Pac-12 Basketball Notebook: UCLA-Arizona Rematch This Week

We start with four questions, focusing on the big game of the week:

---1. Can UCLA dominate Arizona again?

UCLA made Arizona look very ordinary last Tuesday, when the Bruins handed Arizona a 75-59 defeat that was every bit as lopsided as the score suggests. Because of that result, UCLA and Arizona switched places in the AP poll. The Bruins, which were No. 7 last week, are now No. 3, while the Wildcats, No. 3 a week ago, are now No. 7.

But the Pac-12’s two top-10 team will meet for the second time in nine days on Thursday, and this time the game is in Tucson, where the Wildcats are 11-0 with an average margin of victory of 29.5 points and no final score closer than 11 points.

A big factor will be the status of Johnny Juzang, who missed two games last week while on COVID protocol, and Jaime Jaquez, who suffered another sprained ankle in Saturday’s game against Stanford. UCLA coach Mick Cronin said he hoped Juzang could play Thursday because he was asymptomatic after testing positive for the virus, and that means he could come out of isolation after five days. He still would need to test negative before being cleared to play Thursday, but things seem to be trending in the right direction. Jaquez was kept out of the rest of Saturday’s game for precautionary reasons, and he has played with injuries in the past – and played well. So there’s a decent chance he will play too.

UCLA has owned Arizona recently, having beaten Arizona six consecutive times. Furthermore, the Bruins have won four times in a row in Tucson. The last time Arizona won at home against UCLA was six years ago. None of UCLA’s regular starters – Tyger Campbell, Jaime Jaquez, Johnny Juzang, Jules Bernard and Cody Riley – has ever lost a game at Tucson, and they’ve all be around for a while.

The upside for the Pac-12 is that the game, which will be televised by ESPN, starts at 5 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. Eastern time), instead of the 11 p.m. Eastern time start of last week’s matchup.

---2. Did Arizona peak in mid-January and is starting to trend downward ?

Arizona is 17-2 and tied for first place in the loss column in the Pac-12 with a 7-1 conference mark. But they did not look like the same old Wildcats last week.

They were flying high heading into Tuesday’s game against UCLA, when Arizona was fifth in the nation in field-goal percentage at 50.1%. But UCLA dominated Arizona, and the Wildcats then struggled more than expected at home against an Arizona State team that is 2-6 in the Pac-12. The Sun Devil had the lead with 12:31 left before.

The Wildcats shot just 30.7% against UCLA and 32.2% against the Sun Devils. They were 10-for-51 (19.6%) from three-point range in the two games combined. Arizona is now 25th in the country in field-goal percentage at 48%.

Azuolas Tubelis seemed limited by an ankle injury in both games last week, so maybe that was the issue. Arizona’s presumed star, Bennedict Mathurin, was just 10-for-38 (26.3%) from the field in those two games, and was 0-for-8 on three-pointers against Arizona State. Guard Kerr Kriisa went 0-for-12 against UCLA and 2-for-8 against Arizona State.

Arizona has played only one game against the other three top-tier teams in the Pac-12 (UCLA, USC and Oregon), and the Wildcats are 0-1 against them so far.

Two games does not represent a trend, but they can provoke questions.

---3. Is UCLA just as good without Johnny Juzang?

UCLA did not seem hampered at all last week without Johnny Juzang, a preseason AP first-team All-America selection who was sidelined because of COVID protocol.

The Bruins beat Cal by 24 points on Thursday, and two days later recorded a 23-point win over a Stanford, which was coming off an upset win over USC.

A couple things we need to remember. Both those games were played at Pauley Pavilion, which had fans in the stands for the first time in a month. Cal is 0-8 in games away from home this season, so beating the Bears away from Berkeley was not a great feat, and Stanford was due for a letdown in the second game of a road swing following an emotional win.

More significant, perhaps, is that Mick Cronin’s teams always have balanced scoring. Four players are averaging 11 points or more this season, and a fifth, Cody Riley, is getting his rhythm back after missing eight games with an injury and averaging double figures in scoring last season.

UCLA seemed doomed last season when its top scorer and best all-around player, Chris Smith, suffered a season-ending knee injury on Dec. 31. But the Bruins contended for the Pac-12 title until the very end and reached the Final Four without him.

So UCLA can survive nicely without Juzang, but don’t think for a moment that they are as good without him. The way Juzang carried UCLA to the Final Four, and almost to the championship game, should be evidence of that. And he played an important role in last Tuesday’s win over Arizona.

---4. What is the deal with Oregon State?

With three starters back from a team that won the Pac-12 tournament and reached the NCAA tournament Elite Eight before losing to second-seeded Houston in a game that was tied with less than four minutes left, Oregon State looked like a Pac-12 title contender this season.

The Beavers were picked to finish fourth in the preseason Pac-12 poll, but they are 3-15 overall, 1-7 in the conference and have lost five games in a row, the last four by double-digit margins.

What happened?

