1. After little more that just the news that Dominic Artis was out indefinitely, Oregon head coach Dana Altman shed a bit more light on the freshman point guard’s injury, putting the number of games that Artis will miss at “anywhere from three to five games.” But Altman isn’t overly concerned. Even without the talented freshman, he still wants his team to get up and down the court and he has complete trust in junior Jonathan Loyd and freshman Willie Moore to handle Artis’ duties in his absence. However, you can bet that the lack of Artis will make it that much more difficult for the Ducks to break their 37-year streak of not earning a sweep at the Bay Area schools, starting tonight at Stanford.
2. Carrick Felix has won so many Pac-12 Player of the Week awards this season that he’s starting to lose count. “Half the time, I don’t even know when I get the player-of-the-week award,” Bud Withers of The Seattle Times quotes Felix as saying. Given that he’s won it three times this year already (the most since Derrick Williams was a three-time winner in 2011), you can hardly blame the senior if it has become passé, because without a doubt, Felix has been a huge part of ASU’s vast improvement this season. After a couple years of relative mediocrity in Tempe, Felix is on pace to earn an easy berth on the all-Pac-12 teams, especially since, like, 35 people make the Pac-12 first team.
3. ESPN.com’s Dana O’Neil spent some time with UCLA’s Ben Howland last week and is apparently flabbergasted by the fact that the Bruins are enjoying some success despite playing a different brand of basketball than Howland became known for in his years at Pitt and his early years in Westwood. Howland told O’Neil that he’s enjoying coaching this team even if he is still trying to find some way to coax more defense out of his team. And, apparently, all the changes are making him a bit insane. Following the Arizona win, he brushed off questions about the team’s youth, claiming “our young guys aren’t freshmen anymore… They’re playing like veterans.” But then after laying an egg at Arizona State, he fell back on the team’s inexperience as something of an excuse, saying “they’re all learning for the first time.”
4. A couple other random bits of news from the UCLA program. First, the Bruins will be unveiling their all-new all-blue basketball uniforms against USC tonight in front of a “blue-out” crowd. But perhaps more importantly, they might be doing so with only six players in the rotation. Travis Wear still hasn’t been cleared for participation following a concussion suffered last Thursday, and now Shabazz Muhammad is potentially out while struggling with the flu. Some of his teammates think Muhammad will play, although Howland isn’t too sure, while the smart money seems to be on Wear missing another game.
5. And while UCLA unveils their blue-out plans, Arizona head coach Sean Miller seems ready to retire the “white-out” game that the Wildcats have now lost in the past two seasons. Whether he said that in jest or in reality, it matters not (he backed off his initial comments later in the day, essentially saying, “we’ll see”) because Miller is more focused on the cause of the loss during the most recent white-out, not whatever color shirts his team’s fans were wearing. Still, Miller said he felt good about the UA home stand, taking pleasure in the fact that his team bounced back from the bad Thursday loss and played one of their best games in conference play Saturday in a blowout win over USC.

