College basketball: Arizona, ASU men face Pac-12 road challenges; light week at GCU
The Arizona and Arizona State men's basketball teams face stiff tests, heading out on the road for games against the mountain schools.
Arizona (17-5, 8-3), which moved up three spots to No. 8 in this week's AP poll, will play Utah (15-7, 6-5) at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Huntsman Center and then face Colorado (15-7, 6-5) at 8 p.m. Saturday at the CU Events Center. Arizona, led by Caleb Love (18.9 ppg), defeated both those teams at home and neither was close.
Arizona moved into first place alone in the Pac-12 with its wins last week over Cal and Stanford, the latter, avenging a loss earlier this season. The Wildcats are 12-0 this season at McKale Center but have suffered conference losses on the road at Stanford, Washington State and, surprisingly, Oregon State.
The top seven Pac-12 teams are separated by just two games with both Utah and Colorado in that mix.
Meanwhile, Arizona State (11-11, 5-6) is looking to snap a four-game skid. It has also lost six of the last seven games, being swept at home last week by Cal and Stanford, both of which defeated on the road to start conference play last month.
The Sun Devils will be at Colorado for a 6 p.m. game on Thursday and then at Utah for a 6 p.m. showdown on Saturday. ASU beat both at home, the top two opponents it has beaten this season. The stretch of six losses in seven games started right after that with a loss at Washington.
Both the mountain schools loom as Quad 1 opponents. While ASU's only hope of advancing to the postseason now lies with next month's conference tournament, victories this week for Arizona could go a long way in helping their seeding come tournament time.
Arizona, ASU women face tough opponents
The Los Angeles schools provide the opposition this week for Arizona and Arizona State women's teams and both pose formidable challenges.
The week starts on Friday with ASU (10-12, 2-8) at USC's Galen Center at 8 p.m. and Arizona (12-10, 4-6) at Pauley Pavilion to face UCLA at 9 p.m. Then on Sunday ASU is at UCLA (17-4, 6-4) for a 1 p.m. showdown and Arizona at USC (16-4, 6-4) at 7 p.m.
UCLA and USC are ranked ninth and 10th respectively in this week's AP national poll. USC jumped five spots this week after wins last week over Cal and No. 4 Stanford. The Stanford win was highlighted by a 51-point performance by freshman phenom JuJu Watkins. She also had 11 rebounds and four steals in that game. On the season she is averaging 27.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.7 steals.
GCU teams have a slow week
The Grand Canyon men (21-2), who are tied for the best winning percentage in college basketball, will take the court only once this week, that coming on Saturday when they will host Southern Utah (9-13, 4-7) at 6 p.m. GCU has a two-game lead in the Western Athletic Conference.
The Lopes are coming off two wins the past week, the most dramatic of those coming on Thursday when they needed overtime to get past Seattle University 95-88. Seattle was one of the teams that defeated GCU earlier in the season.
In their most recent outing, GCU turned back Utah Valley 86-67, led by Ray Harrison's 21 and Gabe McGlothan's 17 points and 11 rebounds. Harrison is averaging 14.2 points on the season with McGlothan at 15.3. The team's leading scorer is senior guard Tyan Grant-Foster (19 ppg).
Meanwhile, the GCU women (19-4, 11-1) will be on the road for their lone game of the week, at 2 p.m. Saturday against Southern Utah (6-14, 4-7) in Cedar City.
Coach Molly Miller's team has faced few challenges in WAC play. Ten of 11 wins have been by double digits and the other was by nine points. The lone loss came to Stephen F. Austin 54-49 on the road last month.
The GCU women lead the WAC by two games over Cal Baptist.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona, ASU men's basketball face mountain teams; women in LA
