Seen and heard from Arizona's 83-62 win over Washington State in McKale Center:

Nap time + the return of glow sticks

Before Thursday's 8:30 p.m. tipoff, the ZonaZoo received sleeping masks — because apparently you never know when you might need to take a quick nap during the middle of the game. The students could have used the masks to shield their eyes from another poor shooting performance: Arizona shot just 12-33 (36%) in the first half, though things were better in the second: The Wildcats hit 20 of 35 shots in the second half, a 57.1% clip, on the way to a runaway win over Washington State. 

She said it

Arizona guard Aari McDonald (2) high-fives fans as she enters the court during player intros prior to Arizona's 55-54 loss to California at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on March 1, 2020.

Meanwhile in the women’s Pac-12 Tournament, chaos reigned: No. 12 seed Cal knocked off No. 5 ASU in the first round game, meaning the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats will play the Golden Bears in Friday's quarterfinals. The game tips off at 12:30 p.m.

The Wildcats will be looking to avenge last weekend’s 55-54 loss to Cal in McKale Center. During Tuesday’s media session before leaving for Las Vegas, Aari McDonald said she hoped Cal would win so Arizona could get “payback” for the loss.

Champions

Ninety minutes up Interstate 10 from Tucson, Bill Walton threw down. The ESPN analyst sparred with ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi about slights both real and imagined — especially when the topic was the Pac-12 and the NCAA Tournament seeding of his alma mater, UCLA — during Thursday's ASU-Washington game. Walton later jokingly (we think) referred to the revered bracketologist as "a troll from under a bridge."

Lunardi tried to argue that every conference that crowns a basketball champion is technically a "conference of champions." Walton set him straight.

More from Tempe

Despite being the Pac-12’s bottom-feeder for the majority of conference play, Washington will come in looking to win its second game in a row. The Huskies pulled off a bit of a shocker — a 90-83 win over ASU in Tempe Thursday night.

Saturday’s home finale for Arizona is still a must-win if the Wildcats hope to secure a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament.

Jeter joins laundry list of Wildcats suspended under Miller

Arizona seniors Chase Jeter and Max Hazzard missed the Wildcats’ contest against Washington State. Hazzard missed his second game in a week for what the UA is calling personal reasons, while Jeter was suspended for a violation of team rules. Jeter is also suspended for Saturday's regular-season finale against Washington.

Jeter is the 12th different Arizona player in 11 seasons to be suspended under coach Sean Miller for various reasons, joining (in order) MoMo Jones, Sidiki Johnson, Kyryl Natyazhko, Josiah Turner, Craig Victor, Elliott Pitts, Allonzo Trier, Dylan Smith, Keanu Pinder, Trier (again), Ira Lee and Devonaire Doutrive.

 

The big number

15 

Second-half points for freshman point guard Nico Mannion, pacing the Wildcats to a runaway win after they trailed at halftime. Mannion finished with 23 points on 8-of-20 shooting in 33 minutes. 

 

The little number

2

Personal fouls by walk-on Jordan Mains in one minute of play. Mains, a former high school teammate of Mannion's at Phoenix Pinnacle High School, joined the team in January. Mains also grabbed a rebound and committed one turnover — that's one busy minute.

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— Justin Spears and Alec White