- Stanford’s Dwight Powell and his teammates embarked on a somber road trip earlier in the year. In September, Powell’s mother, Jacqueline Weir, passed away from cancer. However, Powell’s teammates wouldn’t let him mourn the loss of his mother by himself. The NCAA allowed Stanford to fly players in Powell’s recruiting class to Canada to be at the memorial for his mother. Powell has said that everything he does this season has been and will be a tribute to his mother. However Powell plays this season, he deserves enormous credit for handling this situation so well and playing through it.
- The Arizona Wildcats have been the class of the Pac-12 this season and are currently 7-0, but if they want to find success against Florida on Saturday and later this year, their big men are going to have to be more consistent. After Brandon Ashley’s 20 point, 10 rebound performance against Long Beach State, he followed it up with a two-point game against Northern Arizona. Kaleb Tarczewski has been a factor in every game, but hasn’t surpassed 10 points this season and Grant Jerrett followed up his 11-point performance at Texas Tech with zero points against Southern Miss. As far as the backcourt goes, Mark Lyons will need to clean up his turnover issues as the season goes on. On the season, Lyons has 18 assists and 19 turnovers, and although Lyons isn’t what you would call a typical point guard, he is the leader of this Arizona team and will have to improve in that area.
- Oregon’s Arsalan Kazemi has made the transition from Rice to his new team very well so far this season. Kazemi is impacting the Ducks by scoring 9.3 points per game, but he also has made an impact defensively as he leads Oregon with 9.3 rebounds and 3.4 steals per game as well. He has been the hustle guy so far this season for Dana Altman and he couldn’t be more pleased with Kazemi’s work all over the floor. Just like Kazemi, Oregon has been a surprise this year in the Pac-12 by going 8-1 and upsetting UNLV in Las Vegas, and if Kazemi and the Ducks can continue this play, they look destined to become a force in the Pac-12.
- Arizona State’s lack of energy was a big factor in its loss Wednesday night against DePaul. Herb Sendek was not pleased with his team as they shot 42% from the free throw line and mentioned that they played with no intensity. Despite playing at home, the Sun Devils came out flat and weren’t able to get in a rhythm against the active Blue Demons defense. Although Arizona State lost that game, they are still 8-2 and should look much more energetic in their next game against Dartmouth this Saturday afternoon.
- After an uncomfortable start to the season for UCLA’s Kyle Anderson, he is now starting to come into his own at the power forward position. Anderson had intentions of coming to UCLA to play the point guard, but with Larry Drew II clearly and successfully taking that role, Anderson has spent most of his time playing at the four position. He has admitted playing that position hasn’t been easy for a player used to having the ball in his hands, but against Texas, Anderson finally started to make some more aggressive moves in the post. The precocious freshman still needs to develop consistency at the position, but Ben Howland believes that playing him there is the right decision and isn’t likely to change his mind anytime soon.