Pac-12 Men's Basketball 

Stephen Vilardo’s Week 11 Men’s Hoops Stat Previews

, 8 min read
Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis goes up for a shot against Utah last week | Christopher Hook/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Posted on January 17, 2022


  By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports
Washington has won three of their last four games played following a home-court sweep of Cal and Stanford last week.

Pac-12On the season, the Huskies are turning opponents over on 24.2 percent of possessions, the 13th-best rate in the nation, and the best mark in the Pac-12.

The next-closest Conference team to them is Washington State, which ranks 82nd with a rate of 20.1 percent.

Against Stanford, the Huskies saw a turnover on 30.4% of Cardinal possessions. That amounted to 21 turnovers and 29 Washington points off them.

In sweeping the two Northern California schools, the Huskies forced 38 turnovers resulting in 47 points. In their three conference wins, Washington is scoring 23.0 points per game off 19.0 forced turnovers per game.

Terrell Brown Jr. had four steals against Stanford and totaled six in the two games last week. He now has 41 on the season in 15 games, almost doubling his output of 24 in 26 games for Arizona last season.

Brown currently is eighth in the nation with 1.864 steals per foul committed. The next closest Pac-12 player on that list is ASU’s Luther Muhammad, who is 78th at 1.20. Brown has played 528 minutes this season compared to 293 for Muhammad.

Oregon collected three wins in five days last week while running their win streak to five games. Included in last week’s wins was a historic road sweep against back-to-back Top 5 opponents in UCLA and USC.

It is the first time Oregon has ever beaten a pair of Top 5 opponents in consecutive games, and in doing so, Oregon became the first Pac-12 team ever to sweep a conference road trip against two Top 10 ranked teams.

Nationally, the Ducks are the first team since Clemson in January of 1976 with two wins over Top 5 teams on the road in consecutive games.

Prior to the wins at UCLA and USC last week, the Ducks had just one win ever over a Top 5 opponent on the road, at No. 5 UCLA in February 1976.

The third Top 10 team from the Pac-12 had no issues in the past week with a sweep of Utah and Colorado at McKale Center.

Arizona dispatched the mountain schools to run their record to 14-1 and their conference mark to 4-0.

The Wildcats lead the nation in assist rate at 67.4 percent. Over the last three games, UA has been even better assisting on 75.8 percent of field goals made.

In their two games last week, the Wildcats recorded 44 assists on 62 made field goals. Against the Utes, their 24 assists were spread among seven players. The distribution has been a theme all season.

Arizona leads the nation with 21.9 assists per game. Kerr Kriisa is their individual leader with 5.4 assists per game, 28th in the nation, but he is one of four Wildcats averaging at least two assists per game.

Next Sunday, Arizona will play at a Cal team that is seeing opponents assist on just 40.8 percent of field goals made, the best mark in the Pac-12 and 17th in the nation.

Here’s a look at this week’s scheduled matchups.

USC and UCLA head to the Mountains
Colorado has won seven in a row over USC. Last year the Buffs won by 18 in Boulder along with a 10-point win in Los Angeles and a two-point win in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.

Since the Buffaloes joined the Pac-12, CU holds a 14-4 edge with a 6-2 advantage in Boulder.

The series has been one of streaks since the teams became conference opponents. Colorado took the first seven meetings, followed by a four-game win streak for the Trojans, which preceded the current seven-game streak for the Buffs.

Colorado has not had the same amount of success against UCLA. The Bruins have won 11 of the 17 meetings as Pac-12 opponents, and hold a 15-7 edge all-time.

UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., Johnny Juzang & Peyton Watson | Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire

The Bruins have come away with a win in four of the last five meetings. Last season, the teams split the two meetings with the home team winning both games.

The earlier meeting this season was a 12-point UCLA win in Pauley Pavilion in December. The Bruins had a 23-9 edge in points off turnovers that night as they raced out to a 39-23 halftime lead.

