Arizona women's hoops at USC: Scouting report, women's collectives, earthquake before UCLA game

She said it

Arizona coach Adia Barnes on USC freshman phenom JuJu Watkins: “She’s a tall wing. She’s about 6-foot but she’s super-skilled so she’s a hard matchup because if you’re taller she’s going to go by you. She creates space really well; she shoots it well. (She) goes right a lot better than left but still can score every level. You know where she’s really dangerous right now (watching) a lot of film operating in the elbow. She’s really good at that, really good in transition. I think that (she) can create a shot at any time. That’s hard too. … She’s demands a lot of attention. But you got to do what you’ve got to do. We’re not going to go into the game like ‘Oh, we’re going to shut her down,’ because we’re actually not going to shut her down. But we want to slow her down and we don’t want to let her get cooking. We don’t want to give her 51 points and 17 of 19 from the free-throw line (like she did against Stanford). You have to not foul her and she’s just tough. I think putting bodies at her — making her uncomfortable, making her get rid of the ball, making other people play is going to be important.”

On the sidelines

Non-equality in collectives: Most schools have collectives that give money directly to football and men’s basketball players, but nothing for women’s sports or specifically women’s basketball. As these entities are not part of the university, there are not any federally mandated rules to govern them, like a Title IX. Therefore, collectives can just focus on the men athletes, if that’s how they choose to roll.

Arizona currently does not have a collective devoted to women’s sports. UA’s interim athletic director, Mike Candrea, said on Wednesday that there is some movement on that front.

While USC also doesn’t have an entity specifically for women’s sports, coach Lindsay Gottlieb said that the House of Victory collective is involved and has done events for her team.

“They are supportive of our players,” Gottlieb said. “I mean, shoot, as Caleb Williams heads to the NFL Draft, I think everyone would say the most recognizable athlete on our campus other than maybe Bronny (James) is JuJu (Watkins). “It’s what does your donors value? And you hope that they value women’s sports. That’s the place I want to be.”

Gottlieb went on to say that it’s a conversation that needs to happen — how female student-athletes are being supported.

For Gottlieb, it comes down to the fans who run and are invested in the collectives valuing women’s sports, their coaches and players as well as the university’s administration “either sanctioning these collectives or whatever the word is, approving of them (and) that they would have a perspective of valuing everybody (not just men’s sports).”

Earthquake: The 4.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Los Angeles on Friday afternoon had Pauley Pavilion swaying a bit when the Wildcats were at their shootaround. The quake’s epicenter was in Malibu, 20 miles from the UCLA campus. The Wildcats were fine, as was their visitor, former Notre Dame men’s basketball coach and ESPN analyst Digger Phelps. Phelps joined Arizona on the court to share words of wisdom.

Pac-12 standings: A snapshot of the conference standings heading after Sunday’s games offered some surprises.

Stanford is battling for the top spot, which definitely seems natural, but the rest might make you go ‘hmmm.’

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Colorado entered the day tied with Stanford at 10-2 in league play but fell a game behind the Cardinal after losing at home to Oregon State. Stanford is alone in first after winning at Washington State.

Oregon State, at 9-3, holds down the third spot, with UCLA in fourth at 8-4, a half-game ahead of USC (7-4) and Utah (8-5).

Cal (5-8) and Arizona (4-7) are tied for seventh, a half-game ahead of WSU (4-8). Washington (3-9) is in 10th place.

Oregon and ASU are at the bottom with 2-10 records after both lost Sunday.

With the first reveal of the NCAA’s Top 16 teams (if the tournament were held today, which teams would host) ahead of Thursday’s South Carolina-Tennessee game at 6:30 p.m., possibly five Pac-12 teams are in line to play at home for the first two rounds: No. 4 Colorado, No. 6 Stanford, No. 9 UCLA, No. 10 USC and No. 17 Oregon State.

Big game: This Arizona-USC matchup is broadcast on ESPN2 Monday night with Beth Mowins and Deb Antonelli on the call. It is also USC’s pink game for breast cancer awareness, and the first 1,000 fans will receive a pink ‘Play for Kay’ Yow T-shirt.

By the numbers

2: With two steals against UCLA, Helena Pueyo has now moved into second place on UA’s career steals list with 268. Along the way, Pueyo has passed Aari McDonald, Barnes and Sam Thomas. She needs 37 more steals to claim the top spot over Dee Dee Wheeler (304).

90: Arizona shot 90% (18 of 20) from the line against UCLA, the third time this season it has hit the 90% mark.

6: Pueyo has won the Go Beyond award six times — more than any other Wildcat — for winning plays in practice and games. The prize is wearing the gold jersey in practice the following week. Courtney Blakely sits in second place, winning it four times.

5.6: USC averages 5.6 blocks per game led by Rayah Marshall (2.0 per game) who has 36 this season and Watkins (1.6), who has 31.

— PJ Brown