College Basketball Power 10: Who Runs The Pac-12?
By Jeremy Karll
4. Arizona (23-3)
A week after being embarrassed in Eugene, Ore., by the Ducks, Arizona bounced back with wins over Stanford and California. The Wildcats only won by a total of 12 points, but Arizona regained the top spot in the Pac-12, nonetheless, due to UCLA’s comeback.
Despite Arizona being widely considered a top-10 team in the nation, they still don’t seem to be playing their best basketball yet, as they continue to try to implement Allonzo Trier into their rotation.
They have failed to score 75 points in any of their past four games. They only failed to reach that mark in three of their first nine conference games.
At the same time, Lauri Markkanen has scored fewer than 10 points in each of the past four games after only doing so once in the first 22 games of the season.
On one hand, Arizona struggling could lead to them blowing their small one-game lead in the Pac-12. Although, it also indicates how good this team can be this season.
If Trier, who is shooting just 42.2 percent this season and only scored three points against California on Saturday, returns to close to last year’s form, Arizona could have a Final Four run in them, especially when considering how good of a defensive team they are.
Arizona travels to Washington State and Washington this weeks.