1. The biggest breaking news over the weekend came out of Eugene late Friday night when Bob Clark of the Register-Guard reported that Dominic Artis would be out indefinitely with a foot injury of undetermined severity. Oregon still managed to knock off Washington on Saturday evening (in the first sellout at Matthew Knight Arena in almost two years) with Artis watching from the bench in a walking boot. Junior Jonathan Loyd got the start and was solid, getting to the line 10 times in 31 minutes of action and scoring nine points, but he did turn the ball over five times to go along with his five assists. The other guy who earned some of the Artis’ minutes was freshman Willie Moore, who earned nine minutes, his most since before Christmas, but he too struggled with turnovers. With no timetable announced for Artis’ return, the Ducks will have to rely on those two to step up as they go to the Bay Area schools next week.
2. The other injury of note over the past week was to UCLA’s Travis Wear, whose concussion suffered in the first half against Arizona on Thursday night kept him out of Saturday’s visit to Arizona State. But, Travis Wear or no Travis Wear, the Bruins were going down hard on Saturday. They struggled with the Sun Devils’ athleticism, size and energy, but mostly, they just weren’t engaged in the game after Thursday night’s big win. ASU outhustled UCLA from the opening tip to the closing buzzer, with Jordan Bachynski, Carrick Felix and Evan Gordon having big games and Jahii Carson, despite struggling from the field, conducting a masterful performance at the point.
3. Last night in front of a sparse crowd limited by blizzard conditions in Salt Lake City, Stanford’s offense got back on track in a big way against Utah, scoring 46 first-half points, 87 points for the game, and looking for the first time in a long time like the explosive team that ran to last year’s NIT title. On the Utah side of the court, sophomore transfer Dallin Bachynski did not suit up for the game and his future at the school is in doubt. After getting double-figure minutes in his first 12 games as a Ute, he hasn’t seen anywhere near that run in Pac-12 play and has lost his starting job to senior Jason Washburn. Bachynski met with head coach Larry Krystkowiak on Friday to discuss his future with the program, and while there are no immediate answers as to his long-term status, the fact that he did still sit on the bench with the team (although he didn’t dress out), indicates that he isn’t going away permanently quite yet.
4. Arizona bounced back from its disappointing loss on Thursday by jumping out to a commanding early lead against USC and never looking back. The Wildcats held USC to nine points on its first 23 possessions, forcing seven turnovers and 2-of-19 shooting. Aside from the crispness with which the ‘Cats played, another aspect of the game that pleased head coach Sean Miller was the fact that it gave him a chance to extend his bench and find some minutes for guys like Angelo Chol and Gabe York. After playing in the first 14 games of the year, Chol has slid back to take the ninth-man spot in an eight-man rotation, but he played with energy in his eight minutes against the Trojans, grabbing a couple boards and blocking a shot. York, a high-flying freshman, has now played in nine games this year, but the USC game was his first appearance in Pac-12 play and he followed Miller’s advice by being very aggressive in looking for his shot. York played eight minutes and yet found room for five three-point attempts, knocking down a couple. Miller has talked with both guys about their playing time and has come away impressed with their maturity even when the minutes haven’t been there.
5. Colorado took it to California on Sunday and did so without the services of Andre Roberson for much of the first half. Despite losing the nation’s leading rebounder to foul trouble, the Buffs rode some hot shooting to a 34-18 halftime lead and never looked back. After the game, Cal head coach Mike Montgomery had plenty of questions about his team, including whether the team even thought it could win the game and what type of mindset it now has. With conference leader Oregon due in Haas Pavilion next weekend and any distant hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament receding into the sunset, the Bears need to get it together, and quick. One good bit of news: senior guard Brandon Smith returned to action this weekend after six games lost due to the effects of a concussion.

From the moment it was first rumored, the relocation of the conference tournament to Las Vegas has created quite a buzz among Pac-12 basketball fans. Adam Butler (@pachoopsAB) of PacHoops will be here every week as he offers his unique perspective along our March to Vegas.

When a bell is rung, the door is to be answered. Whatever that means, UCLA responded to every single effort Arizona had in response to the Bruins’ shellacking. From the opening tip, Ben Howland’s team played as if they knew they were there to win. And then they did. Because sometimes winning is about as simple as knowing you will. Leading into such a bout, certainly from an Arizona fan’s perspective, the buzz wasn’t quite there. UCLA appeared to be a middling program with little to look forward to on the heels of a home loss. That is not how they presented themselves in Tucson.

Jordan Adams And Shabazz Muhammad Were More Than Ready For Thursday Night’s Game (Gary A. Vasquez, USA Today Sports)

While Arizona’s season will not be defined by this game, it may serve as the contrarian point to any forthcoming ego inflation allotted by a winning streak. The Wildcats, despite Thursday’s effort, are still a good team. They have room for improvement and will, if they want to fulfill the hype, do such. But to dwell on Arizona and its effort or lack thereof, would be a disservice to UCLA, Howland, and the work they collectively did. Shabazz Muhammad, earlier this week, said he would take it upon himself to win this game. You know what he subsequently did? He won that game with 23 points on 50% shooting. That’s what one does when they take victory upon themselves. When winning is not self-mandated? Your effort looks something in the realm of 6-of-17, zero assists, and five turnovers. That was Mark Lyons’ night, which was his worst as a Wildcat. Bigger picture, 10 assists in comparison to 14 turnovers as a team is not indicative of a group looking to collectively beat an opponent.

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UCLA showed a resolve in Tucson last night that not many could have foreseen from this squad a month ago. Here are three thoughts about the outcome, with the Bruins beating Arizona going away to take over sole possession of second place in the Pac-12.

