Pac-12 Men's Basketball holiday hoops headlined by ASU hosting KU, CU in Hawaii

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#PAC12HOOPS STARTING FIVE

21 - 21 games fill the Pac-12’s weekly calendar with 10 away from home - five true road contests (possibly six with COLORADO in Hawai’i), five neutral site games (four if CU faces Hawai'i) - along with three power league opponents, two preseason favorites, and two ranked matchups with UCLA facing No. 15 Ohio State in Chicago and No. 18 ARIZONA STATE hosting No. 1 Kansas. 

• The last time a Pac-12 program hosted the nation’s No. 1 team, UCLA upset Kentucky, 87-77, at Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 3, 2015.

8-1 - For the third time in Tad Boyle’s nine seasons, COLORADO has started the season 8-1. The Buffaloes reached the NCAA Tournament in each of those two previous seasons (2014 - 10-1; 2016 - 11-1). In the CU program’s 116 seasons, this marks only the 13th start of 8-1 or better including only the fourth in the past 39 years.

• CU’s current six-game win streak is the longest in the Pac-12 and tied for 12th-longest in NCAA Division I.

2x 20.0+ - Two of the top six leading freshmen scorers in the country play in the Pac-12 in OREGON’s Bol Bol (21.0, 4th among freshmen) and ARIZONA STATE’s Luguentz Dort (19.8 ppg, 6th). The ACC is the only other league with multiple rookies in the category.

• The Pac-12 also has three of the nation’s top 10 rookie rebounders in UCLA’s Moses Brown (9.7 rpg, 2nd among freshmen), Bol (9.6 rpg, 3rd) and WASHINGTON STATE’s CJ Elleby (7.8, 8th).

50/50 - COLORADO’s Lucas Siewert and OREGON’s Bol Bol are currently the only qualified Pac-12 players (3 FGM/1 3FGM per game) shooting at least 50 percent both from the field and behind the arc.

• Since 1992-93, only three Conference players have accomplished that for a full season: OREGON’s Jason Calliste (2013-14) and ARIZONA’s Derrick Williams (2010-11) and Salim Stoudamire (2004-05).

1000, 300, 200, 200, 100 - When WASHINGTON’s Matisse Thybulle surpassed 1,000 career points against Virginia Tech on Saturday, he became the only player in Conference history to reach the 1,000 points, 300 rebounds, 200 assists, 200 steals and 100 blocks thresholds.

• Donnie Boyce (1992-95 - 1995p/644r/405a/245s/114b) accomplished the feat during COLORADO’s membership in the Big 8, the only other player from current Pac-12 membership to do so.

PAC-12 TIPOFF

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: Based on opponents’ win percentage through Dec. 17 games, WASHINGTON has faced the second-most difficult schedule so far this season as its foes have a cumulative .732 (90-33) win percentage, trailing only No. 1 Kansas (.792). ARIZONA ranks 15th (.695) in the nation in the same category.

DAM GOOD DEFENSE​: With his school-record nine blocks in Monday’s win over Pepperdine, OREGON STATE’s Kylor Kelley moved to first nationally with 4.0 blocks per game.

• Kelley’s nine blocks were the most by a Pac-12 player since OREGON’s Chris Boucher had nine against Arkansas State in Nov. 2015.

MEN OF STEAL: NCAA Division I’s career steals leaders both hail from the Pac-12 as WASHINGTON’s Matisse Thybulle (236) and OREGON’s Ehab Amin (233) rank first and second, respectively