The 4th ranked Arizona Wildcats travel to Salt Lake City, Utah to take on Utah in the Pac-12 conference opener for both teams. Arizona is 6-0 on the season and are coming off a 3-0 performance and a tournament title at the Maui Invitational. Utah sits at 5-2 on the season and a home win over St. Thomas at Utah on Saturday night. The opening tap is scheduled for 8:30pm EST.
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The Arizona Wildcats come into their Pac-12 opener after a highly successful run through the Maui Invitational. Arizona took down Cincinnati, then #17 San Diego State and finally #10 Creighton in the final on Wednesday afternoon. Arizona is now 6-0 on the season and once again in the top-five in the country. In the finals against Creighton, the Wildcats leaned on big man Oumar Ballo and squeaked out an 81-79 win. Ballo dominated the paint with 30 points and 13 rebounds as the Wildcats won the Maui Invitational for the third time. With the win, Arizona moved up 10 spots in the latest AP poll from 14th to #4. Ballo was supported in the win with a near double-double from point guard Kerr Kriisa, who finished with 13 points and nine assists. The Wildcats were held scoreless over the final two minutes of the game but hung on for the win.
“Obviously, I’m super proud of these guys. They played their butts off. These tournaments are hard. To play three games in three days against three really good teams with very distinct styles and to come out of it on top the way we did, it says a lot about this group.” Arizona head coach Timmy Lloyd said after the win.
The Pac-12 Player of the Week award goes to…#TrustTheBallo #RunWithUs pic.twitter.com/Re4CLCHZKJ
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) November 28, 2022
Once again this season, the Wildcats are moving at a rapid pace offensively. They are scoring nearly 100 points a game at 97.5 points per game and own a +18.8 point differential through their first six games. With an offense featuring an attack that pounds the paint first, the team is shooting a lights-out 60% from the field overall. They are also hitting on 45% of their three-point attempts this season. The Wildcats are holding their opponents to just 40% shooting overall. Arizona is also averaging a whopping 41.7 rebounds per game for an average rebounding differential of +12.5. They are also just about doubling the opposition in assists with 21.8 per game compared with just 11.5 assists per game by their opponents. The one area that Arizona needs to improve is in turnovers. They are averaging 17.3 turnovers per game while only forcing 11.7 per contest.