Monday turned into a busy news day for Arizona as the Wildcats look ahead to their road matchup against Arizona State to begin the week. Ahead of Monday night's game in Tempe, the Wildcats learned that power forward Azuolas Tubelis had earned the latest Pac-12 Player of the Week award coming off of two impressive performances in two big victories for the team.
Tubelis averaged 16 points and eight rebounds last week in wins over then-No. 3 UCLA and previous-No. 19 USC at McKale Center. Saturday against the Trojans, Tubelis logged his fourth double-double by scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in the 72-63 win.
He is now the third UA player to earn the Pac-12 Player of the Week award joining center Christian Koloko and guard Benn Mathurin, who has won the award twice this season.
It was a special week for the Arizona big man as Tubelis' mother, Valentina, made the trek from Lithuania to Tucson to spend time with her sons and watch the Wildcats play. Tubelis' brother, Tautvilas, is a sophomore forward on the team.
"We spent a lot of time together," Azuolas said about his mom being in town for the week. "She stayed at our apartment. We have some space, so we with her all the time."
Tubelis has been battling through an ankle sprain in recent games that pushed him out of the starting lineup at one point. The sophomore big man has managed to fight through the pain to continue contributing for the Wildcats, though he said after Saturday's game that there has been improvement with his injury.
"I feel good," he said. "... If I can run that fast I'm good. When we're playing in that kind atmosphere I don't feel it."
With Tubelis slowly working his way back from the injury that he suffered against Stanford over two weeks ago, the Wildcats had to turn some different players for help. UA head coach Tommy Lloyd sees how much the team has benefitted from working in some other contributors in recent games.
"He looked to me like he's getting pretty close back to what we're expecting," Lloyd said of Tubelis after Saturday's win. "I've been cautiously optimistic every game, and I've just let it play out in front of my own eyes. But, I have had back-up plans.
"If he didn't look good or wasn't moving good we could play other lineups. Maybe him getting hurt wasn't great for him or our team, but maybe it allowed us to grow a little bit. Obviously, since that injury Oumar [Ballo] has taken off and Pelle [Larsson] has played really well, too. Those are the two guys that have slid into some of those minutes. It gives us more options going forward, which is a good thing."
Wildcats jump up two more spots in latest AP Top 25 poll
Arizona's top-25 wins over the Los Angeles schools certainly helped the team raise its profile again. UA is now back in control of the Pac-12 standings and logged two more key victories with wins over UCLA and USC. Monday, that was reflected in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll with the Wildcats moving up (19-2, 9-1 Pac-12) three spots and into the top five at No. 4 overall.
UA had been at No. 7 in last week's rankings. The Wildcats sit just 29 points behind Purdue for the third spot on the list.
The losses moved both UCLA (No. 12) and USC (No. 21) down in the latest rankings.
Pac-12 sets date for Arizona's makeup game against USC
Arizona has already played UCLA twice this season making up its game on the road against the Bruins last month. The matchup with UCLA was postponed early in the year and that same weekend the Wildcats were also prevented from playing the Trojans early in the year because of COVID-related issues for that team. Now the second game of the Los Angeles road trip has an official makeup date.
UA and USC will square off March 1 meaning another three-game extended road stretch awaits the Wildcats at the end of the season. The matchup against the Trojans will take place after Arizona visits the Mountain schools the week prior, and it will also set up a stretch that gives UA three games in the final week of the regular season.
The Wildcats faced a similar stretch last month that ended with UA facing UCLA to end an extended road stretch. Arizona lost the game to the Bruins.
Arizona will wrap up the regular season with home games against Stanford and Cal, March 3 and 5, but the added road game against USC means UA will have just one day off in between its trip to Los Angeles and its return home to Tucson to face the Cardinal.
UA is set to face Arizona State on Monday with a tip off time of 7 p.m. MST at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe.
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