Pac-12 Tourney primer: Can Arizona win a top-heavy conference?

Their best player isn’t playing his best. The regular season closed with a home loss to a top-5 team and a good-enough win against an overmatched rival.

Arizona could enter the Pac-12 Tournament in better shape.

All things considered, a 27-4 team with all its losses to teams ranked in the Associated Press’ top-13 could be worse off. Arizona finished off the year forcing a rotation of nine players on the rival Sun Devils, and the bullying served as a final crash course in building confidence in role players that could make a difference in a deep NCAA Tournament run.

But can physically outworking opponents be the key defining role of the Wildcats’ identity?

That remains to be seen. What’s been clear the entire year, with and without Allonzo Trier’s scoring, is that Arizona can play with most teams because of its defense.

As far as that defense goes, it’s a team of consistency.

To give head coach Sean Miller his first Final Four berth, Arizona will need its two best players, Trier and Lauri Markkanen, playing at their best — together. In less than a half-season of opportunity to find that, getting the game reps of a championship game appearance in the Pac-12 Tournament could make all the difference in giving the Wildcats time to finally put the pieces together.

They’re not far off.

Time

Thursday, 7 p.m. MST

TV

Pac-12 Network

— 2017 Pac-12 Tournament schedule and bracket —

WHAT’S HOT

Giving Trier a pass on his 5-of-14 shooting effort against ASU is easier because he averaged 24.3 points and shot better than 60 percent from the field in his three games prior. And he still scored 19 points against the Sun Devils by getting to the foul stripe when the jumper wasn’t falling.

Arizona’s leading scorer closed his 12-game regular season finally looking like the elite scorer that had many pegging him as a Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate in the preseason.

As importantly for the Wildcats, the shot distribution between he and Arizona’s other high-caliber scorer has been figured out. Both Trier and Markkanen have been getting their looks of late. The next step is for both of them to be hitting on all cylinders.

WHAT’S NOT

Arizona’s best player closed the regular season in a three-game funk. Markkanen didn’t surpass 11 points against USC, UCLA or ASU despite getting double-digit attempts up in each contest. Furthermore, he’s missed his last 11 three-point shots taken in the past four outings.

Now, Markkanen’s poor shooting stretch isn’t the biggest cause for concern. He remains the biggest matchup problem on the team and against ASU, even sparked Arizona in the second half with three blocked shots while playing as a center against a small-ball opponent.

Still, the Wildcats are only a Pac-12 Championship and Final Four contender with both Markkanen and Trier getting theirs, no matter how solid of a defensive team Arizona might be. Perhaps the Pac-12 Tournament acts as the environment to get the Finnish freshman into a groove once again.

FIRST UP: Colorado

Arizona held off the Buffs in McKale Center for their only meeting of the year, 82-73, but Miller’s team had no answer for forward Xavier Johnson, who scored 26 points in Tucson. CU, the seventh seed in the conference tournament, has the perimeter scoring and size to match up with the Wildcats well.

Colorado might be on tired legs after they found themselves down 19 to WSU in the first round of the tournament before coming back to win 73-63 on Wednesday.

 

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