1. Thirty-three minutes, five turnovers, zero assists and a 41.2% eFG. There’s your point guard, Arizona fans. I’m not for a minute going to suggest that Mark Lyons was solely responsible for the Wildcats’ 11-point loss at home against UCLA – there’s more than enough blame to go around, beginning with the coaching staff and heading on down the line – but the events of Thursday night showcase in a microcosm the concerns that people have had about Lyons as the lead guard of a team with national championship hopes. Sure, he’s been nails down the stretch in more than a couple games this year (games where, perhaps not coincidentally, he again had more turnovers than assists), but time and again down the court last night, the Arizona offense was unfocused and undisciplined. They’ve got enough playmakers to keep things interesting against quality teams even in the absence of coherent point guard play, but for this team to max out its potential, Lyons either needs to improve his ability to create offense for the Wildcats, or Sean Miller needs to explore using either Solomon Hill or Nick Johnson to more regularly initiate the sets.
   

   While Mark Lyons Has Been Huge In Late-Game Scenarios For Arizona This Year, He Was A Liability Last Night (Jerry Pillarelli)

2. Repeatedly this season, when Ben Howland has been asked such things as “Why did Tony Parker only get three minutes tonight?” or “Are there any plans to get Parker more minutes?”, he has responded by saying that, to paraphrase, “there will come a game or two this season when, whether due to injury or to foul trouble, we’ll need Parker to give us some quality minutes off the bench.” Exhibit A came last night when, due to concussion-like symptoms exhibited by Travis Wear after taking an unintentional hit to the head in the first half, Parker earned the most minutes he’s had since the Prairie View A&M game in mid-December. He responded as Howland hoped he would, providing 10 rock-solid minutes, scoring six points, grabbing three boards, blocking a shot, playing good post defense and even knocking down some clutch free throws and an interesting fall-away jumper. While saying that UCLA would not have won without Parker is taking it too far, that game would certainly have been much tighter down the stretch in his absence. The freshman has most certainly earned enough trust from his coach to see a bit of a bump in minutes going forward. While on the topic, give credit to David Wear for stepping in for his fallen brother and scrapping his way to his best game of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

While this may not be the first of two that will decide the conference race as we postulated in the preseason, tonight we are still looking forward to our first UCLA/Arizona game of the year, with a pair of highly-touted freshman classes — not to mention host of talented veterans — clashing for the first time. And, we can barely contain our excitement. So, let’s get right to the point.

“Arizona/UCLA, Part I tips off Thursday night. Who’s going to win, and why?”

Adam Butler: Arizona and UCLA has been the premier rivalry on the West Coast for the better part of three decades now. I love the statistic that between 1984 and 2008, 19 of 30 conference championship banners hung in McKale or Pauley. That’s impressive. And then it’s also very well-documented how each of these programs has faltered recently. But it would appear they are now back(ish). Arizona is undoubtedly on the up-and-up and is poised to be around for a long time. UCLA is a team with parts that scare Frank Haith almost as much as the NCAA. ESPN cast this match-up for a Gameday appearance before the season even started and will be in attendance when the Wildcats head to Pauley in March (as will I). So when the Bruins and Wildcats tip in Tucson Thursday night, there will be no shortage of storylines or intrigue. The question will center on whether the Bruins’ short bench can hang with Arizona’s depth? Can Travis Wear continue to shoot at the level he’s been connecting on in conference play (59%)? Is Jordan Adams showing us who Jordan Adams really is or just slumping? Per usual, Arizona is going to force a lot of threes and deep jumpers. But UCLA has shot well and often from this distance. They take 48% of their shots in the form of two-point jumpers and make them at a 43% clip, 12th and fifth by national ranking, respectively. Could that haunt the Wildcats? I ultimately think Arizona has too many weapons for the Bruins to combat. Mark Lyons will be able to expose Drew2 and there are too many dynamic athletes defensively, for Arizona to not slow Travis Wear. The grand equalizer, as it always has been against the Wildcats, is the three-pointer. But considering a raucous McKale and the Bruins’ general mediocrity in hitting that shot (35%), I’m picking Sean Miller to beat UCLA for the sixth time in his nine tries.

The McKale Will Be Jumping Thursday Night, Providing Yet Another Boost For The Wildcats (Willy Low, AP Photo)

Connor Pelton: Arizona will win this one because of two reasons. Most importantly, while the Wildcats are a turnover-prone team, they take care of the ball in big games. Only 10 turnovers against Florida, eight against San Diego State, and nine against Arizona State keyed huge wins for Zona, and the increased production also resulted in bigger scoring outputs from primary ball-handler Mark Lyons. With the number of play-makers on the UCLA side, giving the Bruins too many extra possessions will be costly. Not as important but still a big factor for a possible UA win is the McKale effect. UCLA hasn’t won in Tucson since the 2007-08 season, and the Wildcats haven’t dropped a game there all year. It’ll be the annual White-Out game, which traditionally brings the biggest crowd of the season, and as Florida, Colorado, and Utah proved, you don’t want to have to operate your offense late with the Zona Zoo rattling your brain. Give me the Wildcats in a close one.

