The Star's Bruce Pascoe breaks down the starting lineups, storylines and stats as the No. 3-ranked Arizona Wildcats travel to face the No. 7 UCLA Bruins on Tuesday night.
What: No. 3 Arizona (16-1, 5-0) at No. 7 UCLA (13-2, 5-1)
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles
When: 9 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5-AM
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) OR Pelle Larsson (6-5 sophomore)
C Christian Koloko (7-0 junior)
U of A's Christian Koloko make a layup against UTRGV on Nov. 12, 2021 at McKale Center.
Probable starters: UCLA
G Tyger Campbell (5-11 junior)
G Johnny Juzang (6-7 junior)
F Jules Bernard (6-7 junior)
F Jaime Jaquez (6-7 junior)
C Cody Riley (6-9 senior)
UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. (24) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. UCLA won 71-65. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
How they match up
The series: Arizona has lost five in a row to UCLA and the last three at Pauley Pavilion. Last season, UCLA won 81-76 at McKale Center on Jan. 9 when Tyger Campbell had 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and 8 of 8 from the foul line. The Bruins also won 74-60 at Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 18, 2021, when Jaime Jaquez scored 17 of his game-high 25 points after halftime and the Bruins shot 73.1% overall in the second half. UCLA leads Arizona 62-45 all time in the series.
UCLA overview: Nobody in the Pac-12 might look as familiar to the Wildcats as UCLA, which returned nearly all of its key players from a Final Four team last season. The difference is that the Bruins this time have added rim-protecting transfer forward Myles Johnson and well-rounded McDonalds All-American forward Peyton Watson.
They’ve also stayed a little under the radar this season because of nearly three weeks of COVID-related interruptions, failing to play a game between Marquette on Dec. 11 and Long Beach State on Jan. 6. But the Bruins have been getting their mojo back since then, losing to Oregon at home in overtime on Jan. 12 but then beating Oregon State at home, plus Utah and Colorado on the road last weekend.
As they did last season, the Bruins can drive opponents nuts with a slew of talented combo forwards who can create matchup nightmares, most notably Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez. Juzang hits two-pointers at 51.0% and 3s at 38.2% while Jaquez is a 50.0% shooter from two who knows how to get to the line: He draws 4.4 fouls per 40 minutes played. Another wing, Jules Bernard, is an even more dangerous threat to get to the line, picking up 4.7 fouls per 40 minutes and hitting free throws at a 79.4% rate.
Inside, veteran big man Cody Riley is a 60.6% shooter from two-point range while Johnson ranks among the Top 50 in shot block percentage and offensive rebounding percentage when he’s on the floor.
UCLA forward Cody Riley (2) shoots against Long Beach State guard Aboubacar Traore (25) during an NCAA college basketball game between Long Beach State and UCLA Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, in Los Angeles. UCLA won 96-78. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Sophomore wing Jaylen Clark, who ranks highly in offensive rebounding and steal percentages, and Watson are among the Bruins’ talented reserves while scrappy point guard Tyger Campbell has developed into a 43.5% 3-point shooter.
He said it: “I would definitely say they’re deeper because last year once they lost (center) Jalen Hill, they were thin in the frontcourt and they’d play small. They did early in the year because Cody Riley was hurt, but now that he’s back and you have a Myles Johnson and (Kenneth) Nwuba, they have some depth and they’ve developed some of the bench pieces. Peyton Watson is long, athletic and can guard multiple positions.
“Riley’s a really skilled offensive player. Big body, tough rebounder. Myles Johnson is an outstanding defender. They complement each other well because what Myles Johnson is really good at, Cody Riley may not be the best, and vice versa. They fit each other.
“Tyger Campbell’s really expanded his game. In the past, he always seemed to make big shots against us but he wasn’t the most efficient shot maker over the course of the season. Now, he can really shoot the ball and I think that changes the dynamic of how you how have to guard them. They can put four really good shooters out on the court, and have a good big whether it’s Myles Johnson or Cody Riley. They’re really hard to guard.
“(Juzang) is playing really well. To do on the road where he just did on the Utah-Colorado trip is pretty impressive. He’s obviously going to draw a lot of attention. But they’re a really good team because he’s not all they have. Jaime Jaquez, Jules Barnard, they’ve all had their moments and they bring some weapons off the bench. You want to pinpoint one guy and really hone in but you can’t because they’re so talented.” — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Bruins.
