TUCSON, Ariz. - The Arizona men's basketball team checks in at No. 4 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 and they will play host to No. 21 Washington State on Thursday in front of a sold out crowd at the McKale Center. It will be the first Top 25 match-up in conference play for the Wildcats who are 13-0 at home this season and riding a six-game winning streak.
The game starts at 9:00 p.m. (MST) on FS1 with Dan Hellie and Matt Muehlebach on the call.
STARTING FIVE
1) Head coach Tommy Lloyd picked up his 81st win on Saturday vs. Arizona State, setting the NCAA record for most wins in first 3 seasons as head coach at a major conference school.
2) Lloyd also agreed to a 5-year contract extension that runs through the 2028-29 season, pending Arizona Board of Regents approval this week.
3) Arizona is 45-2 at home under Lloyd, the second-best home winning percentage in the nation and tied for the third-most wins nationally in that span.
4) Senior All-American candidate Caleb Love is second in the Pac-12 in scoring in conference play at 20.5 ppg. He's is making more shots per game (6.3) than he did last year (5.7) while taking fewer shots (15.1 to 14.6) and playing fewer minutes (32.1 this year, 35.8 last year).
5) During the 6-game win streak, Oumar Ballo is averaging 15.2 points, 12.5 rebounds and shooting 71.4% from the floor. He has posted a double-double in his last five games, the longest such streak since Deandre Ayton had five straight in 2018.
SERIES VS. WASHINGTON STATE
• Arizona leads the all-time series against Washington State, 70-19
• The Cougars handed Arizona one of its two home losses under Lloyd, 74-61, last year
NOTING THE WILDCATS
• Lloyd is the first coach in Arizona history and the seventh in the history of the Pac-12 to win 20 or more games in each of his first three seasons.
• Arizona is 3-2 against ranked opponents this season and 14-6 in Lloyd's tenure. It's the third-best winning percentage in the country vs. ranked teams (Purdue, FAU).
• Senior wing Pelle Larsson was the Pac-12 Player of the Week last week after averaging 22.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and shooting 60.7% from the floor at Utah and Colorado.
• Arizona is averaging 90.7 points per game, tied with Alabama for tops in the country.
• The Wildcats have grabbed 10+ offensive rebounds in 21 of 25 games, including each of the last 10 games.
• Arizona ranks second in the country in total rebounds/game (43.3) and third in the country in rebound margin at +11.3 per game.
• Arizona is one of four teams in the country to have the same starting lineup for every game this season (Purdue, Wisconsin, Princeton).
• 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 11.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and shooting a career-best 37.1% from the 3-point line. He is 56 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career at San Diego State and Arizona combined.
• Johnson has scored in double figures 16 out of 25 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 11.5 points and 4.0 assists during Arizona's current 6-game winning streak. For comparison, in seven games during the month of January, Boswell averaged 7.6 points, 2.9 assists. Over the last three games, Boswell is averaging 14.0 points and 4.3 assists while shooting 38.9% from the 3-point line.
• Sophomore Jaden Bradley has 26 assists and four turnovers to go with 16 steals over the last 11 games. He has ZERO turnovers in his last 112 minutes played. In his last two games, he scored 14 points at Colorado and then topped that with a career-high 21 points in 21 minutes against ASU. He added five assists - zero turnovers - and four rebounds against the Sun Devils.
• 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 52 assists and just 20 turnovers this year, among the top ratios by a freshman in the country this season.
• Motiejus Krivas is averaging 6.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and is 22 of 26 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 1.84 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 45-2 at McKale Center as the head coach of Arizona (13-0 this year). That .957 winning percentage is the best home winning percentage in the country over that span.
• Arizona has 218 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 53 straight weeks and 53 out of 55 weeks under head coach Tommy Lloyd. They have been in Top 10 for 42 weeks and in the Top 5 for 23 weeks.
• Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season with the Wildcats and has a record of 81-16, the third-most wins of any team in the country over that span.
• Under Lloyd, Arizona has recorded 20+ assists in 50 out of 97 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 1,882-982.
HIGHEST EVER GPA
For the Fall 2023 semester, the Arizona men's basketball team posted a team GPA of 3.159. It's the highest semester GPA for men's basketball on record.
