Arizona must shoot, defend better to win Thursday's showdown against UCLA

With its second sold-out and potentially loudest crowd of the season, McKale Center could be back in its old form Thursday.

But that doesn’t guarantee much of anything for the Arizona Wildcats. Not when UCLA is the visitor.

The Bruins have beaten Arizona six straight times by an average of 12.3 points. They’ve also won four straight in McKale Center, including three in front of fans, and by an average of 7.8 points.

The most recent memory is particularly stark. On Jan. 25 at Pauley Pavilion, after Arizona had risen to a No. 3 national ranking behind a free-flowing, team-oriented offense under new coach Tommy Lloyd, UCLA brought the Wildcats down to earth.

The Bruins won 75-59, holding the Wildcats to 30.7% shooting while hitting 50% themselves, looking more and more like the national title contender they were expected to be in the preseason.

“The whole team’s experienced,” says UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who has scouted the Bruins the past three seasons. “The only guy who’s not really experienced is (freshman forward) Peyton Watson, and he’s ultra-talented. I mean, they returned five starters from the Final Four.”

With yet another win, UCLA will be in good position to win the Pac-12 title and pick up a high seed in the NCAA West Region, too, gaining a series sweep over UA and at least a two-game lead over everyone else in the loss column.

So for UA to pull out a win and keep its hopes of winning the Pac-12 in good shape, some recent history needs to change. Here’s five things the Wildcats may need to happen:

1. They take advantage of being rested — for a change

The Wildcats’ loss at UCLA came on the last game of a three-game road trip, and they aren’t the only team to suffer that sort of fate. At the tail end of a three-game trip to Oregon, Washington and WSU over six days, Colorado lost 70-43 to the Cougars.

That happened Sunday, the same day Arizona took a full day off following its 67-56 win over ASU on Saturday afternoon, allowing the Wildcats to move into a normal home week leading up to Thursday’s game.

“Overall, we’re definitely in a much better place,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Wednesday. “It’s no fault of anybody’s, but I think you’re seeing these three-game scenarios in a week are tough. We’re not the NBA, obviously, but there’s lots of data out there that shows you know how tough these road trips can be.”

2. Kerr Kriisa gets his mojo back

Lloyd wasn’t all that wild about seeing the UA point guard kiss the McKale Center floor when he broke an 0-for-16 shooting streak against ASU on Saturday — “I’m like, ‘Just get back on defense,’” he said on his weekly radio show — but at least Kriisa’s confidence may be in a better place.

Kriisa finished the ASU game just 2 for 8 from 3-point range, but he remains Arizona’s most prolific 3-point maker (45 of 136, or 33.1%), a streaky shooter who hit five 3s against Wyoming and six against Washington.

Lloyd spoke in general Wednesday about how there’s a “law of averages” and how confidence can return quickly, and UCLA coach Mick Cronin is bracing for the possibility things turn for Kriisa.

Asked on Tuesday asked about the fact that Kriisa (0 for 12) and Dalen Terry (0 for 5) combined for 0-for-17 shooting on Jan. 25, Cronin didn’t hesitate to reply.

“There’s no way that happens again,” Cronin said.

3. The JJs are out of sync

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UCLA announced Wednesday that leading scorer Johnny Juzang would return Thursday after missing two games because of a positive COVID-19 test last week.

But Juzang missed an entire week of basketball in isolation, including UCLA’s games against Cal and Stanford last weekend, and didn’t return to practice until Wednesday.

Starting forward Jaime Jaquez remains questionable after playing just seven minutes at Stanford because of an ankle injury, and UCLA guard Jaylen Clark (concussion) also remains out after missing all three of the Bruins’ games last week.

4. ‘Zu moves better

Lloyd said on his radio show that forward Azuolas Tubelis actually suffered a slow-healing high ankle sprain, meaning he won’t be close to fully healed at least for another week or two.

Tubelis missed UA’s Jan. 23 game at Cal, then played 15 minutes at UCLA while collecting eight points and six rebounds. He managed 21 minutes against ASU but shot just 2 of 9 from the field.

“We’re phasing him back in and slowly trying to get him back to normal,” Lloyd said. “But we don’t expect him to be 100% and just appreciate him giving the team what he can. In due time hopefully we’ll get back the Tubelis that we’ve kind of had throughout the year.”

The Bruins pose a difficult matchup defensively for Tubelis even if he’s healthy, considering smaller, skilled hybrid forwards such as Juzang and Jaquez.

Arizona can also deploy wings such as Pelle Larsson, Dalen Terry and Bennedict Mathurin against UCLA’s forwards, but Lloyd indicated he also has trust in Tubelis for that role.

“It’s not a stretch to say they’re better perimeter defenders but ‘Zu has made huge strides in that area,” Lloyd said. “Early in the season, he was really helping us and I thought it was a big difference in what we were doing defensively. This has just been a little setback for him. Let’s see how he looks Thursday night.”

5. They play their game

Averaging 88.7 points and 21.3 assists per game entering that Jan. 25 loss at Pauley Pavilion, the Wildcats endured a shock to their system. They put up 59 points while shooting 30.7% at UCLA, then continued to struggle offensively against ASU on Saturday, winning 67-56 despite shooting just 32.2%.

While UCLA didn’t give UA many fast-break freebies by turning the ball over only eight times, the Bruins also made it tough on the Wildcats with a frequently switching defense anchored by big men Cody Riley and Myles Johnson.

Lloyd said the Bruins’ switching defense ultimately doesn’t give up a lot of “edges,” which can effectively keep the ball in front and force an offense to attack the paint or somehow find other areas to exploit.

But he indicated the Wildcats would keep trying to do just that.

No matter what that recent history says.

“We’re gonna come out and try to make some adjustments and usually your adjustment starts with `do what we do and do it better,’ ” Lloyd said. “I’m definitely not gonna blow up what we’ve done in our offense just because we didn’t shoot well the last couple games.

“I have a core, deep conviction in what we do, and we’re going to double down on that.”