No. 5 Arizona wraps up a championship weekend in Los Angeles with a test of maturity. That’s the vantage point of Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd as his team prepares to end the regular season at Southern California on Saturday.
“Hey, if the guys want to celebrate it, they earned it,” Lloyd said after Arizona’s 88-65 rout of UCLA on Thursday. “It will test our maturity for Saturday. But I think we’ve got a mature group with some winners. So I expect them to come out and respond on Saturday.”
The Wildcats (24-6, 14-5 Pac-12) pounded the Bruins in the last scheduled meeting before each leaves for different leagues. Coupled with Washington State’s loss earlier in the night to Washington, that clinched an outright regular-season title for Arizona.
Arizona’s 18th Pac-12 regular-season championship since 1986 — 15th outright — is also the program’s last before it joins the Big 12 Conference next season.
USC (13-17, 7-12) is taking a dramatically different approach into its Pac-12 regular-season swan song Saturday. The Trojans, bound for the Big Ten in 2024-25, look to close on a high note to finish a trying season.
Injuries devastated the Trojans for a stretch, with season-long leading scorers Isaiah Collier (16.6 points per game) missing six games with a broken hand, and Boogie Ellis (17.0 points per game) sidelined three games due to a hamstring injury.
Ellis scored 28 points on Thursday and shot 6-of-8 from 3-point range, pacing USC to an 81-73 win over Arizona State. The Trojans head into Saturday’s contest with consecutive wins for the first time since Jan. 3 and 6, signs of life they hope will bring momentum they can take to Las Vegas for the conference tournament next week.
Ellis and Collier missed USC’s previous matchup with Arizona, an 82-67 Wildcats win on Jan. 17.
DJ Rodman led four Trojans in double-figure scoring with 16 points, Kobe Johnson scored 12 points, Oziyah Sellers added 10 and Bronny James — the son of NBA superstar LeBron James — played one of his best all-around games with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds.
But USC could not weather five Wildcats scoring in double figures, paced by Caleb Love’s 20 points. Love is averaging 19.3 points per game, fourth-most in the conference through games played on Thursday.
Love paces an Arizona roster with five double-digit scorers for the season, including big man Oumar Ballo, who is averaging a double-double at 13.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
Of the five Wildcats who reached double figures at UCLA, however, two are averaging 6.2 points per game for the season — Jaden Bradley, who scored 13 points in 18 minutes on Thursday, and KJ Lewis, who posted a team-high 18 points against the Bruins.
USC will look to counter Arizona’s depth with a roster that has come together at full strength just in time for the Pac-12 tournament, which begins Wednesday in Las Vegas.
“We’re playing well. I think over the past few games, we’ve really shown how good we can be,” Johnson said. “Once we just clean up, hold the lead, and figure out how to finish out games, I don’t think there’s anybody who can beat us. I think there’s a really strong chance we’re gonna make a strong run here in the Pac-12 tournament.”
–Field Level Media