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1. Kyle Anderson might not be the most talented freshman on the UCLA Bruins, but he’s arguably been the most important for Ben Howland this year. Although he was originally projected to play point guard, his ability to play seemingly every position has been a major key to UCLA’s success this year. He’s been very successful on the glass so far in leading the Bruins with 9.1 rebounds per game. Since he has assumed the role of power forward he hasn’t had a game where he’s had fewer than five rebounds, which is great considering the other starting big man, Travis Wear, is only averaging 5.9 rebounds per game. More importantly, Anderson has had nine or more rebounds in a game 10 times this year. Anderson doesn’t bring the same scoring punch as Shabazz Muhammad or Jordan Adams, but he’s providing a necessity for Ben Howland and might just be the most important player come March if UCLA wants to make a national title run.
2. Oregon is now the only undefeated team in the Pac-12 and Dana Altman believes that his team is very different from how it looked at beginning of the season. There is now a flow in practice and the Ducks are clicking on their way to a seven-game winning streak. They’re also rising in the polls by coming at #16 in the AP Top 25 this week. Altman is keeping his team in check and they all know that there are a lot of games left in the conference season, but all starters are averaging double figures in points and the bench has been excellent, fueled by good post play from the 6’11” Waverly Austin and hustle play from guard Johnathan Loyd. It’s hard to find a flaw with this team right now and that’s not good news for the rest of the Pac-12.
3. Sean Miller is all about being direct. Miller preaches the truth and is a no-nonsense guy. His postgame speech after the Wildcats’ victory over Arizona State on Saturday was just plain honest. A notable quote from the talk to his team: “Wow, is it this hard on the road? Yes, but it’s also that rewarding.” It wasn’t a long speech not even topping two-and-a-half minutes, but it was engaging and got the point across. Miller doesn’t waste time and you can see his team is always motivated to play and it’s in certainly in part because of how well he communicates with his players.
4. Larry Krystkowiak was very pleased after Utah’s win over Washington this weekend, as the Utes picked up their first-ever road conference win in the Pac-12 and first win overall in the conference season. During practice, Krystkowiak has been stressing urgency. The Utes have been playing every possession as if it is “game point” no matter if the team is on offense or defense, and that urgency was evident as Utah sparked out to a 12-2 lead early in its game against Washington. There is certainly a positive vibe surrounding this squad now, but they cannot let this win distract them with Cal and Stanford coming to Salt Lake City to play on Thursday and Sunday, respectively.
5. Although Craig Robinson’s Oregon State team has struggled this year once again, now last in the Pac-12 at 0-5, at least off the court Robinson is still enjoying himself. Robinson was at President Barack Obama’s inauguration yesterday and was caught at one point photo-bombing his famous brother-in-law. It might not have been intentional, but at least Robinson is making news that happens to not be about the Beavers’ poor play.

