TUCSON, Ariz. - The fifth ranked Arizona men's basketball team brings a five-game winning streak into Saturday's game in the McKale Center against Arizona State. The Wildcats won both games of the Mountain road trip last week at Utah and Colorado while Arizona State won at Utah and defeated Oregon State in Tempe on Wednesday.
Saturday's game starts at 7:30 p.m. on FS1 with Dan Hellie and Matt Muehlebach on the call.
RING OF HONOR INDUCTEE
At halftime of Saturday's game, former Wildcat Christian Koloko will officially be inducted into the Ring of Honor in the McKale Center. He was the 2022 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, the first Wildcat to ever receive that award, and also earned Pac-12 Most Improved Player honors as he helped the Wildcats to 33 wins and the Sweet 16. He finished his junior season with 102 blocked shots, tying the Arizona single-season record and sits in fifth place in career blocked shots at Arizona.
STARTING FIVE
1) Head coach Tommy Lloyd picked up his 80th win on Saturday at Colorado, tying him with Everett Case (NC State) and Bill Guthridge (UNC) for most wins in first three seasons as head coach at a major conference school.
2) Senior All-American candidate Caleb Love is second in the Pac-12 in scoring in conference play at 21 ppg. He posted his first career double-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds at Utah. He's averaging career bests in points, rebounds, turnovers, assist-to-turnover, FG%, FT%.
3) During the 5-game win streak, Oumar Ballo is averaging 15.2 points, 12.8 rebounds and shooting 68.2% from the floor and 61.5% from the free throw line.
4) Senior wing Pelle Larsson was named this week's Pac-12 Player of the Week after averaging 22.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and shooting 60.7% from the floor last week. It's Larsson's first weekly honor and he's the fourth different Cat to win the award this season.
5) Arizona has 212 steals on the year and leads the Pac-12 with 8.8 steals per game.
SERIES VS. ARIZONA STATE
• Arizona leads the all-time series against Arizona State, 159-86
• In the Pac-12 era (since 1978-79), Arizona is 35-11 vs. ASU in Tucson.
NOTING THE WILDCATS
• The Wildcats have grabbed 10+ offensive rebounds in 20 of 24 games, including each of the last nine games.
• Arizona ranks third in the country in rebound margin at +11 per game. However, the Wildcats won both games last week despite getting out-rebounded by four at Utah and only out-rebounding Colorado by two.
• Oumar Ballo is one of two players in the country averaging 16.5 points and 13.8 rebounds over the past two weeks (DJ Burns, Youngstown State). He has posted a double-double in his last four games and has 10 on the season.
• Love was also named to the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award Midseason Watch Lists and is one of 10 players still in the running for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year award.
• Keshad Johnson is one of 10 players named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award late season watch list. He's averaging 11.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and shooting a career-best 38.3% from the 3-point line. After a scoreless game against Stanford, he rebounded with 17 points, nine rebounds while playing 43 minutes at Utah.
• Johnson has scored in double figures 15 out of 24 games this season at Arizona. In his four seasons, and 113 games at San Diego State, he scored in double figures 25 times. He has set single-game career highs in points, assists, steals, blocks, FGM, FGA, 3FGM, 3FGA.
• Sophomore Kylan Boswell is averaging 11.6 points and 4.0 assists during Arizona's current 5-game winning streak after a 16-point, five assist effort at Utah and 15 points, four assists at Colorado. For comparison, in seven games during the month of January, Boswell averaged 7.6 points, 2.9 assists.
• Freshman guard KJ Lewis posted a season high 14 points against Cal on Feb. 1 while adding four rebounds and three assists. He added 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists against Stanford. He has 50 assists and just 19 turnovers this year, among the top ratios by a freshman in the country this season. His 30 steals are the fourth-most by a player in the country that has not started a game this season.
• Sophomore Jaden Bradley has 21 assists and four turnovers to go with 12 steals over the last 10 games. He has ZERO turnovers in his last 91 minutes played. During the five-game winning streak, he is averaging 6.8 points, 1.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists and is 10 of 12 at the free throw line. He registered a season high 14 points at Colorado.
• Motiejus Krivas is averaging 6.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and is 18 of 22 at the free throw line in Pac-12 play. He had 18 points at Cal and 15 points against Colorado on Jan. 4. Krivas ranks 11th in the Pac-12 averaging 1.92 offensive rebounds per conference game.
• After the win at Oregon, Arizona has not lost back-to-back games since Tommy Lloyd took over as head coach in 2021-22. The Wildcats are 16-0 following a loss.
• Tommy Lloyd is 44-2 at McKale Center as the head coach of Arizona (12-0 this year). That .957 winning percentage is the best home winning percentage in the country over that span.
• Arizona has 212 steals this season, marking the third straight season with 200+ steals. The last time Arizona did that in three seasons in a row was 2013-15. To reach the top 10 in Arizona single-season steals, the Wildcats would need to get to 275.
• The Arizona offense has posted a 10-0 run 25 times this season, the second-most in the country. Conversely, the Arizona defense has surrendered just six runs of 10-0 or better, per EvanMiya.com.
• The Wildcats have been ranked 52 straight weeks and 52 out of 54 weeks under head coach Tommy Lloyd. They have been in Top 10 for 41 weeks and in the Top 5 for 22 weeks.
• Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season with the Wildcats and has a record of 80-16, the third-most wins of any team in the country over that span.
• Under Lloyd, Arizona has recorded 20+ assists in 49 out of 96 games to lead the nation.
• The 2023-24 season marks the 119th year of men's basketball for the University of Arizona, and the Wildcats have an all-time record of 1,881-982.
