Arizona vs. UCLA: 2022-23 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

The two Pac-12 prohibitive favorites, the Arizona Wildcats and UCLA Bruins, meet for the first time this season on Saturday afternoon.

TV Schedule: Saturday, January 21, 2:00 PM ET, ABC

Location: McKale Center in Tucson, AZ

Saturday brings one of the games Pac-12 fans have had circled on their calendars since the start of the year: UCLA vs. Arizona. This edition is happening in Tucson, an advantage for the Wildcats.

These two teams entered the year as the favorites in the conference, standing heads and toes above the competition. Little has been done to alter that perception at this point; Arizona is a disappointing 4-3 in conference play, but UCLA is the league’s last unbeaten in Pac-12 competition. They’re both ranked in the top 11 of the AP poll, a poll that lacks a single other conference member.

UCLA lost consecutive non-conference games to Illinois and Baylor – both of whom have underwhelmed since – but the Bruins have looked flawless since then. They haven’t lost since and most of the games haven’t even been competitive: only two of UCLA’s seven Pac-12 wins have come by one or two possessions.

The Bruins’ defense has been particularly enormous in recent games, forcing turnovers at a league-high clip and shutting down any perimeter attack of its opponents. In the last four games, opponents have made less than 20 percent of their combined three-point attempts against UCLA.

That could work to their advantage against Arizona, which is in a bit of an offensive slump. In the past five games, Arizona has only eclipsed 75 points once in a dominant road victory over Oregon State. Those woes led to the Wildcats’ downfall against Washington State and at Oregon, neither of which were particularly close.

The team was always going to struggle when a majority of its starters from a year ago entered the NBA Draft. Arizona is a blue blood, but they don’t retool at the same speed Kentucky and Duke often do when they turn over their rosters on an annual basis.

Nevertheless, Arizona has one of the best players in the country in Azuolas Tubelis. He’s averaging 20.4 points and 9 rebounds per game, easily emerging as Tommy Lloyd’s most effective player on both ends of the court.

For the season, there aren’t actually many areas where the two teams distinguish themselves in a major way. Perhaps the most significant is in terms of getting to the free throw line: Arizona is one of the best in the nation, while UCLA is one of the worst.

The leeway ahead of this game isn’t advantageous for either squad, though it favors Arizona, who hosts USC on Thursday night. Around the same time, UCLA has to play at Arizona State, which is trying to prove its hot start to conference play is legitimate.

The Bruins are the better team, something they’ll prove to Arizona at least once before the season comes to an end. But UCLA is in the midst of their toughest stretch and it serves as an opportunity for the Wildcats to build some momentum.

Prediction: Arizona 78, UCLA 75