1. With all of the Pac-12 microsite correspondents in the middle of battling hellacious flu-like symptoms, we’ve taken some time out over the past few days to have our headquarters fumigated. But, as a new week dawns, we’re grateful that we’ve had some good basketball to distract us from our discomfort and look forward to a week of feeling better and another batch of interesting games. Week two of the Pac-12 season ended Sunday night with Oregon holding off Arizona State in yet another entertaining ball game, with the battle between freshmen point guards Dominic Artis and Jahii Carson headlining. The Ducks vault to 4-0 and a first-place tie with UCLA (with the two teams set to square off on national television Saturday afternoon), but even Sun Devil fans should come out of this game with confidence in their team’s viability in the Pac-12 race.
2. While folks around these parts have known that the Ducks are legit for some time now, the national audience got a heads up about their credentials on Thursday night when they knocked off previously unbeaten Arizona. The Wildcats bounced back strong on Saturday evening by sending Oregon State off to an 0-3 conference start with a full-team effort. While Sean Miller was loathe to single out one player for recognition, I’ll just mention that this was the first conference game in which the three freshman bigs all played well; Brandon Ashley, Kaleb Tarczewski and Grant Jerrett combined for 25 points, 17 boards and six blocked shots (well, Jerrett got all of those) on ten-for-16 shooting in 64 minutes of action. Really, that’s about the baseline for that trio ; the ceiling is still to be determined.
3. Meanwhile, the other traditional Pac-12 heavyweight is getting back to throwing its weight around, as UCLA went on a Rocky Mountain run this weekend and rolled back into LAX with a 4-0 conference record and a nine-game winning streak to show for its troubles. Jeff Goodman writes that where the Bruins were a punchline on Thanksgiving Sunday night, they’re now a team that has the attention of their conference foes and are beginning to remind people why they were considered a potential top ten team prior to the season.
4. Meanwhile, the Bruins’ last foe, Colorado, has some soul searching to do, after their third loss in four games leaves them looking up from the back half of the conference standings. While there is some solace to take in the fact that the team fought back from a late deficit to give itself a chance on Saturday, Tad Boyle knows that if things are going to get turned around in Boulder, it needs to start with defense and rebounding, two areas that were once thought to be potential strengths for the Buffaloes which have been weaknesses of late.
5. Lastly, circling back to the 0-3 Beavers, they played their two games against the Arizona schools this week without the services of sophomore forward Eric Moreland, who was suspended indefinitely, along with freshman Victor Robbins, prior to Thursday night’s game against Arizona State for an undisclosed violation of team rules. While Robbins will be cleared for action by head coach Craig Robinson for Saturday’s game against USC (not that Robbins, who has played just 63 minutes this season, is expected to play a big role), the head coach is said he will decide Moreland’s fate today. Moreland is expected back with the Beavs this season and, according to Robinson, both players have responded to the situation “about as good as you can.”

Bennet Hayes is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @HoopsTraveler on Twitter. Night Line runs on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s games.

March may still be well in the distance and conference play just beginning, but the Arizona Wildcats have already crafted a season’s worth of last-minute escapes. Early December saw Mark Lyons take over a game that was tied with seven minutes to play at Clemson. The Xavier transfer would provide more heroics a week later, as his runner with seven seconds left shocked Florida and erased a six-point, final-minute deficit. Then, in a back-and-forth Christmas Day affair, Nick Johnson delivered Wildcat fans a final Christmas gift when he blocked Chase Tapley’s layup attempt with only ticks remaining, giving Arizona the Diamond Head Classic title in yet another wild final minute.

But none of this drama compared to the scene at the McHale Center on Thursday night. Not only did Arizona need to erase a nine-point deficit in the final two minutes to ultimately win this one, but they also needed to find a bit of good fortune when referees went to the monitor to review Sabatino Chen’s apparent buzzer-beating winner. True to form, the Wildcats ended up on the right side of the bang-bang call, and then (in equally appropriate fashion), Lyons and company displayed the killer instinct that has become a trademark of this unbeaten run.

Mark Lyons Has Brought a Swagger To The Cats, And The Wins Have Followed

As is usually the case with teams using “imaginative” methods of winning, skeptics will point out that relying on late heroics is not a recipe for sustainability. On the other side of the ledger, Wildcat fans will rightly point out that their team is 13-0 and one of just four unbeaten teams left in the country, so they have to be doing something right. The question then becomes, how good is this Arizona team? The answer, also per usual, falls somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. Ultimately however, this is a talented, veteran Wildcat team, and the dramatic nature of their first 13 games should not be held against them.

