CORVALLIS, Ore. — After a dominant November, UA center Christian Koloko had just four points on 1-for-3 shooting, three rebounds and a block in the first half Sunday at Oregon State.
“I thought he was a little bit soft and a little bit off balance,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We’re really gonna challenge him to fix those things.”
But it may not just have been any lingering soreness or worry from the sprained ankle that Koloko suffered on Nov. 27 against Sacramento State, the way Lloyd explained it. Koloko also had to deal with the crush of new expectations he created last month.
“A lot has happened to Christian in a small time,” Lloyd told the Star. “Maybe sometimes it's a lot to take in and people start talking to you about (being) a different player than maybe you were before. So there's a little bit of an adjustment period and we'll help him with that.”
The good news for the Wildcats is Koloko may have already started with tthat adjustment. He had eight points on 3 for 5 shooting in the second half, while also blocking two more shots.
“He was a little tentative early,” Lloyd said. “As I think as he settled into the game he, kind of played more like the guy he has been playing like.”
It didn’t last long, but OSU’s zone defenses threw off the Wildcats again early Sunday.
“I think when they put the zone up in the beginning, we just started to look around,” guard Kerr Kriisa said. “Even even though we were prepared, we didn't really we didn't attack the zone like we practiced. But once the game went on, we felt more comfortable.”
It helped that the Wildcats worked the ball inside to Oumar Ballo, who hit two baskets that immediately helped UA pull out of its early 13-7 deficit.
Ballo rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Pelle Larsson and put it in to cut OSU’s lead to 13-9,then scored inside 40 seconds later after a turnover by Beaver guard Gianni Hunt.
“I think in the beginning it was a little bit shaky, but once the bench got in, the bench really got us going,” Kriisa said. “From then on, we never looked back.”
Oregon State had just 12 combined turnovers during its previous two games but 22 alone on Saturday. While Lloyd said he didn’t necessarily envision a particular outcome, he said he knew pressuring the Beavers was part of the plan as it always is.
“You want to come out and test the waters a little bit and see how a team handles pressure and our guys are kind of buying into that,” Lloyd said. “I thought Oregon State stayed on their heels a little bit and we were able to make some plays and kind of flip it on them.
“We wanted to pressure them and force them to make tough plays in tight windows. Our guys did a good job with that.
With 29 points on 11 for 18 shooting at OSU, Bennedict Mathurin was the obvious Arizona nomination for Pac-12 Player of the Week and he has a shot at winning it.
The other top candidates are USC’s Isaiah Mobley, who had 21 points and 13 rebounds against Utah and hit a game-tying 3-pointer late in the Trojans’ win at Washington State, and Utah guard Both Gach, who averaged 23.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the Utes’ loss at USC and win over Cal at home.
Despite scoring 31 points at OSU last season, Mathurin was beaten out for both the Pac-12 Player of the Week (Colorado's McKinley Wright) and Freshman of the Week (Colorado's Jabari Walker) awards the following Monday.
