Arizona guard Josh Green to play vs. Washington State, per report

Jacob Snow-USA TODAY Sports

The freshman missed the last two games with a lower back injury

Arizona Wildcats wing Josh Green will play Thursday vs. Washington State after missing two games with a lower back injury, head coach Sean Miller told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.

All indications during the week signaled that Green was on track to play. He returned to practice Monday and Miller said Tuesday that the pain in Green’s back “seems like that’s eliminated.”

The Wildcats lost to USC and UCLA without Green, missing his transition offense and defensive mettle. The freshman is third on the team in scoring (11.9), second in rebounding (4.6) and assists (2.6) and first in steals (1.6).

“He brings a defensive edge that we have,” senior guard Dylan Smith said Tuesday. “He’s very aggressive on defense. He plays extremely hard. Scoring wise he gets it done as well, so just having attack from him and that aggression is obviously missed, but we have multiple good players. I mean, we had UCLA beat and they’re one of the top teams in the conference. It’s just we didn’t finish. We lost games with him as well that we didn’t finish, so we everybody has a next-man-up mentality, so not having him obviously hurt. ... But we’re just happy to get him back this week and going forward.”

The Wildcats likely need to sweep the Washington schools to secure a first-round bye in next week’s Pac-12 Tournament.

Thursday’s tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. MST on FOX Sports 1. Check out our basketball section for more pregame coverage.

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