Scouting report: No. 7 Arizona Wildcats vs. No. 19 USC Trojans

The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 7-ranked Arizona Wildcats host No. 19-ranked USC Trojans.

What: No. 19 USC (19-3, 9-3) at No. 7 Arizona (18-2, 8-1)

Where: McKale Center

When: 3 p.m.

TV: FOX

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Social media: @TheWildcaster on Twitter / TheWildcaster on Facebook

Probable starters: Arizona

G Kerr Kriisa (6-3 sophomore)

G Dalen Terry (6-6 sophomore)

F Bennedict Mathurin (6-6 sophomore)

F Azuolas Tubelis (6-11 sophomore)

C Christian Koloko (7-0 junior)

Probable starters: USC

G Boogie Ellis (6-3 junior)

G Ethan Anderson (6-1 junior)

F Drew Peterson (6-9 senior)

F Chavez Goodwin (6-9 senior)

C Isaiah Mobley (6-10 junior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads USC 70-46 all-time. Last season, the teams beat each other on their homecourts: USC won 87-73 on Jan. 7, 2021, when Azuolas Tubelis scored 31 points on 11-for-16 shooting but the Wildcats gave up 58.5% shooting by the Trojans.

Arizona won 81-72 on Feb. 20, 2021, when Jordan Brown had 19 points and 13 rebounds in a matchup against eventual NBA lottery pick Evan Mobley, who had 23 points and five rebounds.

This season: Saturday’s game was supposed to be the second game of the season series, but the teams’ Jan. 2 game in Los Angeles was postponed because of the Trojans’ COVID-19 issues and has not yet been rescheduled. Most likely, it will be rescheduled for Feb. 22, Feb. 28 or March 1.

USC overview: The Trojans may have lost Evan Mobley to the NBA Draft lottery last season, but they still returned the bulk of an Elite Eight team — and added Memphis transfer Boogie Ellis, a dynamic combo guard who is the Trojans’ second-leading scorer. Ellis scored 21 points in each of USC’s past two games and went to the free-throw line eight times at ASU on Thursday, clinching the game singlehandedly when he broke the Trojans from a 51-51 tie with five free throws and a fast-break dunk over the final minute.

USC alternates with Ellis and 6-9 Drew Peterson joining either 6-1 guard Ethan Anderson or 6-9 Max Agbonkpolo on the perimeter, giving the Trojans an option of a long, athletic lineup that limits opponents to just 40.6% shooting from two-point range, the fourth-best defensive two-point percentage in the country.

Peterson has the second-most assists among the Trojans while playing mostly as a small forward. Inside, Chavez Goodwin plays like a super senior, while Isaiah Mobley has moved into a much bigger offensive role without his younger brother around.

Chavez shoots 60.9% from two-point range and draws 4.4 fouls per 40 minutes played, though he’s made only 48.5% of his free throws. He also ranks 39th in offensive rebounding percentage, pulling down 14.2% of his teammates’ missed shots when he’s on the floor.

Mobley has evolved into an inside force and a particularly difficult target to guard beyond the 3-point line, where he takes more than half his shots and hits them at a 40.2% rate.

The Trojans have been in every weekly Top 25 poll since the season started, going 10-0 in nonconference play, but against a nonconference schedule ranked only 265th. In Pac-12 play, they have lost to Oregon once and Stanford twice, but have not yet played UCLA or Arizona.

He said it: “They’re one of the better defensive teams in our league, and a lot of that's because of their length. They’re one of the tallest teams in the league, they certainly create problems for you trying to even get to the paint or scoring inside.

"They try to get into gaps, they try to pressure the basketball, they try to make it difficult for you to shoot and force you to shoot tough twos. With their length, they really can close out and bother guys shooting the ball from the perimeter.

"(Ellis is) a point guard, but he also has the ability to get off the ball and he's been a lot more aggressive offensively. He is looking to score the basketball more and I don't know if that's by design or it's just falling into place for him but by far he's getting people's attention because of his scoring right now."

"(Peterson is) a pretty versatile guy. He does a lot of things, whether it's the scoring from the perimeter or assisting. I call him a stat-sheet-stuffer.

