Pac-12 champion Arizona's Saturday matchup at USC 'will test our maturity"

LOS ANGELES — After they finished dousing coach Tommy Lloyd with water, joining Richard Jefferson for a "Bad Boy 4 Life" singalong, putting on Pac-12 championship hats and updating their Instagram stories with celebratory graphics, the Arizona Wildcats retreated to their Santa Monica hotel rooms Thursday to get some sleep.

When they woke up, it was Friday. Same as every other Friday during the Pac-12 season.

Breakfast, films, practice and urgency, all rolled together, with another game almost right in front of them on Saturday. Against an opponent that was picked to finish second in the Pac-12, an opponent that lost by 15 points at McKale Center but now with the two top scorers who missed that game.

USC will be waiting for the Wildcats.

Thursday is over. At least, Lloyd hopes it is.

“Definitely, it will test our maturity on Saturday,” Lloyd said Thursday outside the Pauley Pavilion visitor’s locker room, wearing a dry, green replacement shirt after UA’s 88-65 win at UCLA. “But I think we’ve got a mature group with some winners. I expect them to come out and respond on Saturday.”

While the No. 5-ranked Wildcats (24-6, 15-4) did get a chance to sleep in, that’s also true after pretty much any Thursday night game. The rest of the day was routine as well, the way assistant coach Steve Robinson described it Friday.

“We didn’t do anything different than anytime we play on a road trip,” said Robinson, who has provided UA’s internal scouting reports on USC this season. “It just so happens that you throw in the fact that we clinched the conference championship. But it’s back to business. It’s the same routine.”

Maybe it is. While the Wildcats’ official social media accounts continued to trumpet the team’s accomplishment Friday, posting video to X (Twitter) of Jefferson joining their postgame celebration after calling the game for ESPN, UA players were pretty much off that stuff by then.

“We know the job's not done,” forward Keshad Johnson said while standing alongside guard Caleb Love during UA’s postgame player interviews. “We had a little celebration. We still got work to do on the back end going into USC.”

Not only are those the kinds of words Lloyd is probably happy to hear, there was also the way Love’s game spoke volumes on Thursday.

Heading into the week with a possible need to brush up his résumé for the Pac-12 Player of the Year award, Love took just two shots over the first 15 minutes of the game, missing both, before rattling off 12 points before halftime.

“I think I rushed my first two shots, and then I just had to settle into the game and take what the defense was giving me,” Love said. “Keshad was telling me just settle into the game and I just trusted my work.”

Lloyd was glad to see it.

“Caleb showed some real patience,” Lloyd said. “I mean, when you're one of the better players in the league, with a chance to be the league MVP, and you come out the first year in L.A. … For him to settle into the game the way he did and find a way to get good numbers is a huge sign of maturity. He's a heck of a player. He's a winner.”

While Love kept somewhat active on social media Friday, he was merely retweeting support for teammate Jaden Bradley’s sixth-man award candidacy and, when reposting UA’s graphic celebrating its Pac-12 title, adding a simple fraction.

Love said: “1/3.”

As in regular season title and, maybe, also a conference tournament title and an NCAA Tournament title. The “steps,” as Lloyd called them earlier this week.

The Wildcats don’t need to win Saturday anymore to get that first step, the conference title, but they might need it to keep on track for a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed, which can pave an easier path to that final step.

Not that Lloyd wanted to go there, anyway.

“I'm not worried about that,” Lloyd said. “If we’re a one seed, we’re a one seed. If we're a two seed, we’re a two seed, a three seed. Whatever, we’ll play another team that's good, that qualified for the NCAA tournament.

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“Don't get me off topic. You know that. We’ve got ’SC Saturday, and then we're going to the Pac-12 Tournament. I don't know who we play yet. So we're going to lock in on those two things and continue to build.”

The full Pac-12 Tournament schedule

(All games at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas; All times MST/PDT; (The top four seeds, plus No. 12 OSU, have been locked in as of Friday)

Wednesday, March 13

• No. 8 seed vs No. 9 seed, noon (Pac-12 Networks)

• No. 5 seed vs. No. 12 Oregon State, 2:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)

• No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed, 6 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)

• No. 6 seed vs. No. 11 seed, 8:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)

Thursday, March 14

• No. 1 Arizona vs. 8/9 winner, noon (Pac-12 Networks)

• No. 4 Oregon vs 5/12 winner, 2:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)

• No. 2 Washington State vs 7/10 winner, 6 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)

• No. 3 Colorado vs. 6/11 winner, 8:30 p.m. (FS1)

Friday, March 15

• 1/8/9 vs 4/5/12 winner, 5 p.m. (Pac-12 Networks)

• 2/7/10 vs. 3/6/11 winner, 7:30 p.m. (FS1)

Saturday, March 16

• Championship game, 6 p.m. (Fox)

Photos: No. 5 Arizona defeats UCLA 88-65 to clinch 2024 Pac-12 regular-season men's hoops crown