Arizona men's basketball scouting report: No. 5 UA at UCLA

No. 5 Arizona (23-6, 14-4) at UCLA (14-15, 9-9) | Pauley Pavilion; Los Angeles | 7:30 p.m. Thursday | ESPN | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

Probable starters

ARIZONA

G Kylan Boswell (6-2 soph.)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)

F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)

UCLA

G Dylan Andrews (6-2 soph.)

G Sebastian Mack (6-3 freshman)

F Lazar Stefanovic (6-7 junior)

F Brandon Williams (6-7 freshman)

C Adem Bona (6-10 sophomore)

How they match up

The last time: UCLA shot 58% in the first half while taking leads of up to 19 points before halftime on Jan. 20 at McKale Center, but the Wildcats flipped the script in the second half to pull out a 77-71 win. Arizona limited UCLA to just 34.4% shooting overall and 3 of 17 from 3 in the second half while the Wildcats shot 48.0% overall after halftime. Pelle Larsson had 22 points to lead UA in scoring while Oumar Ballo had 17 points and 13 rebounds.

The last time at Pauley Pavilion: Already with the Pac-12 title in hand, UCLA enjoyed an emotional Senior Night by beating Arizona 82-73 on March 4, 2023, the final day of the regular season. Arizona shot 47.4% but the Wildcats were outrebounded 38-32 and coughed up 17 turnovers that led to 16 UCLA points. Azuolas Tubelis led UA with 24 points and 10 rebounds while Jaime Jaquez led the Bruins with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Series history: Arizona has lost five straight games at Pauley Pavilion dating back to the 2018-19 season. The Wildcats trail UCLA 49-63 overall but have won five of the last six games since snapping a six-game losing streak at McKale Center in February 2022, counting wins in the past two Pac-12 Tournaments.

What’s new with the Bruins: Still recovering from the loss of its top five scorers off its Pac-12 champions last season, UCLA has struggled to stay in the top half of the conference this season. The Bruins rattled off six straight wins after losing at Arizona on Jan. 20 but have lost four straight since then, including home losses to Utah and USC plus road losses last weekend at Washington State and Washington.

Typical of a Cronin-coached team, though, UCLA can still wrangle opponents into a defensive struggle. They run the Pac-12’s slowest tempo and hold conference opponents to 49.4% from two-point range, the fifth-best two-point percentage defense in the Pac-12. They also rank third in conference play by blocking 10.8% of opponents’ shots.

But the Bruins are the fourth-worst team in conference play on the defensive glass, pulling in just 71.2% of opponents’ missed shots, and they struggle to shoot offensively. UCLA ranks last in overall field goal shooting during Pac-12 games at 41.4%; the Bruins are last in two-point percentage (45.2) and next to last in 3-point percentage at 33.0%. They anchor their offense around four main threats: Center Adem Bona, long wing Lazar Stefanovic, sturdy freshman guard Sebastian Mack, who had 21 points at McKale Center on Jan. 20, and sophomore point guard Dylan Andrews.

He said it: “It's UCLA-Arizona. I expect nothing but their best effort. We're gonna have to come with our best effort. They came in here to McKale and punched us in the mouth and we were fortunate to win. They're a really good team. They're very well coached. I think their young guys are getting more and more confident. I think they're playing with more confidence.

“Dylan Andrews has had back-to-back 20-point games on the road in the Pac 12. Sebastian Mack had 21 at our place, Stefanovic had 17 and Adem Bona is one of the most talented bigs in the country. They have other guys that fill roles.

“(At McKale) they made shots. You give them all the credit in the world because a couple of them were really contested. Stefanovic's first made 3s were really contested. So we just have to be dialed in. They’re more than capable of making shots.”

“They run different sets but they have four guys they rely on for scoring, 73% of their total points. Last year, Tyger and Jaime (Jaquez), Amari Bailey and David Singleton. This year, it's Adem Bona and it's Sebastian Mack, Dylan Andrews and Stefanovic.

"Brandon Williams is a good a freshman. Berke (Buyunktuncel) is a really good player. I feel like (Aday) Mara has played better. Offensively, he's really skilled. They are playing much better offensively than they were coming into our game the first time around.”

“Coach Cronin does a great job of controlling tempo, controlling the pace of the game, much like Washington State does. Obviously, we would love to get up and down to play fast. But sometimes with UCLA, you have to try and win ugly. Fortunately, we've won ugly at times and unfortunately, they've beaten us in those games as well. So we have to come ready to play.

