Pac-12 Basketball: They're Not Booing, They're Saying Zuuuuuuu

A small modification needs to be made to the name of the Arizona student cheering section at McKale Center: The Zona Zoo should now be called the Zona Zu. And each time Azuolas Tubelis scores, the crowd should let loose with a “Zuuuuuuuuuu.”

“They’re not booing,” Bill Walton will tell TV viewers. “They’re saying Zu, the nickname of the best player in the conference of champions. I was bicycling through the cacti and the arid glory of the Arizona desert at sunrise this morning, and have you ever been to Lithuania, Ted?”

Unless something strange happens over the next four weeks, Tubelis will be the Pac-12 player of the year, with no legitimate challengers. But after this weekend his status changed. Becoming a first-team All-America is now a reasonable goal, and if it weren’t for the presence of Purdue’s Zach Edey, Tubelis would be a candidate for national player of the year.

Tubelis moved into that category by scoring 40 points in Thursday’s pivotal win over Oregon, with 27 of those points coming in the first half. He was 16-for-21 from the floor and none of his points came in garbage time. Tubelis scored his final points with 7:33 left in the game, giving Arizona a safe 18-point lead.

And Tubelis’ mother was present to see it.

No Arizona player has scored more since 1995, when Damon Stoudamire scored 45 against Stanford. But if Tubelis had been selfish in the closing moments he could have broken Al Fleming’s McKale Center record of 41 points and the Arizona record of 46 points by Ernie McCray set in the 1959-60 season.

On Saturday, Tubelis scored a mere 19 points with eight rebounds, but he played only 23 minutes in the blowout of Oregon State, scoring his last points 2:25 into the second half and sitting out the final 13:40 of the game.

Two things make Tubelis special: the willingness and speed with which the 6-foot-11 player runs the floor, and his quick, efficient moves on the block. It’s catch, turn, score before a defender even knows he has the ball.

Tubelis has one shortcoming. He is not quotable.

His description of his 40-point performance: “I finished everything. Shots went in. I had a lot of points.”

Coach Tommy Lloyd was a bit more descriptive.

“Obviously, Zu was spectacular tonight,” Lloyd said. “The way the ball was coming off his hands was something special. You just don’t see it every day. It’s probably the equivalent of watching a great pitcher. You can just see the ball snaps out of their fingers, you know it’s going to be one of those nights.”

Or teammate Kerr Kriisa:

“What he did today was . . . I don’t even know how to put it into words, to be honest. I’ve never witnessed anything like this when I played with a teammate.”

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On the Other Hand . . .

Cal lost its 20th game of the season on Sunday, the third straight year in which the Bears have lost 20 or more. And it’s only the first week of February.

No other conference team has ever had three consecutive 20-loss seasons. Colorado turned that dubious trick in 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, but the Buffaloes were in the Big 12 at the time. None of the other 10 teams has had three straight 20-loss seasons in its history. Utah has had only two 20-loss seasons ever in a basketball program that began in 1908.

Perhaps more incriminating for Cal is that it has had five 20-loss seasons in the past six years. An 18-loss season in 2019-20 interrupted the run, and the Bears would have lost a 19th game if the Pac-12 tournament had not been canceled after the first round because of the COVID pandemic.

The Bears are 3-20 with at least nine games remaining, and they are on course for their worst season ever. Their worst season in terms of winning percentage was 1979, when they went 6-21, and their most losses in a season was 2018, when they finished 8-24.

Cal must win at least three more games to avoid another unattractive record. The Bears have not won fewer than six games in a season since 1914, when they played just two games and went 2-0.

Coach Mark Fox has an excuse. The two transfers expected to add a scoring punch – Devin Askew and DeJuan Clayton – were both available in the same game only once this season, and leading scorer Askew is done for the season. Jalen Celestine, the team’s top returning scorer from last year, hasn’t played all season.

The Bears have been held under 50 points in four straight games now, and the last time that happened was 1949, when Cal went five straight games without reaching 50 points. There was no three-point line or shot clock then.

Who’s Hot?

---Colorado’s Tristan da Silva has scored 20 points or more in five straight games, and the 6-foot-9 forward has made 14 of 21 three- attempts that span

---Washington’s Keion Brooks has scored 22 points or more in each of the last four games.

---USC has won four games in a row and six out of seven, the only loss being against Arizona in Tucson.

---UCLA at home. The Bruins have won 21 straight games at Pauley Pavilion. Remember the final game of the regular season ;pits Arizona at UCLA.

Who’s Not?

---Oregon point guard Will Richardson has been scoring, but he had 13 turnovers against Arizona and Arizona State combined this past weekend. He will need to take care of the ball in home games against USC and UCLA this week.

---Cal has lost seven games in a row. (See the Bears’ misery above.) The Bears' next game is against No. 4 Arizona on Thursday in Berkeley. The Wildcats have won six in a row.

Who’s Hot and Not

---Washington State’s Mouhamed Gueye had 31 points on 14-for-21 shooting and 12 rebounds against USC, then had six points on 3-for-14 shooting and four rebounds against UCLA. In a road trip to the mountain schools two weeks ago, Gueye had 20 points against Utah, then three days later went scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting against Colorado.

Top Five Pac-12 Teams (at the moment)

1. Arizona (21-3, 10-3 Pac-12). NET ranking: 9 -- Razor-thin edge over UCLA, which hosts Arizona in the final regular-season game.

2. UCLA (19-4, 10-2 Pac-12). NET ranking: 5 -- Bruins erased the two-game losing streak from memory by sweeping the Washington schools and extending its home winning streak to 21 games.

3. USC (17-6, 9-3 Pac-12). NET ranking: 51 -- The Trojans, Arizona and UCLA seem to have separated themselves from the pack.

4. Oregon (14-10, 8-5 Pac-12). NET ranking: 54 -- The Ducks’ road win over Arizona State put them on the fringe of an NCAA tournament berth, but they still have work to do.

5. Utah (16-9, 9-5 Pac-12). NET: 56 -- The absence of Gabe Madsen has hurt the Utes.

Pac-12 Player of the Year standings (at the moment)

1. Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona (20.8 points, 9.5 rebounds) – The conference leader in scoring and rebounding has a big lead.

2. Jaime Jaquez, UCLA (16.3 points, 7.7 rebounds – He showed he could make three-pointers in his 24-point, 15-rebound effort in the win over Washington State.

3. Branden Carlton, Utah (16.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.2 blocks) – The 7-footer has attempted 21 three-pointers over the past four games and made only four of them.

4. Drew Peterson, USC (14.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists) – His multiple contributions to success give him a slight edge over teammate Boogie Ellis.

5. Boogie Ellis, USC (16.5 points) – When he gets hot in the second half of games he is a marvel.

Cover photo of Azuolas Tubelis by Zachary BobDurant, USA TODAY Sports

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