Key player (UCLA): Johnny Juzang
A preseason favorite for Pac-12 Player of the Year, Juzang played like one last weekend, picking up the league’s Player of the Week award while averaging 25.5 points over road games at Utah and Colorado. He can shoot at all levels, able to take bigger guys off the dribble or shoot over smaller defenders.
UCLA guard Johnny Juzang (3) shoots against California guard Jordan Shepherd, left, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Berkeley, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
Key player (Arizona): Pelle Larsson
Whether or not Azuolas Tubelis returns from a sprained ankle, the Wildcats may go small at times against the Bruins’ many combo forwards. Physical and aggressive at 6-foot-5, Larsson has earned UA coach Tommy Lloyd’s confidence that he can guard bigger players when needed.
Arizona guard Pelle Larsson against Stanford during an NCAA college basketball game in Stanford, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Sidelines
Open doors
While some Pac-12 coaches and players tried to shrug off not playing in front of fans last season by saying they were used to near-empty gyms in travel-ball tournaments as young prospects, UCLA forward Johnny Juzang did pretty much the opposite Monday.
He had seen 13,659 fans show up back on Nov. 12 for UCLA’s win over Villanova. … and not seen fans of any sort at Pauley since a Dec. 1 game against Colorado. Including no fans at UCLA’s 84-81 loss to Oregon in overtime on Jan. 13.
But after the Bruins’ COVID delay of over three weeks, and a two-week ban on fans during the Omicron wave, UCLA announced Friday that fans would be allowed back to indoor events.
“We miss ‘em,” Juzang said. “It changes the whole energy. We love having their support, so that’s the biggest thing is having them back. Just having The Den (student section) and all the Bruin community back is, seriously, just huge. We were not happy not having fans.”
The Bruins could even wind up playing in front of a near-capacity or sold-out crowd. As of Monday afternoon, UCLA’s ticket map showed either no or limited availability in most sections.
“We’re all just excited,” UCLA forward Jaime Jaquez said. “It’ll be a great game, one for the books. We’ve got two great programs, UCLA and Arizona. I think it’s just going to be one of those games that people talk about for a while.”
‘Size matters’
Not long after UCLA coach Mick Cronin was hired in the spring of 2019, he ventured over to nearby Sierra Canyon School, which was littered with high-major prospects including a raw 7-foot Cameroonian native known as Christian Koloko.
That memory seems pretty distant now.
“With his development for two years under Sean (Miller) and now Tommy (Lloyd), he has become a pro prospect,” Cronin said. “And what I learned in my time was when I was very young and had full head of hair with coach (Bob) Huggins was size around the rim eliminates mistakes. We had it at Cincinnati a lot. I learned that quick.
“It matters. It matters. Size matters. Shot blocking matters. UConn did it with (coach) Jim Calhoun forever. I would say Koloko’s improvement since I saw him at Sierra Canyon to now really, really stands out to me.”
Banged up
If Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis gives it a shot Tuesday after improving over the weekend from a sprained ankle suffered Thursday at Stanford, he won’t be the only one having to shake off a little discomfort.
UA guard Justin Kier crunched his left wrist on Cal on Sunday, while Jaquez has been banged up overall for UCLA and Bruins guard Tyger Campbell has been playing with a sore thumb.
Campbell missed eight 3-pointers between games against Oregon State, Utah and Colorado before hitting a clutch 3 at Colorado, and he’s had two turnovers in each of the past two games. But he’s also a veteran in his third year as a full-time starter.
Wyoming guard Xavier DuSell (53) gets a handful of Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis (10) trying to defend his drive in the first half of the NCAA men's basketball game between the Arizona Wildcats and Wyoming Cowboys at McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz., December 8, 2021.
“I’d like Tyger to be 100% but I don’t know if anybody is at this point,” Cronin said. “I’m sure Arizona’s dealing with Tubelis’ ankle and (Kier) took a really hard fall for their team. Tyger took a hard fall at Utah. So everybody’s banged up a little bit. I don’t know where he whacked his thumb. But it’s not his first time dealing with it. So hopefully he’s feeling great on Tuesday night.”
Numbers game
2 — Years since Arizona played a Top-10 team on the road, since losing 74-73 at No. 9 Oregon in overtime on Jan. 9, 2020.
11 — UCLA players (out of 15) who were born, raised or attended high school in Southern California.
11 — Arizona’s rank in defensive block percentage, blocking opponents’ shots 16.0% of the time.
26 — UCLA’s rank in offensive block percentage, having its shots blocked just 6.5% of the time.
— Bruce Pascoe