“I'll never forget coach Cronin talking in his press conference last year when they beat us in L.A. They beat us in every hustle category. You have to win the glass, you have to win the turnover battle, you have to win second chance points. All that stuff matters.”

— UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Bruins

Key players

UCLA – Dylan Andrews

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The Bruins’ sophomore point guard continues to grow after stepping in fulltime for the departed Tyger Campbell this season. In Pac-12 games, he ranks sixth in assists (3.9) and fifth in assist-turnover ratio (2.1) while he’s an 85.0% shooter when he’s sent the free-throw line.

ARIZONA — Kylan Boswell

The sophomore point guard finished last season on a strong note in Los Angeles and the Wildcats will need steady playmaking from him in what could again be a battle of tempos. After a rougher patch during the middle of Pac-12 play, Boswell is coming off two straight double-digit scoring efforts while collecting six rebounds to two turnovers in UA’s past two games.

Sidelines

Family time

While Liam Lloyd is finishing up his senior season at NAU as a starter and the Lumberjacks’ fourth-leading scorer, dad hasn’t been able to see much of it.

Unlike last season, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, the Lumberjacks and Wildcats have often been playing a schedule that otherwise wouldn’t allow a quick visit.

But Lloyd and his family managed to escape Monday to watch Liam play in NAU’s Senior Night against Northern Colorado, with Lloyd asking Murphy to fill in for him on his weekly radio show that night.

“It was great to go up there and see Liam,” Tommy Lloyd said. “They've actually played a ton of games the same day as we did almost at the same time. So it was fun to see him and hang out with him for a little bit.”

Liam played his first two seasons at Grand Canyon and the past two at NAU, and, since he played during the 2020-21 COVID year as an Antelope freshman, he has his “COVID” year available if he chooses to play elsewhere next season.

That leaves open the possibility that Liam could join the Wildcats for a final season or play somewhere else, though Tommy Lloyd declined to say what he might do.

Walton out again

Pac-12 analyst Bill Walton wound up calling only one game at McKale Center this season — UA’s game with Colorado on Jan. 4 — and the Wildcats are also not seeing him much on the road as the season comes to a close.

Walton pulled out of Arizona’s Feb. 28 game at ASU because of an illness, and he is now no longer expected to work Thursday’s UA-UCLA game on ESPN. Former Wildcats have been lined up to replace him: Matt Muehlebach worked the ASU game while Richard Jefferson is now scheduled to work Thursday’s game at UCLA in place of Walton.

As of Wednesday, Walton and Dave Pasch were still on the schedule to work Saturday’s UA-USC game at the Galen Center.

World view

After fielding several questions about the struggles of his young team and whether he would want to see it stick together in the NIL/transfer portal era, UCLA coach Mick Cronin pivoted during a news conference Tuesday in Los Angeles.

“We'll see how that all goes,” Cronin said of the offseason ahead. “There's a lot of things that I personally would like to see. Like there's some terrible things going on in the world, but one in three African children are malnourished. Nobody ever talks about that. So I'd like to see a lot of stuff. We could have probably an interesting lunch and realize that I don't just watch film.”

Later in his news conference, Cronin acknowledged that he filed a complaint with the Pac-12 over a Flagrant 2 foul that resulted in the ejection of UCLA’s Will McClendon on Saturday at Washington State.

McClendon drew the penalty after his arm contacted Isaac Jones’ groin area, but Cronin said when Jones turned during a blind screen, that left McClendon's arm between his legs – and that Jones “flopped and acted like (McClendon) punched him.”

Cronin said he had video evidence of the play, but his appeal to the Pac-12 appeared to go nowhere.

“I was told I was wrong on that play,” Cronin said. “If I was wrong on that play, I’ll donate my salary to the African UNICEF children’s fund.”

Numbers game

1: Point Pelle Larsson needs to becom the 55th player in Arizona history to score 1,000 points as a Wildcat.

9.1: Percentage of shots taken by UCLA opponents that are blocked by Adem Bona when he’s on the floor, the 31st best block percentage nationally. Bona is also tied with USC’s Joshua Morgan for the Pac-12 lead in blocks per game (2.1).

67.7: Average points scored by UCLA’s Pac-12 opponents, the lowest allowed by any conference team.

— Bruce Pascoe

Photos: Arizona Wildcats defeat UCLA 77-71 in Tucson, Pac 12 basketball

Photos: Arizona takes down Washington 91-75, Pac 12 basketball