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1. Ben Howland says conference play this year will be a dogfight. He’s certainly been right thus far as Arizona State/Utah went to overtime on Wednesday, Colorado/Arizona did the same last night, and USC/Stanford came down to the final seconds as well. Howland also mentioned how Shabazz Muhammad, despite coming into the season out of shape, has turned it around quickly and making a major impact. Muhammad followed up his 27-point performance against Missouri with a 16-point performance against Cal last night. Going forward, the Bruins will certainly need him and other freshman standouts Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams to achieve the success that Ben Howland and the Bruins hoped for this season.
2. Sean Miller had only good things to say about numerous teams before the start of conference play. Miller praised the strong defense of Oregon, noted that Stanford and California both had veterans and great coaches, and also said that UCLA might have the most potential out of all Pac-12 teams. Miller is most concerned with his own team now, though. He was worried about his team’s defense and three point shooting, which were both issues again in last night’s game with Colorado, and he was also concerned in his team’s ability to feed the post, something that wasn’t a problem against the Buffaloes. It’s safe to say that after last night’s comeback victory, Miller will continue to have concerns with his team despite its undefeated record.
3. Lorenzo Romar finds himself in the same spot he was last year entering conference play. After losing three home games, with the most embarrassing one coming against Albany, and only beating two solid teams in Seton Hall and Saint Louis, the Huskies now find themselves in a familiar place. Last year, Washington began conference play with a lowly 6-5 record considering the talent they had, but won 13 of their last 16 games in conference playto pull out a Pac-12 regular season title. Romar has said he isn’t concerned with repeating the feat, but rather reaching the potential that this team has and seeing where that takes them.
4. Washington State hasn’t had a lot of things go right for them this year, but the one constant for Ken Bone has been Brock Motum. Motum is averaging 19.7 points per game this season and has scored 23 points or more in five straight games. Bone has said that Motum could stand to improve on his defense and rebounding, but he has certainly gotten much better in both of those areas since his freshman year. Although Motum hasn’t been on the ESPN or DraftExpress top 100 prospect lists for next summer’s draft, Motum still has faith that he can play in the NBA one day and others, most notably, Gonzaga coach Mark Few, believe so too.
5. Referees aren’t always to blame for losses, but it sure seemed like that was the case in Colorado‘s overtime loss to Arizona last night. Sabatino Chen hit a game-winning three as time expired that the referees initially ruled as good, but when they went to the monitors to review the play, they overturned it which sent the game to overtime. Most commentators think they blew the call because it looked good on replay, however, that might not be the case. NBC Sports‘ Rob Dauster believes that after multiple looks, the video image seems to be too blurry to overturn the call. According to the rules, if the video is inconclusive, then the initial ruling on the court stands, which would have/should have given Colorado the huge road victory.

1. It’s safe to say that Arizona is happy with its performance in non-conference play. Sean Miller gave the Wildcats a later practice at 2:00 PM yesterday to ring in the new year, but the players went about their holiday just like any other day in the season. Miller mentioned in his first press conference of 2013 that he believes his team is focused, but wonders if they can keep playing unselfishly and with so much chemistry in conference play. It’s hard to worry when you have the third ranked team in the country, but Miller stills wants Arizona to get the ball inside more and turn the ball over less in upcoming games.
2. The one thing that can be said about the Pac-12 this year is that it has certainly improved since last season, but the looming question is how vast has this improvement been? Washington and UCLA have been disappointments thus far, but some of the other strides at the top and the bottom of the conference are quite large. Arizona is a top three team in the nation according to the polls, and Oregon has surprised while Colorado has done more than hold its own in non-conference tests by picking up wins over Colorado State, Baylor, Murray State, and Dayton. The likes of Washington State, Arizona State and Utah, who were all disappointments last year to say the least, are much more competitive this time around, which will certainly help the conference’s overall resume come March.
3. Colorado standout forward Andre Roberson still hasn’t made his mind up about next summer’s NBA Draft. Roberson has been projected as high as a mid-first rounder and as low as a late second rounder in various mock drafts, but he plans to sit down and talk to Tad Boyle when the season ends and make a decision at that point. However, questions remain about Roberson’s offensive game, which is mostly made up of putbacks and open layups at this point. On the other hand, his strong defensive and rebounding abilities make scouts believe he could eventually become a very good NBA player. Whatever happens, the good news for Buffaloes fans is that Roberson is still at CU this year and has overcome his sluggish start where he only averaged 6.7 PPG his first three games but has averaged 13.7 points per game since.
4. Top recruit and possible Washington commitment Aaron Gordon keeps playing very well during his senior year. At times, Gordon can get bored with the game because he’s playing against so many inferior players, but when a team only guards him with one player approaching his 6’8″ size, he will take over a game with ease as he did at the Les Schwab Classic in Oregon by racking up a career high 43 points. Unlike some top recruits, Gordon is a humble player and believes he still needs to get better, most notably with his free-throw shooting where he went 3-0f-14 in one game of the tournament. Gordon still doesn’t know where he wants to play in college, but has narrowed it down to Arizona, Kentucky, and Washington as his final three options. Washington seems to be the favorite because of Lorenzo Romar’s connection with Gordon’s father, but Gordon says all three schools are still a distinct possibility.
5. After finishing up non-conference play with a win against Nevada, the Oregon Ducks are still undefeated at home and it will be tough for teams to come to Matthew Knight Arena this year and pick up a win during conference season. However, if the Ducks play as poorly as they did against Nevada, it might be easier than expected. Oregon turned the ball over 20 times and also had cause for concern as Arsalan Kazemi, who has been spectacular all season long, left the game in the first half after taking an elbow to the head (he did not return). Dana Altman said he looked fine after the game, though, and the Ducks will need him for their conference opener against rival Oregon State in Corvallis on January 6.