No. 1 Arizona will end its pre-Christmas schedule Monday night against Bethune-Cookman at Tucson, Ariz., after overpowering San Diego State late Saturday night at Phoenix.
Arizona is the seventh team in program history to be unbeaten after the first 11 games of a season.
Bethune-Cookman (3-8) was a media preseason favorite to win the Southwest Athletic Conference despite welcoming 10 additions to its roster this season under fifth-year coach Reggie Theus.
Theus, a 13-year NBA veteran, also is Bethune-Cookman’s athletic director.
Six of his team’s eight losses have come on the road against Auburn, Miami (Fla.), Dayton, Indiana, Missouri and Saint Louis.
Bethune-Cookman will play one more road game against Oklahoma State on Dec. 29 before beginning SWAC play at home on Jan. 3 against Florida A&M, which also is coached by an NBA veteran — Charlie Ward.
Theus’ team enters the game against Arizona with consecutive losses of 82-60 to Missouri and 112-53 against Saint Louis on Wednesday.
Despite the early-season undesirable results, Theus said he believes Bethune-Cookman will learn from the tough schedule and be a factor in the race for the SWAC title.
“Our best basketball is coming mid-to-late January,” he said. “That’s what we have to assume. It’s going to take them that long to really understand the nuances, and they have to figure out who they are.”
Senior wing player Jakobi Heady returned to Bethune-Cookman this season after transferring to Central Michigan last year.
Heady averaged a team-high 15.4 points a game two years ago at Bethune-Cookman. He tops the team at 16.3 ppg while shooting 50.5% from the field and 47.1% from 3-point range.
He and his teammates will face an Arizona defense that limited San Diego State to 26.3% shooting from the field in Arizona’s 68-45 win on Saturday.
Arizona outrebounded the Aztecs 52-28 behind Tobe Awaka’s 15-rebound performance. Awaka nearly outrebounded San Diego State in the second half, pulling down 10 while the Aztecs tallied 12.
Going into Sunday’s games, Awaka led the nation in defensive rebounding percentage (26.7) and offensive rebounding percentage (36.1).
“At the end of the day, it’s just when the shot goes up, go chase the ball,” Awaka said. “The stats and stuff are cool; I know people are going to bring it up. As long as we win, that’s all that matters.”
Motiejus Krivas contributed 13 rebounds against the Aztecs.
Arizona ranks fifth nationally in rebounding margin at plus-13, and Bethune-Cookman is 350th at minus-6.
Playing a game less than 48 hours after concluding the game against San Diego State does not concern Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd.
“We’ll come meet (Sunday) afternoon, go over Monday’s game plan, kind of a light practice, and come out Monday and have the same effort energy we’ve had in the other games this year,” Lloyd said. “It’s obviously been a good start, but we want to keep pushing. We know this is a long season.
“We also respect that no one knows how things look in a week or two, so you just gotta keep going at it day by day.”
