TUCSON, Ariz. - No. 23 Arizona will play host to Southern California on Thursday in a matchup that features two teams battling near the top of the conference standings at the midway point in conference play. The Wildcats are coming off back-to-back road wins at Washington and Washington State while the Trojans went 1-1 last weekend at home against Utah and Colorado.

The game will be televised live on ESPN2 with Dave Pasch and Bill Walton on the call.

GAME INFORMATION
#23 Arizona vs. USC
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020
7:00 p.m. (MST) at McKale Center
TV: ESPN2 (Dave Pasch & Bill Walton)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)

OFF THE TOP
Arizona re-entered the Top 25 polls this week, checking in at No. 23, after completing the first weekend road sweep by a Pac-12 team this season. UA leads all Pac-12 schools with 14 road sweeps in the Pac-12 Era.

Arizona ranks NINTH in the latest NET ranking (best in Pac-12) and has a strength of schedule that ranks sixth. 

UA is scoring 79.8 points per game this season, the 17th-most in the country this season and tops in the Pac-12. The Wildcats are also out-scoring teams by an average of 14.5 points per game, the seventh-best margin in the country. The scoring margin is 8.3 in conference play (2nd in Pac-12).

The Wildcats average of 16.1 assists per game ranks 21st nationally and the 1.38-to-1 assist/turnover ratio is 11th in the country. Those marks are also tops in the Pac-12.

With two more points, freshman Nico Mannion will reach 300 for the season, joining classmate Zeke Nnaji (340) above that threshold. The duo would make Arizona the third team in the country to have two freshmen score over 300 points already this season (Colorado State, Stetson).

Nnaji is shooting 62.4 percent from the floor this year (13th nationally). He enters today's game having posted a double-double in seven of his last 10 games and has nine for the season - which is tied for the most by any Pac-12 player this season and ranks fifth all-time among Arizona freshmen. The three-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week dropped 20p, 10r at WSU. 

Mannion is second in the Pac-12 with 119 assists this season. His 5.7 assists per game are second in the Pac-12. He is just the eighth UA freshman to register 100 assists in a season, and needs three more to pass Jerry Bayless for sixth on the UA freshman assist list. The UA freshman single-season assist record is 197 assists (Russell Brown, 1978). He is also averaging 4.8 reb. in his last five games after averaging 2.0 over the first 15 games.
Freshman Josh Green leads the team with 32 steals and ranks ninth in the Pac-12 in steals/game (1.5). 

Since being inserted into the starting lineup the last five games, graduate transfer Stone Gettings has averaged 10.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and shot 58.8 percent. He logged his first double-double of the season with 19p, 12r at Washington State.

Redshirt sophomore Jemarl Baker Jr. has played 102 consecutive minutes without committing a turnover, and he has 15 assists in that time period. His 3-point FG with 44 seconds left proved to be the game-winner at Washington as he finished with a career-high 17 points in the win.