UCLA and Utah have only met as conference opponents with the Bruins holding a 9-6 edge having won each of the last four meetings.

Last season, it was a two-point Bruin win in Los Angeles and a 15-point win in the Huntsman Center. UCLA has won the last four meetings by an average of 11.0 points per game.

Utah has an 11-8 record against USC. Last year the teams met three times with the home team winning the regular-season matchups and USC winning a double-overtime game in the Pac-12 Tournament.

The first meeting this season was a 93-73 Trojan win in the Galen Center. USC closed the first half on a 36-14 run to put the Utes away in that December game.

USC has only collected one win in seven trips to Salt Lake City, a 74-58 win in 2018. The Utes have won the last three times the schools have played in Utah.

The Pacific Northwest rivalries will be renewed in Oregon
Washington State is 7-2 in their last nine games against Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington.

In those seven wins, two have come against Oregon as the Cougars have taken the last two over the Ducks, including the win in Eugene last season. That win broke a nine-game win streak for Oregon over WSU at home.

Oregon has gone 18-5 against Washington State since the start of the 2009-10 season. That win a season ago was the Cougars’ first win in Matthew Knight Arena, with Noah Williams knocking down eight of 10 free throws.

Washington State followed up the three-point win over Oregon last season with a two-point loss to Oregon State in Corvallis. It marked the Cougars’ first loss to a Pacific Northwest team under head coach Kyle Smith after winning his first 14.

Oregon State has won the last six meetings between the teams in Gill Coliseum. The Beavers have gone 11-3 vs Washington State since February of 2013; WSU has won two of the last three, however.

OSU is 104-43 against WSU in Corvalis and 59-20 against the Cougs in Gill Coliseum.

OSU’s Gianni Hunt and Ethan Thompson | Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Oregon State won their lone matchup with Washington last season, 91-71 at home. The Beavers broke a three-game losing streak against the Huskies.

The 20-point OSU win was the largest for Oregon State over UW since the 1999-2000 season. Washington is 25-10 vs Oregon State since the start of the 2003-04 season.

The last 10 meetings between the squads have been much tighter, with each team winning five games apiece. The home team has gone 9-1 the last 10 times the teams have played each other on campus.

Oregon has won 11 of the last 12 over Washington and eight of the last nine meetings in Matthew Knight Arena.

Last season, the Ducks swept the Huskies with a three-point win in Seattle and a 12-point win in the last meeting in Eugene.

Will Richardson scored 19 points in the victory at home last season. All-time, Washington leads the series 190-120. During Oregon’s current five-game winning streak in the series, the average margin has been 9.2 points.

The Desert Schools Head to the Bay Area
Stanford won both meetings with Arizona last season and broke a 19-game losing streak to the Wildcats. Arizona is 25-6 in their last 31 games against Stanford.

The Wildcats have won 10 straight over the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion (last season the teams met in Tucson and Santa Cruz).

The last time the teams met was a 73-64 Stanford win in Tucson in which the Cardinal outscored the Wildcats 34-14 in the paint and ended the game on a 20-8 run.

Arizona State is 7-3 in their last 10 against Stanford. The teams have split the last four games played inside Maples Pavilion. Last year the Sun Devils took the lone matchup in Tempe by a 79-75 margin.

Stanford’s Brandon Angel| Young Kwak/Associated Press

The last time they played at Stanford was a 74-69 win for ASU as they have won three in a row. Six of the last nine games between the teams have been decided by single digits.

Arizona has won nine in a row over California and 13 of the last 14 meetings. The Wildcats have left Berkeley with a win in their last four trips to Haas.

Last year Arizona was a 71-50 winner in the only meeting of the season, played in Tucson. It was a 68-52 win for the Wildcats in February 2020 when the teams last met at Cal.

Arizona has an average margin of victory of 14.4 points during their current nine-game winning streak over the Bears.

Follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenVilardo and his organization @SERCenter.

Visit his website at sercstats.com.



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