Stanford men try to end skid against Arizona

Stanford was hoping to play the Arizona team that lost back-to-back games to UCLA and USC in Los Angeles two weeks ago.

[...] last week, the No. 12 Wildcats looked more like the team that was picked in the preseason media poll to repeat as Pac-12 champion.

The Cardinal have lost 11 straight games in the series with Arizona, a streak they would love to snap in Thursday night’s game at Maples Pavilion.

“They’re an extremely talented team,” Cardinal forward Rosco Allen said of the Wildcats.

Among those shooters are forward Ryan Anderson, a transfer from Boston College who leads the Wildcats in scoring (14.8); guard Gabe York (13.6), who is hitting 44 percent of his threes; center Kaleb Tarczewski (10.5) and forward Mark Tollefsen (8.8).

Tollefsen was a second-team All-WCC pick last season as USF’s leading scorer, then moved to Tucson as a graduate transfer.

Point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright has become the distributor lately for the Wildcats, assuming the role that T.J. McConnell held the past two seasons.

A top freshman, Ray Smith, is out for the season with a torn ACL, and former De La Salle-Concord guard Elliott Pitts has been sidelined for an unspecified personal issue.

Stanford will be without leading rebounder Reid Travis (stress reaction) for the ninth straight game.

According to CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm, the Cardinal have the third-toughest schedule in the country, after Texas and Villanova.