Game info

Who: No. 4 seed UCLA (21-10) vs. No. 1 seed Arizona (25-7)

What: Pac-12 Tournament semifinals

Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Watch: Pac-12 Networks

Listen: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Follow: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

Probable starters: UCLA

How they match up

How they got here

UCLA was swept at Utah and Colorado in the last weekend of February, but beat USC 83-72 at the Galen Center in its regular-season finale to pull into a three-way tie for third place with Utah and Stanford. UCLA received the No. 4 seed because it beat first-place Arizona and Stanford did not. (Utah earned the No. 3 seed because it had the best record among the tied teams; the remaining teams, UCLA and Stanford, were tied head-to-head, so results against Arizona decided the tie). The Bruins then beat Stanford 88-77 on Thursday when Aaron Holiday had 34 points and eight assists.

The season series

UCLA didn’t get to host Arizona in Los Angeles this season because of the Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule, but the Bruins beat the Wildcats anyway, winning 82-74 on Feb. 8 at McKale Center while shooting 51.6 percent from the field. Five UCLA players scored in double figures and UA’s Rawle Alkins was held to five points on 2-for-9 shooting. “We’re really going down a different path with our effort and our defense,” UA coach Sean Miller said afterward. “That was probably the easiest victory (by an opponent) in McKale going back seven or eight years.”

What’s new with the Bruins

UCLA has gone 4-3 since its win over Arizona, losing at ASU, Utah and Colorado, while Aaron Holiday continues to assert himself as one of the nation’s top point guards. Holiday has averaged 28.2 points over his last five games. UCLA continues to mirror Arizona as a team with a top 20 offense but just a top 100 defense. Against conference teams, the Bruins average 115.2 points per 100 possessions, the most of any Pac-12 team while shooting a league-high 40.3 percent from 3-point range in conference play. The Bruins hit 12 of 27 3s against Stanford on Thursday.

Key player: Aaron Holiday

At this point, it’s not even clear if fatigue can stop the Bruins’ point guard dynamo. Holiday has played all but three available minutes in his past six games, and logged 40 again on Thursday against Stanford. If Deandre Ayton didn’t exist, he would be the Pac-12’s Player of the Year.

Key player: Rawle Alkins

Alkins has proven an X-factor of sorts this season, and the Wildcats’ Feb. 8 loss at UCLA was one piece of evidence. He was 1 for 5 from 3-point range and had three turnovers. Against a UCLA team that has the size and experience to at least somewhat contain Ayton and Dusan Ristic, the Wildcats need support from their sophomore wing.

Footsies

In a game when Colorado coach Tad Boyle roamed the sideline in a boot because of a strained right calf, Buffs guard McKinley Wright was lost to a second-half sprained ankle, and Pac-12 Networks cameras showed Arizona’s Deandre Ayton sitting on the bench without his right shoe. Maybe it was fitting things turned in the second half after Colorado’s Dom Collier tried to prevent a breakaway bucket from Parker Jackson-Cartwright — by grabbing PJC’s lower leg.

The play resulted in a personal and technical foul, giving Arizona a chance to shoot four free throws. Allonzo Trier made the two technical shots, while Jackson-Cartwright made one of his two, and Arizona led 55-41 afterward with 10:23 to go, never again to lead by less than double digits.

PJC said he had no hard feelings.

“In the flow of the game, you don’t think about that kind of thing,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “I know Dominique. He’s one of my good friends, and I know he wasn’t trying to hurt me or anything like that. This is just his last time around, just like myself, so he’s playing for his life. He wants to win as bad as we do. So there’s nothing dirty there.”

Dissed?

While UA guard Allonzo Trier posted a “shrug” emoji on Twitter to the news that he wasn’t included in the five-player finalist list for the Jerry West shooting guard of the year award, Holiday was similarly left off the finalist list for the Bob Cousy point guard award — and beaten out by Arizona’s Deandre Ayton for the Pac-12 Player of the Year award.

Shot 50-40-90 in conference gettin 20pts and up a game the whole season but got took off the finalist list 🤷🏽‍♂️ been consistent all year and my body of work shows that but #OpinionsOverStatistics of course.

— Allonzo Trier (@ISO_ZO) March 6, 2018

“Aaron should have definitely gotten it, but I think he’s showing it now, why he should have gotten player of the year,” UCLA forward Kris Wilkes said. “Deandre’s a great player, don’t get me wrong, but I think Aaron’s the best.”

Not that Holiday is going to make a verbal fuss over it, at least.

“Nah, I’m not trippin’ about that,” Holiday said.

Scott: No role in Miller decision

At his annual state-of-the-Pac-12 media conference Thursday, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said he stayed out of UA’s decision-making process while coach Sean Miller spent five days away from the team in the wake of an ESPN report saying Miller discussed paying Ayton $100,000.

Scott said he tried to “provide advice and counsel” but that it was a school decision.

“I know that the (UA) leadership takes the issues very, very seriously, spent a lot of time on it,” Scott said. “They are spending a lot of resource on outside expertise and lawyers and trying to get as much information as possible. I know they’re very focused on trying to do the right thing.”

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott on the FBI investigation and forming the Pac-12 Task Force: pic.twitter.com/IdC1JvfhlP

— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) March 9, 2018

The Pac-12 assembled a task force to look into the issues around college basketball after the federal investigation was announced last September, and Scott said it was looking to push for a baseball-style rule requiring players to turn pro out of high school or stay in college for three years.

Scott also said the conference would push to take its coaches away from the AAU recruiting system, “liberalize” the restrictions over contact with agents and beef up the NCAA enforcement staff.

Meanwhile, Scott said again that the Pac-12 Networks and DirecTV remain far apart, and that he didn’t anticipate the network would be on DirecTV “anytime soon.”

Father knows best

Not only did UA freshman forward Ira Lee have UA doctors and athletic trainers to turn to during his four-game absence with a concussion, but also a pretty good family resource: His father, Zeph, took a few hard knocks while playing football for USC, the Raiders and Arizona Rattlers, among other teams.

“My dad’s a tough guy,” Lee said. “He just told me, ‘Stay strong through the process and you’ll be fine.’ He’s not a real emotional guy.”

Lee was cleared to practice with the Wildcats this week and was available Thursday, but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get in the game.

“I didn’t expect to come back right away but March is a real long month, so I’m gonna do whatever I can to help the team,” Lee said. “Right now I’m just focused on getting my wind back and getting a little rhythm.”

Numbers game

0

UCLA losses to the Pac-12’s top two teams, Arizona and USC, during the regular season.

3

Arizona wins in six Pac-12 Tournament games against UCLA in the Sean Miller era (since 2009-10).

62

Blocked shots by Deandre Ayton, the most by a freshman in UA history.