SALT LAKE CITY - The Arizona men's basketball team moved back into the Top 10 of this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll, checking in at No. 8, before heading out to take on the Utah Runnin' Utes on Thursday in Salt Lake City. The game is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. MST and will be televised on Pac-12 Networks with Roxy Bernstein and former Wildcat Matt Muehlebach on the call.
STARTING FIVE
1) Oumar Ballo averaged 20.0 points and 13.0 rebounds and shot 80% (16-20) from the floor in two wins last week versus Cal and Stanford. In Pac-12 play, Ballo is averaging 13.0 points, 10.6 rebounds (2nd in Pac-12) and shooting 60% (2nd in Pac-12).
2) Senior Caleb Love is second in the Pac-12 in scoring in conference play at 21.4 ppg. He has scored 20+ points in all five conference road games this season. During the current 3-game win streak, Love is averaging 22 points, 6.0 rebounds and shooting 50% FG and 41% 3FG.
3) The Wildcats have grabbed 10+ offensive rebounds in 18 of 22 games. The last time they didn't was Jan. 6 at home vs. Utah (8). Arizona leads the country in rebound margin (+12.1).
4) In two games last week, freshman KJ Lewis came off the bench to average 13.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 64.3% from the floor.
5) The 11-point halftime deficit vs. Stanford was the largest overcome for a win under Lloyd.
SERIES VS. UTAH
• Arizona leads the all-time series against Utah, 39-32
• The Wildcats are 1-1 in Salt Lake City under Tommy Lloyd
NOTING THE WILDCATS
• Arizona had 21 assists on 31 made FG vs. Stanford, improving to 47-1 under Lloyd when registering 20+ assists.
• Love was also named to the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award Top 20 Watch Lists and is one of 10 players still in the running for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year award.
• Pelle Larsson is averaging 13.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists over the last five games but shooting just 25% (5-20) from the 3-point line in that span games.
• Keshad Johnson was 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, 6.4 rebounds and shooting a career-best 38.2% from the 3-point line. He went scoreless against Stanford, the first time in 46 games that he didn't find the scoring column.
• Sophomore Kylan Boswell is averaging 9.0 points and 3.2 assists over the last three games.
In the four games prior to the winning streak, Boswell scored a total of 14 points, four rebounds and seven assists.
He has already made more FG, 3FG, assists and points this year than he did all of last season.
• Caleb Love finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists against Stanford on Feb. 4, the first game of his career where he hit all those marks at once.
• Freshman guard KJ Lewis posted a season high 14 points against Cal on Thursday while adding four rebounds and three assists. He added 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists against Stanford. He has 48 assists and just 18 turnovers this year, among the top ratios by a freshman in the country this season. He's second on the team with 28 steals. In the last six games, he is 17 of 21 at the free throw line (.810).
• Fifth year forward Keshad Johnson scored 18 points at Oregon State, giving him four games with 17 or more points this season. In 113 games over four years at San Diego State, he never scored more than 16 points in a game. He had his second double-double of the year (sixth career) with 10 point, 13 rebounds vs. USC. At Oregon he went 3 of 4 from the 3-point line to tie his single-game career high.
• Sophomore Jaden Bradley has 18 assists and four turnovers to go with 12 steals over the last eight games. He leads the Wildcats with 15 steals in Pac-12 play this season.
• Motiejus Krivas is averaging 6.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and is 16 of 20 at the free throw line in Pac-12 play. He had 18 points at Cal and 15 points against Colorado.
• 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 is 7 steals away from 200 as a team this year. It would be the third consecutive season with 200+ steals, the first time that has happened since 2013-15.
• Arizona leads the country in rebound margin (+12.1) and ranks third nationally in scoring (89.0), fourth in assists per game (18.8) and scoring margin (+17.0) and seventh in fastbreak points (16.5).
• The Arizona offense has posted a 10-0 run 23 times this season, tied for third-most in the country. Conversely, the Arizona defense has surrendered just five runs of 10-0 or better, per EvanMiya.com.
• The Wildcats have been ranked 51 straight weeks and 51 out of 53 weeks under head coach Tommy Lloyd. They have been in Top 10 for 40 weeks and in the Top 5 for 21 weeks.
• Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season with the Wildcats and has a record of 78-16, the fourth-most wins of any team in the country over that span.
• Under Lloyd, Arizona has recorded 20+ assists in 48 out of 94 games to lead the nation.
