Community Picks: Washington State 0% vs USC 0%

A nightmare week for Arizona got even worse on Sunday when the Wildcats learned they lost more than just a pair of games in Los Angeles.  The school announced second-leading scorer Allonzo Trier will miss 4-6 weeks after suffering a broken right hand in Saturday night's quadruple-overtime loss to USC. It took Trier a few weeks to adjust to college basketball, but the highly touted freshman shooting guard had since made strides on defense and emerged as the team's top scoring threat. Trier had scored in double figures in each of Arizona's past 10 games and erupted for 25 points, six rebounds and four assists in 53 minutes against the Trojans. "I am disappointed first and foremost to see a great young man like Allonzo suffer an injury," Arizona coach Sean Miller said in a statement. "He was playing the best basketball of his young career at Arizona. Allonzo has worked tirelessly every day since he arrived on our campus. Hopefully he will be able to rejoin us at some point this season and continue his improvement and development." The absence of Trier is a massive blow to an Arizona team that already lacked the caliber of talent that its previous two teams had. The Wildcats do not have a player capable of duplicating Trier's ability to create off the dribble and finish at the rim. One option would be inserting combo forward Mark Tollefsen into the starting lineup, but the San Francisco transfer hasn't shown the quickness necessary to defend high-major wings. Another option would be giving freshman Justin Simon more playing time, but while he can defend multiple positions, he has not appeared ready for extended minutes. Senior Elliott Pitts is capable of helping too if he someday returns from the mysterious unexplained circumstances that have kept him from dressing for the past eight games.  Regardless of what option Miller chooses, it's clear Arizona is no longer a clear-cut favorite in the Pac-12 as the Wildcats seemed to be as recently as a week ago. They lost at UCLA on a last-second 3-pointer. They lost at USC by two in four overtimes. And now they'll have to dig out of a 1-2 hole without one of their best players for at least the next month. Who's most capable of taking advantage of Arizona's woes? That's anyone's guess in a Pac-12 with a myriad of good teams but no great ones. Cal boasts the league's most talented starting lineup, but the Bears have lost five out of six games they've played outside of Berkeley this season with the lone win by one at Wyoming. Oregon, Utah and UCLA each are potential contenders too, but consistency has proven elusive for all three of them so far. USC and Washington are both off to unexpected blazing starts in conference play, but the youthful Trojans have struggled to close out games and the freshman-laden Huskies are a mediocre shooting and defensive rebounding team.  So don't count out Arizona, but also don't count on Arizona either. In a year when the Wildcats' margin for error was slimmer than it had been the previous couple years, the loss of Trier is a damaging one. - - - - - - - Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @JeffEisenberg Continue to Article

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