as Arizona's all-time winningest player. Ristic has won 110 wins in his career alongside Matt Muehlebach (1988-91) and Kaleb Tarczewski (2013-16).
UA's quest for a conference championship would secure at least a share of the regular season title with a win on Thursday. The Wildcats enter their game versus Stanford with a half-game lead over USC with two games remaining. Prior to this season, Arizona won four regular season Pac-12 championships and two Pac-12 Tournament titles since the 2010-11 season.

Sophomore Rawle Alkins has played some the basketball of his college career in three games versus Stanford. Alkins is averaging 14.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 50.0 percent from the field, 50.0 percent from beyond the arc and 91.7 percent at the free throw line.

Freshman Deandre Ayton put on a defensive display the last time these two teams met in the Bay Area in mid-January. Ayton blocked a season-high six shots in the win and became the first Wildcat since Jordan Hill in 2008-09 to reject five or more shots in a single half.

With five assists at Oregon on Saturday, Parker Jackson-Cartwright sits at 440 assists for his career. The senior is 15 assists shy of cracking the career top ten list in Arizona history, currently held by Miles Simon (1995-98) with 455 assists.