The start of a new week means awards and updated rankings and Arizona had both Monday. Here are the latest basketball notes as the Wildcats open up the new week with some important games coming up for both the men's and women's teams.

Arizona knew it would have to rely on its freshmen this season, but Bennedict Mathurin is not necessarily the first name fans or media would have picked as the standout player of the group. However, the Canadian wing has flourished this season and he put together an impressive road trip to Washington helping the Wildcats secure a sweep of Washington and Washington State.

Mathurin has not started any games this season for Arizona, but he has continued to emerge as an important weapon off the bench and that was never more evident than in Saturday's double-overtime victory over the Cougars. Mathurin was forced to play out of position because of foul trouble for UA in the front court, but he stepped up and grabbed 11 rebounds to go with a team-high 24 points.

That performance helped the Arizona forward secure the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award on Monday. UA now has more of those awards than any other program in the conference as it was the sixth time a player from the Wildcats has been named the freshman of the week.

Mathurin joins veteran guard Jemarl Baker Jr. as the Arizona players to win a weekly award this season after Baker earned the Pac-12 Player of the Week honor back on Dec. 14.

If not for Mathurin's performance against the Cougars, Arizona would not have been able to pull out its ninth victory of the season and the team continues to see growth from the freshman heading into the critical part of league play.

"Benn stepped up and made two big free throws at the end and hit big shots," UA assistant coach Jason Terry said after Saturday's victory. "And, he's playing efficiently."

Mathurin averaged 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in Arizona's three wins last week.

Arizona struggled in its game against No. 1 Stanford last week but the letdown didn't carry over into Sunday's blowout win over Cal. That was positive for the Wildcats and it was reflected with UA moving down just one spot, to No. 7 overall, in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday.

The Wildcats (8-1, 6-1 Pac-12) were dominant in Sunday's 69-33 victory over Cal in what ended up as the lowest amount of points UA allowed in a Pac-12 game. It was a positive way for the team to bounce back after its 81-54 loss to Stanford just two nights earlier when head coach Adia Barnes said that her team did not look like the No. 6-ranked team in the country.

She felt much better about Sunday's performance but understands her group still has plenty of work to do moving forward. That is one reason she is looking forward to this weekend's road trip to play the Washington schools.

"Now we have another test, I'm excited," Barnes said after Sunday's win. "We go to Washington and Washington State. That is a tough road trip. So, it's another test for us. I'm just excited the way we're responding and we need to get better before the Washington trip.

"I think that's gonna be a fun trip that's gonna test us again."

The Wildcats remain as the second highest-ranked team in the Pac-12 behind Stanford, which received 27 first-place votes, with UCLA moving up to No. 9 this week while Oregon is down to No. 11. Arizona State, Oregon State and Washington State all received votes.

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