Pepperdine @ Arizona preview
Anaheim Convention Center
Arizona takes its No. 14 ranking and 6-0 start west this holiday weekend to compete in the eight-team Wooden Legacy tournament. The Wildcats play in Thursday’s fourth quarterfinal, facing Pepperdine at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center Arena.
The new-look Wildcats have played all six of their games at home so far, winning by an average margin of 30.4 points. Highly-touted freshman Nico Mannion scored a game-high 22 points and added eight assists in Arizona’s most recent win – a 104-67 rout of Long Beach State on Sunday in a Wooden Legacy campus game. It was the second-best outing of the season for the 6-3 Mannion, a 2019 McDonald’s All-American who is averaging 14.8 points and a team-most five assists. “Watching Nico, he’s slowly and steadily learning how to be a college player,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said afterward. “Sometimes you forget it’s still November, still very early in our team’s development, especially with the younger guys. He was really outstanding – maybe the best game he’s played so far for us.”
TV: 11 p.m. ET, ESPN2
ABOUT ARIZONA (6-0): Mannion is joined by fellow freshmen Zeke Nnaji, a 6-11 forward, and Josh Green, a 6-6 guard, as the leading scorers for the Wildcats, who are averaging 87.7 points per outing. Nnaji is averaging a team-most 19.5 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting a blistering 80.7 percent from the field and draining 25 of his 31 free-throw attempts (80.6 percent). Green is averaging 11.8 points and four rebounds while 6-10 senior center Chase Jeter is averaging a team-leading 6.3 rebounds.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE (3-3): Coach Lorenzo Romar’s Waves, of the West Coast Conference, bring a two-game losing streak to Anaheim after a 3-1 start. Pepperdine is averaging 78.5 points per contest and is led by junior guard Colbey Ross (20.7 points, 7.0 assists) and senior forward Kameron Edwards (17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds). Edwards’ younger brother Kessler Edwards, a 6-8 sophomore, is averaging 13.7 points and a team-leading 9.2 rebounds for Pepperdine, which currently ranks as Division I’s top free-throw shooting team at 85.6 percent but has struggled with offensive efficiency with almost as many turnovers (80) as assists (85) so far.
TIP-INS
1. Arizona is allowing 57.3 points per game and has forced opponents into an average of 20.3 turnovers per contest.
2. Two of Pepperdine’s three losses have come against Pac-12 foes California (87-71) and USC (91-84), and the Waves have dropped seven straight against Pac-12 teams since a 2012 overtime win over Washington State.
3. The Arizona-Pepperdine winner will face the winner of the UCF-Pennsylvania quarterfinal in Friday’s semifinals while the losers will head to the consolation bracket. Providence, Long Beach State, Wake Forest and Charleston comprise the other half of the bracket.
PREDICTION: Arizona 92, Pepperdine 68