Balanced UCLA, red-hot USC await Wildcats this week in season's toughest road trip

On five of the nine occasions that Sean Miller has taken Arizona on a two-game conference swing through Los Angeles, the Wildcats have been swept.

The odds don’t look too good for them against UCLA and USC this weekend, either. And their timing is awful.

USC is leading the Pac-12 at 11-2 and just rose to No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday, when projected high-lottery pick Evan Mobley also picked up what appeared to be his 43rd Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award.

Actually, it was only his sixth, setting a new Pac-12 record for Freshman of the Week awards, but you get the point.

Mobley averaged 18.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.0 blocks and 2.0 assists in the Trojans’ wins at Washington State and Washington last weekend, pretty much obliterating any shot that Arizona’s nominee, Azuolas Tubelis, had after averaging 13.5 points and 8.5 rebounds between UA win over OSU and a loss to Oregon.

The only question about the Trojans last weekend was whether they would also nominate Mobley also for the Pac-12 Player of the Week or grad transfer Tahj Eaddy, who averaged 19.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in USC’s road sweep.

USC nominated Eaddy ... and he was beaten out by somebody on an even better roll, UCLA’s Johnny Juzang.

That means the Wildcats will have to face Mobley & Co. on Saturday, then face Juzang, who scored 32 points at Washington and 25 at Washington State, and the rest of UCLA’s balanced attack.

The Bruins should have plenty of urgency, too. They lost 81-73 at WSU, their third loss in the past five games, dropping them to 10-3 in conference play.

Again, not great timing for the Wildcats, who already lost to USC and UCLA at home last month.

With only four games to go, maybe five if its postponed game at Oregon is rescheduled, Arizona has lost four of its past six games after beating Oregon State last Thursday and losing to Oregon to remain in sixth place.

USC tip time set

Arizona’s game at USC on Saturday has been set for 4 p.m., with coverage on Fox (Channel 11).

The Wildcats’ UCLA game on Thursday was already set for 7 p.m., though it had not been announced as of Monday if ESPN or ESPN2 would carry it.

Bruins, Buffaloes still getting AP votes

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While USC is still the Pac-12’s only ranked team, UCLA finished 37th in voting overall despite its loss to WSU.

Colorado was 26th overall in voting totals last week but fell to 30th Monday after losing at Cal. Oregon received the 31st-most points in voting after winning 63-61 at Arizona on Saturday.

However, the Buffs are at No. 19 in the NCAA NET rankings, right behind USC (15). UA was No. 45 in the NET, No. 41 in Kenpom and No. 50 in Sagarin as of Monday.

Five-star center considering Wildcats

Five-star 2022 center Enoch Boakye of Canada decommitted from Michigan State and is considering Arizona, according to Tipton Edits.

Boakye told Sports Illustrated that UA, ASU, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, USC, Duke, Kentucky, Washington State and Gonzaga have already reached out since he decommitted.

“I don’t really have a timeline for deciding now,” he told SI. “At the same time, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I think things will move fast. I think eventually I’ll get to a top three and then I’ll announce.”

Mannion enjoying G League opportunity

When Warriors coach and former UA Wildcat Steve Kerr said last month he wanted ex-Cat Nico Mannion to “let it fly” in the G League bubble, his fellow former Wildcat took the words to heart.

Entering a game Monday against Raptors 905, Mannion had averaged 20.3 points and 6.7 assists over three games for the Santa Cruz Warriors while shooting 40% overall and 32.1% from 3-point range.

In six previous games with the NBA’s Warriors, Mannion had averaged just 1.5 points and 2.0 assists. He told the 1 Star Recruits podcast last week how he was looking forward to the opportunity.

Kerr “kind of talked to me before I left, saying ‘We know you can make plays, we’ve seen you play defense,’ “ Mannion said. “So he was like ‘The one thing you just need to work on is just getting comfortable shooting with game reps,’ because his past couple months I’ve really only been able to get practice reps and workouts, not a whole lot of game minutes.”

Mannion said the last time he felt “really in the mix” in a competitive game was UA’s first-round Pac-12 Tournament win over Washington last March 11 before COVID-19 shut down the sports world. That meant it had been nearly 11 months before he played that sort of role again in the G League bubble, starting against the Ignite on Feb. 10.

“Looking at the rosters, there’s some vets down here and there’s a lot of talent,” Mannion said of the G League on the podcast. “So getting those game reps I think I’ll just be even more comfortable headed back to Golden State.”