Vilardo: Week 12 Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Stat Notes

Statistical notes on the season as a whole and on upcoming games

Posted on February 11, 2021


  By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports

Last week Evan Mobley was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week in addition to being named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. Mobley averaged a double-double for the week with 16.0 points and 10.0 rebounds to go along with 3.0 blocked shots as USC earned a pair of wins over Stanford and UCLA.

E. Mobley

It marked the fifth time the Trojan has taken the Conference’s Freshman honor, the most ever by a player since the award was created last season. The only prior time a player has won both awards in the same week was USC’s Onyeka Okongwu, who did so for USC in November 2019.

Mobley has recorded a Pac-12-best eight double-doubles this season, tied for the 14th-most in the nation and the second-most of any first-year player in the country.

Arizona has made 342 free-throws this season, the second-most in the nation. Not surprisingly, the Wildcats are getting fouled on 28.6% of possessions this season, the 13th-highest rate nationally.

Stanford has made the seventh most FTs this season with 318 and have been fouled on 27.5% of possessions, tied for the 37th-most in the country.

usc logoUSC has attempted 415 FTs on the season, the 19th-most while getting fouled at a rate of 28.2%–21st-most. The Trojans have only connected on 272 of those attempts. The 65.54% the Trojans are shooting from the stripe is 298th in the country. USC is missing a Pac-12 high 7.94 FTs per game—330th in the nation.

The Trojans have been incredibly good this season, imagine how much better they could have been if they had not been giving away almost eight points per game at the stripe.

On the other end of the spectrum is Colorado who is missing just 2.95 FTs per game, the third-best mark in the nation. Below you can see every Pac-12 teams FTs missed per game and where is ranks nationally


Free Throws Missed per Game with National Rank

FTs Missed PGNational Rank
1Colorado2.953
2Utah3.816
3Washington4.2949
4Oregon4.92111
5OSU5118
6UCLA5.29165
7Cal5.71221
8ASU6.14250
9Stanford6.26263
10WSU6.47275
11Arizona6.89298
12USC7.94330

McKinley Wright IV Watch
Wright IV

McKinley Wright has scored 1,660 points in his career to go along with 614 assists and 589 rebounds, becoming one of just three Pac-12 players to reach 1,500 points, 500 assists and 500 rebounds. (Ron Lee-Oregon 1972-76 and Peyton Pritchard- Oregon are the other two.)

With 11 rebounds, Wright will become the first Pac-12 player ever to reach 1,600, 600 and 600 in those categories. (Andre Miller did reach those marks during his career at Utah, but obviously well prior to the Utes joining the Pac-12).

Wright would be just the 10th player in D1 with those figures since the 1985-86 season. Additionally, Wright has a 3.1-1 assist to turnover ratio in his last 16 games.


A look at this Week’s Matchups

Mountain Schools head to Northern California

California came back for a nine-point win in the first meeting between the teams in Salt Lake City in January. That was the last game the Bears won as they are in the middle of a six-game losing skid. The win was the second in a row for Cal in the series.

The Utes have won nine of the last 14 meetings between the two teams. The Golden Bears are 4-3 vs the Utes in Haas Pavilion since Utah joined the Pac-12.

Utah has gone 3-1 in their four games since playing Cal, and the Utes have won four of five going back to a 79-65 winner over Stanford in the January meeting. It was the fifth time the Utes have beaten the Cardinal in their last six meetings.

Stanford is 6-1 however in their last seven matchups in Maples Pavilion.

The 14-point win for Utah in the Huntsman Center was the largest margin for either team in the series since 2017-18. Including the January game, just 8.5 points per game have separated the last four between the teams.

Colorado has won 11 of the last 14 over Stanford, including a win in Boulder in January. Since joining the Pac-12, the Buffs have gone 11-5 in 16 games vs. the Cardinal. The Buffaloes are 4-3 in Palo Alto as a Pac-12 member. The last eight games have been won by an average of 11.4 points per game with four of them being double-digit margins.

The Buffaloes earned a 29-point win over Cal in Boulder this season, and own a 6-1 record in their last seven games vs. Cal. The Golden Bears, however, have won six of seven meetings in Berkeley since Colorado became a Pac-12 member. Colorado has left the Northern California road trip with a sweep on just one occasion, the 2018-19 season—which included their only win in Haas.


Oregon and Oregon State make the Desert Trip

Oregon State split its home games with Arizona and Arizona State in January. Arizona dominated the Beavers 98-64, but OSU rebounded with an 80-79 win over ASU. The games Oregon was set to host that weekend were cancelled.

Oregon State’s one-point win over the Sun Devils was its first in the series since 2017-18. ASU has won four of five over OSU and 11 in a row in the series in Tempe. The Beavers have lost 16 consecutive Pac-12 games in the state of Arizona.

Arizona has won 67 of 90 all-time meetings with Oregon State. The Wildcats have gone 36-6 in 42 all-time meetings with OSU in Tucson. The Beavers have one win in Tucson since 1983, a 63-55 triumph in 2010. The Wildcats are 16-3 in their last 19 games against the Beavers.

Oregon has won five in a row over Arizona, including the last two trips to McKale Center. Three of the last five between the Ducks and Wildcats have needed overtime to decide the outcome, including each of the last two. Oregon picked up a 73-47 win in Eugene in 2019; taking that out of the mix, the other four games in the last five have been decided by a total of 12 points.

The Ducks have won three of their last four over Arizona State. The Sun Devils have taken the last two in the series that have been played in Tempe. Oregon has left the Desert with a sweep twice since the 2011-12 season. Accomplishing the feat that year as well as 2015-16.

UCLA is the only other team that can claim more than one sweep during that period. It has only been done eight times total during that period—but twice this season, as we pointed out last week.


Southern California Teams visit Washington

USC enters the weekend having won 10 of their last 11. Included in those 10 wins were a sweep over the Washington schools in Los Angeles, in which the Trojans averaged 90 points in the two games.

USC’s win over Washington was its second straight in the series, but the Huskies have taken four of the last six between the teams. USC has not won in Seattle since 2016-17.

The Trojans are getting 34.6% of offensive rebounds this season, 11th-best in the nation. The Huskies are allowing opponents to grab 35.3% of offensive rebounds, 355th out of 357 D1 teams to have played. Look for USC to get some put backs in this one.

USC has won nine in a row over Washington State and have left Pullman with a victory in their last five trips. The Trojans are averaging 82.9 points per game during the nine-game win streak over the Cougars.

UCLA also got the home court sweep over the Huskies and Cougars, putting up 81 against Washington and 91 en route to a 30-point win over WSU. The Bruins have won eight of their last 10 over the Cougs.

Since the 2012-13 season, Washington State is 4-2 at home vs. UCLA. The Bruins have taken six of the last seven over Washington. The Bruins have flipped the switch in Seattle, going 4-2 vs. UW in Alaska Airlines Arena since the 2012-13 season.

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