Arizona finally reached a break after a busy stretch of games last week that forced UA to play four games over the course of seven days. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the Wildcats' games early in the season, but UA has now had an opportunity to catch up and is now heading toward the end of nonconference play.

Arizona has two games this week, including its first Pac-12 matchup, as it looks to remain undefeated.

Here are the latest notes as the new week gets underway for Sean Miller's team.

Jemarl Baker Jr. might not have been the player predicted to win Arizona's first Pac-12 Player of the Week award this season, but it was certainly earned by his showing in the teams' three games over the last week. The redshirt junior guard, who is in his second season with the Wildcats after transferring from Kentucky, shined throughout the last few games.

Baker ultimately averaged 19.7 points and hit 50% from 3-point range over the three-game stretch to help him earn the award. The week began with a career performance for the California native as he scored 33 points in a win over Northern Arizona last Monday marking the single best game for a UA player under Miller.

The honor is also the first for an Arizona player since Dusan Ristic won the Pac-12 Player of the Week award back on Jan. 29, 2018. The Wildcats had three players win the award that season with Deandre Ayton earning the honor twice.

UA did not have any players win the weekly award in the 2018-19 season and were again shut out last season though Nico Mannion and Zeke Nnaji earned the new Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award. Nnaji earned that distinction four times throughout his one season with the Wildcats, but he was not able to win the overall award.

Baker has looked more comfortable playing off the ball this season as it has allowed him to settle in as a shooter for the Wildcats. He had to play the backup point guard role behind Nico Mannion out of necessity last season, but this year Arizona has more ball handlers allowing Baker to better utilize his skill set.

He is hitting 41% of his 3-pointers this season in addition to hitting 52% of all his shots from the floor while he has missed just one free throw on six attempts. All that adds up to Baker being UA's early leading scorer this season as he is averaging 14.2 points for the Wildcats through five games.

"Jemarl for the year and a half, two years that he's been here he's been as good of a consistent shooter every day as we've had," Miller said. "It hasn't always translated into the games, but it's hard to be a really consistent shooter when he had the role that he had on last year's team.

"Although it was a very important role and he was a good player for us, to really get going shooting you need opportunity. And, he has that on this year's team."

It might be no coincidence that Baker was able to earn the honor and put together a strong week for the Wildcats as he was also awarded the team's gold practice jersey this week for the first time this season.

In addition to the news about Baker, Arizona also was able to have its plans finalized for this weekend's game against Stanford. Restrictions on sports in Santa Clara County in Northern California have prevented Stanford from being able to practice or play games at home. One issue with that is conference play is set to begin soon and it will start for Arizona this Saturday against the Cardinal.

Stanford temporarily relocated to North Carolina after participating in an event there to open the season, but it will make its return to California when it faces Cal State Northridge on the road Tuesday before the matchup with UA on Saturday.

Rather than play at Maples Pavilion, which Stanford won't be able to do until after Dec. 21, the two teams will take the court at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz. The arena is the home of the Golden State Warriors' G-League affiliate.

It will be the first Pac-12 contest for both teams as UA had its conference opener against Colorado rescheduled for later this month after the Buffaloes had COVID-19 issues. Stanford's Pac-12 opener was called off Sunday after USC had to pause its season because of COVID-19 problems in that program.

Tip off for Saturday's game is set for 6 p.m. MST, and the contest will be televised by Pac-12 Network.

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