Rawle Alkins (foot) will play vs. Stanford

Arizona will be at full strength in Palo Alto with first place on the line

The Arizona Wildcats will be at full strength for Saturday’s first-place game against the Stanford Cardinal.

After missing Wednesday’s game at Cal with foot soreness, Rawle Alkins is set to return in Palo Alto, reports Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star.

“He had some soreness in his foot, which we knew could happen,” Arizona coach Sean Miller told Pascoe. “When you get it, it’s important that we deal with that in the short term in a smart way and give it a couple of days to calm down.

”Then I think you find out if it’s more serious or not. If the pain doesn’t subside, then maybe we have an issue that’s bigger that we thought but it did subside and he’s all set.”

Wednesday’s game was the first Alkins has sat out since he returned on Dec. 9 after missing the first nine games of the season in the wake of offseason foot surgery.

Dylan Smith started in his place against the Golden Bears and had a terrific outing, scoring 14 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting.

Stanford has won five straight heading into Saturday’s game, sitting atop the Pac-12 standings with Arizona as both squads are 5-1 in league play.

Having Alkins in the lineup should only help the Wildcats escape Maples Pavilion with sole possession of first place.

Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. MST, and it will be broadcast on CBS.

Pascoe has a few more notes about Saturday’s game, which you can read here. He also wrote a good story about Stanford’s Dorian Pickens and Michael Humphrey, Arizona natives who are looking for their ever first win over the Wildcats.

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Follow Ryan Kelapire on Twitter at @RKelapire

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