Arizona’s basketball mastery of Stanford has lasted a full decade. The Wildcats have won the past 17 in the series.

But even though the Cardinal have gotten off to a rocky start, they have a chance to snap the streak Wednesday night at Maples Pavilion.

How good a chance depends on whether they can make up for their lack of an inside game on offense and defense. That’s a big if, but this isn’t the same Arizona team that Stanford fans have come to know and loathe.

Nevertheless, Cardinal head coach Jerod Haase is impressed. “They’re playing physical basketball on the offensive end, and they play with great pace on the offensive end, attacking the basket,” he said. “Defensively, they’re being more aggressive denying passes and playing a little bit more up-tempo, trying to get easy baskets in transition. They still have a great deal of talent and have done a good job with it.”

The Wildcats (11-4, 2-0 Pac-12) lost all five starters from last season, including 7-foot-1 Deandre Ayton, the top pick in the NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. Also gone are Cardinal-nemesis Dusan Ristic, now playing in Serbia, and Allonzo Trier (Knicks), along with a couple of current G-Leaguers, Rawle Alkins and Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

Wednesday’s game Who: Arizona (11-4, 2-0 Pac-12) at Stanford (7-7, 0-2) When: 8 p.m. TV: P12Net

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Alkins had the winning basket in last year’s 73-71 win at Maples. Stanford point guard Daejon Davis missed the second half of that one with an ankle injury.

The Cardinal’s last win over the Wildcats came Jan. 4, 2009, a 76-60 decision at Maples spearheaded by Landry Fields’ 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Although the Wildcats were loaded last season, they were upset by 13th-seeded Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. There was a shadow over their program because assistant coach Book Richardson was arrested before the season on federal bribery and fraud charges.

He was accused of taking about $20,000 from a sports agent for agreeing to steer potential NBA-bound Arizona players to representatives and financial planners working with the agent. Richardson pleaded guilty Monday to one count of bribery and awaits sentencing.

ESPN reported a year ago that head coach Sean Miller had discussed a pay-for-play scheme, but Miller kept his job after missing one game while school administrators looked into the allegation.

Entering April, Miller had just six players on his roster. He initially lost three top recruits as a result of the federal probe, although one of them, guard Brandon Williams, came back into the fold. He’s scoring 11.2 points a game.

Among the holdovers are 6-6 Brandon Randolph, now the leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, and 6-7 Emmanuel Akot, both of whom had limited minutes last season. Chase Jeter, a 6-10 junior averaging 13 points, is coming off a redshirt year after transferring from Duke, where his progress was hampered by injury.

Point guard Justin Coleman arrived as a graduate transfer from Samford (not to be confused with the Farm) who had spent his first two years at Alabama. Another grad transfer was 6-9 Ryan Luther from Pitt. He had led the Panthers in points and rebounds in the first 10 games of last season before a stress reaction in his foot sidelined him for the rest of the season.

The Wildcats were pounded by Gonzaga and Auburn at a tournament in Hawaii. They also lost at Alabama and at home against Baylor, ending their 52-game home nonconference win streak. Arizona also struggled to beat UC Davis 70-68 at home. But the Wildcats knocked off Colorado and Utah in their first two conference games.

Meanwhile, Stanford was struggling in Los Angeles. The Cardinal were outscored in the paint by a collective 102-60 in losses to UCLA and USC.

“It starts with me and developing a game plan that’s going to be more effective,” Haase said. “We’ll try to put more emphasis on defending inside, both the dribble penetration and post touches. Then our guys need to execute that game plan. But certainly something needs to be done.”

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald