Arizona is now the eighth-ranked team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, and sophomore wing Benn Mathurin is a big part of the reason why the Wildcats remain undefeated a month into the season. The Canadian guard has shined over the last two weeks as he continues to settle in with Tommy Lloyd's new system in Tucson.
Mathurin has continued to thrive with the uptempo style of play while improving his rebounding and overall scoring ability this year. Monday, his continued progress earned Mathurin the Pac-12 Player of the Week award for the second consecutive week.
UA was able to score two big victories last week, first defeating Wyoming at home before going on the road to take down Illinois in front of over 15,000 fans in Champaign in the team's first true nonconference road matchup.
The 83-79 win secured UA another signature victory, and the game was highlighted by another impressive outing from Mathurin. He finished the game with 30 points and seven rebounds in 39 minutes of action for the Wildcats.
Combined through the two wins last week Mathurin averaged 27 points and 8.5 rebounds for Arizona.
"I just feel like I'm trusting my teammates," Mathurin said of his performance against the Illini. "I feel like coming into the season I felt like I had to do it by myself, but it's just about trusting my teammates. Me trusting them that they're going to find me and I'm going to find them.
"The goal is to win, so if I get 20 points or score five points all I want to do is win."
Mathurin came into the season with plenty of NBA hype surrounding his name, and he has lived up to that acclaim so far this year despite a slow start as he adjusted to the new style of play at Arizona.
The 6-foot-6 wing is currently averaging a team-high 18.4 points to go with 6.7 rebounds, which is good enough for second on the team behind Christian Koloko (6.9).
Lloyd recently pointed out the scrutiny players like Mathurin are under before stepping on the floor each season, and the Arizona head coach has certainly been pleased with the continued development from his young perimeter player.
“We talked about it. He’s a developing player," Lloyd said after last week's win over Wyoming, in which Mathurin scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to go with five assists. "Sometimes people in the media or this NBA mock draft world try to anoint these kids and move them along too fast. Benn needs to develop at his own pace, and he looks pretty good to me right now.
"So I just think he needs to stay locked and loaded on what he’s doing. He’s getting great results and actually developing into a real, real basketball player, and that’s so much fun to watch.”
Mathurin is the first player to win the Pac-12 Player of the Week award twice this season, and a UA player has won the award three of the five weeks so far. Koloko was named Pac-12 Player of the Week on Nov. 22. Mathurin is the third Arizona player to win the conference player of the week award in back-to-back weeks joining the likes of Hassan Adams (2005-06) and Steve Kerr (1987-88).
Arizona returns home before embarking on an important stretch at the end of the month that will take UA on the road to No. 18 Tennessee, No. 4 UCLA and No. 10 USC.
This week the Wildcats will host Norther Colorado (Dec. 15) and California Baptist (Dec. 18) to close out the nonconfernece portion of their schedule. Tip off for Wednesday's game is set for 7 p.m. MST.
* Video provided by Arizona Athletics
> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona fans Inside McKale
> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel
> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattGOAZCATS, @THutch1995, @AverieKlonowski)
> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)
> LIKE us on Facebook
> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)
