The Wildcats played a tough game against Washington, and nearly fought their way back to a victory before a Tony Wroten block sent the Huskies out of McKale Center with a steal of a road victory.

The California Golden Bears are at the top of the Pac-12 standings, and Washington is in a dogfight with the UCLA Bruins right now. So there's the Golden Bears' motivation to protect their home court. Arizona's motivation simply lies in showing a desperation that came out late in the Washington game.

Can the Wildcats begin a run tonight in Berkeley, or will a well-executing Cal team be too much?

College GameDay will surely have McKale Center rockin', and it's likely this game parallels and possibly surpasses last year's game between the Washington Huskies and Arizona Wildcats.

While there's no Isaiah Thomas or Derrick Williams to make this a battle of confident leaders, that only means today's game at 5 p.m. could become a rugged, chippy affair.

Predictions? Thoughts?

Whoops. Late to put the gamethread up.

Apparently it's a sellout at the Coors Event Center, so it'll be the first rowdy road test for Arizona in Pac-12 play. Solomon Hill isn't missing any time and coming off a stellar second half at Utah, the Wildcats got off to a fast start in this one before the Buffaloes came back to tie it at 16.

Onward we go...

Josh Watkins may be out, and the Utah Utes might not be very good, but the Arizona Wildcats have a dark cloud hanging over their heads.

If Sean Miller's club doesn't come out with a sense of urgency from the get-go in this one, it could be a telling sign that they're not ready for the Big Dance anyway.

What I'm going to be watching is how veteran guys like Solomon Hill and Kyle Fogg assert themselves from the tip. Furthermore, will any one of the younger players take a step forward in filling in one of the many needed roles this year's squad has yet to develop? Arizona needs rebounders, shot blockers, three-point threats, and most of all, game-changers.

That's asking a lot, but the Wildcats need any lift to recover from a brow-raising loss to Oregon this past weekend.

The Wildcats were challenged by the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday, and maybe it's just what the doctor ordered.

Their competitive juices now flowing, a win against the Oregon Ducks today will keep Arizona on pace with Pac-12 leaders in California and Stanford. Both the Golden Bears and Cardinal are 4-1 in the conference, and with a win, the Wildcats will move to 4-1 as well.

The Ducks are 3-2 in conference and 12-5 overall.

Can the Wildcats build upon their well-earned victory against the Beavers?

Arizona's last couple of games have been ugly, but this one against Oregon State has the potential to get downright chippy. For entertainment sake, let's hope so.

Who doesn't love a little bad blood, after all?

Craig Robinson's team has had an identity, even before this year's success. Remember the Wildcats losing to OSU in Corvallis, Ore., last year and then a very physical game in McKale? This year, there's all that plus two teams that have the same record and in some ways, the same question-marks about whether they have an easy route to the NCAA tournament.

The Beavers are coming off a quadruple-overtime game against Stanford. They lost 103-101, but that game highlights how desperate and urgency-filled the top six Pac-12 teams will become as the league members beat each other to a pulp for, quite possibly, two invites to the big dance.

And between these two teams, that sense of urgency might just come tonight.

Judging by the feelings around Twitter during and after Arizona's loss to the Bruins on Thursday, I think it's safe to call the Wildcats' play against UCLA among the worst performances of this season.

The looked flat. They made dumb mistakes. UCLA took the tempo and the Wildcats appeared to roll with a style that played right into the hands of their opponents.

There wasn't much fight aside from a few moments here and there in the second half, when Arizona somehow managed to keep it close. You can bet Sean Miller is using the loss as a refocusing opportunity, so there should be no reason the Wildcats can't bounce back against a struggling USC squad.

The Trojans have lost seven of their last eight, and the last loss came against an ASU team that didn't have more than six scholarship players on the bench. And as we all know, Arizona needs every win it can get at this point if the team hopes to get anything more than an 11 or 12 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The last time the Arizona Wildcats were in the Honda Center in Ahaheim, Calif., Kemba Walker and company were stomped on their Final Four dreams. Against the UCLA Bruins at 9 p.m. MST at the venue that saw the Wildcats get back the Duke Blue Devils for the 2001 national championship game, the Wildcats get back on the winning track against a team that throttled them in the last game at the old Pauley Paviolion in the two teams' last meeting.

It was probably the worst game Arizona played last season -- I suppose getting smashed by BYU and Jimmer Fredette was on par with it as well -- but it was also a humbling tipping point that saw the Wildcat finish the regular season with a focus that bled into the Pac-10 Tournament and the NCAA tourney, too.

It won't be easy, and the uphill battle for the Wildcats starts and ends with match-up problems.

How will Sean Miller's small-ball crew deal with talented big man Joshua Smith along with the Wear twins? Can they deal with Lazeric Jones on the perimeter?

While the Bruins have lost their last two and are a disappointing 7-7 on the year (not to mention have dealt with internal issues like the dismissal of Reeves Nelson) the Wildcats will be in a battle.

The Arizona Wildcats first put a lick on the ASU Sun Devils in the Territorial Cup football game, but that was just the beginning to the fans in Tempe being taken through a wood chipper.

Dennis Erickson was fired, Todd Graham was hired, and most every national media outlet threw up their arms as if to say, "I give up trying to find the answers." Meanwhile, Sun Devils fans shook their heads and probably receded into their maroon and gold holes. So I'm sure Arizona fans were quite gleeful.

To add to it, men's basketball coach Herb Sendek got a two-year contract extension days before the Sun Devils lost to NAU. In short, bad things are happening in ASU land.

If all goes as planned today, the Wildcats should have an easy time being their rivals on the basketball court. Yeah, rivalry games are sometimes chippy and ugly and wild and unpredictable, but since Arizona is playing in McKale Center at 3:30 p.m. there really shouldn't be an excuse for this team to lose. Then again, there's always the small chance Arizona gets Seattle Pacific'd.

What would you like to see out of Arizona today? And what do you think should be a reasonable expectation for the final score assuming the Wildcats take care of business?