First of all one of the starters the Beavers lost was Ethan Thompson, the team’s best player and the one who held everything together. Second, Warith Alatishe, who seemed to be on the verge of stardom when he averaged 11.7 points and 11.0 rebounds in the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments against the best talent in the country, has not taken the next step. He is averaging 10.9 points and 6.6 rebounds this season and averaged 4.0 points over the past three games.

But the biggest factor is that too much weight was placed on the Beavers’ strong postseason showing. Oregon State finished tied for sixth in the Pac-12 last season, 10-10 in the conference and 14-12 overall. That included a home loss to Portland, which finished 0-11 in the West Coast Conference. The Beavers probably should have lost their opening Pac-12 tournament game to UCLA, which had a four-point lead with 50 seconds left. But that unlikely win started the Beavers on a postseason run of nothing-to-lose momentum and confidence that sometimes happens. It does not mean that momentum will carry over seven months later.

In short, too much was expected of the Beavers this season.

Top Five Pac-12 Teams (at the moment)

---1. UCLA (16-2, 8-1 Pac-12) – The Bruins have the Pac-12’s longest winning streak at six in a row, and they won all three games last week by 16 points or more.

---2. Arizona (17-2, 7-1) -- The Wildcats play UCLA and USC this week, which will tell us a lot about the Wildcats.

---3. Oregon (13-7, 6-3) – Yes, I know the Ducks lost at home to Colorado, but they bounced back with a 22-point win over Oregon State for their seventh win in eight games.

---4. USC (18-3, 8-3) – Ranked fifth in the nation just a few weeks ago when they were 13-0, the Trojans are slipping and lost to Stanford for the second time this season.

---5. Stanford (12-7, 5-4) – Colorado, Washington State, Stanford and Washington are all close for this final spot, but we’re going with the Cardinal, which has those two wins over USC and one over Oregon and has played a tougher conference schedule than Washington and Washington State so far.

Pac-12 Player of the Year Standings (The Magnificent Seven):

---1. Johnny Juzang, UCLA – I know UCLA won easily without him last week, but he is second in the Pac-12 in scoring (18.1 points) and provides offense in a number of ways. Plus he plays for the team that is ranked No. 3 in the country.

---2. Will Richardson, Oregon – As Oregon moves up the standings, so does Richardson. He is averaging 14.9 points for the season, but he averaged 19.0 points over the past seven games and made 54.1% of his 3-pointers in that stretch.

---3. Terrell Brown Jr., Washington – With Washington now 6-3 in the conference and 5-1 over its past six games, the conference’s leading scorer (21.7 points per game) has to figure in here somewhere.

---4. Bennedict Mathurin, Arizona – I haven’t given up on Mathurin, who held the top spot the past few weeks, but his poor performances last week knocked him down a few notches. He is still averaging 17.1 points.

---5. Isaiah Mobley, USC – Mobley is fifth in the conference in scoring (14.9) and tied for first in rebounding (8.5).

---6. Tyger Campbell, UCLA – He's averaging 11.1 points and 4.5 assists for the top team and has hit 42% of his 3-pointers.

---7. Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona – He's been far from great recently, but 14.2 points per game and 6.1 rebounds for a top-10 team can't be ignored.

Player of the Week:

Terrell Brown Jr., Washington:

Brown had 26 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in a 60-58 victory over Colorado, then had 30 points, four rebounds, four assists and three blocks in an overtime win over Utah.

Team on the Rise

---UCLA (16-2, 8-1) -- The Bruins have won six straight since the home loss to Oregon and were dominant last week in wins over Arizona, Cal and Stanford.

Team on the Skids

---Cal (9-12, 2-8) – The Bears were 9-5 overall and 2-1 in the conference at one point, but they have lost seven straight games since then.

Team on a Mystery Tour

---Colorado (13-8, 5-6) – The Buffaloes were 4-2 in the conference not long ago, but have lost four of their past five games. Their one win in that five-game stretch was probably the toughest game of the bunch – a road win over Oregon.

Numbers of Note:

5-0 – UCLA’s record against Arizona since Mick Cronin became the Bruins’ head coach.

0 – Number of Division I scholarship offers Washington’s Terrell Brown Jr. received out of high school.

6 – Number of colleges Terrell Brown Jr. attended since graduating from Garfield High School (Western Oregon University, Green River College, Shoreline Community College, Seattle University, Arizona, Washington).

21.7 – Terrell Brown’s scoring average this season, which is sixth-best in the country and second-best among players from power basketball conferences.

80.31 – Utah’s foul-shooting percentage, which ranks third in the country.

10 – Number of consecutive games the Utes have lost

63.73 – USC’s free-throw-shooting percentage, which ranks 340th of 350 Division I teams.

13 – Number of consecutive games the Trojans won to start the season.

0 – Correlation between free-throw percentage and winning percentage. No. 1 Auburn ranks 100th in the country in foul shooting percentage, No. 2 Gonzaga ranks 188th, No. 3 UCLA ranks 156th, No. 4 Purdue ranks 207th. Portland, which is 11-10 overall and 2-4 in the West Coast Conference, ranks second in the nation, hitting 80.47% of its foul shots.

Cover photo of Terrell Brown Jr. by Joe Nicholson, USA TODAY Sports

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