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“I think (last year when Isaiah Mobley was) playing with his brother, everything went through and to his brother, but now that his brother is gone, he's really just stepped up and playing as one of the premier players in the league.

Goodwin is “a warrior. He fights. He rebounds. He does a lot of the grunt work. He's a 1,000 point scorer" in college.

— UA assistant coach Steve Robinson, who scouted the Trojans.

Key player (Arizona): Christian Koloko

Part of the reason why UA coach Tommy Lloyd has become more comfortable playing Koloko and fellow 7-footer Oumar Ballo together is Koloko’s ability to defend on the wing. No doubt Mobley will be parking there at least some of the time Saturday.

Key player (USC): Isaiah Mobley

Able to hurt opponents inside or outside at 6-10 and 240 pounds, Mobley also has the experience of playing 85 games and starting 62. In conference games so far this season, he’s tied for seventh in scoring (14.5), fourth in rebounding (7.6).

Sidelines

McKale Madness

McKale Center was a rowdier than normal place Thursday against UCLA.

The UCLA-Arizona game was the Wildcats’ second sold-out game of the season, and with more people in the seats than during a Jan. 29 sellout against ASU.

“We're just lucky to play in front of these great fans,” UA center Oumar Ballo said. “They came out tonight, they supported us and it definitely helped to win this game.”

It was a marked difference from earlier this season, when the Wildcats usually hit around 8,000-10,000 fans despite racing to a 16-1 start.

“That’s the standard of what McKale can be every day," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "And we’ve got to get it to the point where it’s not about the opponent, it’s about Arizona basketball, and making it a community thing, a community event.

"That’s all I ask for and I’m gonna give this university and community everything I got and I think you’re seeing these players are gonna do the same.”

No time for a hangover

While Arizona’s win over UCLA on Thursday may ultimately help the Wildcats earn a No. 1 or 2 NCAA Tournament seed, Lloyd is also using the week to prepare for the tournament itself.

In his postgame speech after the Wildcats' 76-66 win over the Bruins, Lloyd made sure he knew their game with USC on Saturday was a big part of that, too.

“It was 'Proud of ya. Love ya. And the reward you get is you get a really good USC team coming in here,'" Lloyd said he told his players. “I'm serious. It's a gift. It's a gift to have another really good team coming in here on Saturday because that's what it takes.

“In order to be a great team in the NCAA Tournament, you’ve got to beat one good team on Thursday. You’ve got to beat another better team on Saturday. And I'm not saying they're better than UCLA, but they're right at that level. So it's an honor and this will be a great experience for us.”

It might be easy for the Wildcats to otherwise let down a bit against the Trojans, who have been somewhat under the radar despite their No.19 ranking. UCLA and Arizona have grabbed the most attention in the Pac-12 so far this season, while USC is in third place at 9-3.

But the Trojans have won five of their last six games and found a way to pull out a road game at ASU on Thursday. They trailed 51-49 with 1:07 left before Isaiah Mobley made a layup and Boogie Ellis scored seven points the rest of the way.

“You just put three or four minutes on the clock, put a tie score on the board, and we’ll play from there,” USC coach Andy Enfield told the Associated Press after the game. “That’s just the way it’s been. We're fortunate to win this game."

Motivational snub

While Koloko was named to the Naismith’s defensive player of the year watch list on Jan. 27, on Friday he was left off a list of the nation’s top 10 centers.

So Rem Bakamus, UA’s director of player development, retweeted what was the updated 10-player watch list for the Kareem Abdul Jabbar Award given to the nation’s top 10 centers — while adding a quizzical emoji face to his retweet.

But in updating its watch lists for positional awards all week, the Basketball Hall of Fame did place Azuolas Tubelis on its Karl Malone Award (power forward) watch list and Bennedict Mathurin on its Jerry West Award (shooting guard) watch list.

Numbers game

5 – Arizona’s ranking in defensive efficiency (just 87.3 points allowed per opponents’ 100 possessions.)

55 – Conference wins for USC since 2017-18, the most of any Pac-12 team in that time.

63.7 – USC’s free throw percentage, the 10th worst in Division I.