Andy Enfield explains why Malik Thomas didn't play vs. Arizona State

On3 imageby:Kaiden Smith•03/05/23•

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USC capped off their regular season campaign Saturday with a 68-65 win over Arizona State. The Trojans’ bench was a little bit thinner on Saturday, as sophomore guard Malik Thomas was out for the game. And after the win, head coach Andy Enfield explained why he did not play versus the Sun Devils.

“Malik has a family situation, he had a loss in his family. Malik’s a wonderful wonderful person and he is really a great teammate, we all love him,” Enfield said.

It’s troubling to hear about Thomas’ loss, as the 6-foot-5 combo guard out of Damien high school in La Verne, California is in the midst of his second season with the Trojans. Thomas was a four-star prospect out of high school, rated the No. 6 player in the state and the No. 74 overall player in the 2021 class according to On3 Consensus.

Thomas has averaged 8.7 minutes and 2.6 points per game this season, seeing an increase in his role following a freshman season where he averaged just two minutes per game in nine appearances.

“So he’ll be back for the tournament next week and hopefully, we’ll have a full roster, everybody healthy.

The Trojans have secured the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Pac-12 tournament, and will not have to lace up until March 9 when they take on Arizona State vs. Oregon State.

2023 Pac-12 Tournament field officially set

The Pac-12 Tournament field is officially set following an exciting 2022-23 regular season. UCLA won the Pac-12 regular season championship with ease following an 18-2 conference record and won the league title by four games.

After UCLA and Arizona and USC, who were already locked into the top three slots before Saturday’s final college gameday slate, the rest of the field filled in behind accordingly. Here’s a look at the final Pac-12 Conference standings before next week’s tournament:

  1. UCLA, 27-4 (18-2)
  2. Arizona, 25-6 (14-6)
  3. USC, 22-9 (14-6)
  4. Oregon, 18-13 (12-8)
  5. Arizona State, 20-11 (11-9) 
  6. Washington State, 16-15 (11-9)
  7. Utah, 17-14 (10-10)
  8. Washington, 16-15 (8-12)
  9. Colorado, 16-15 (8-12)
  10. Stanford, 13-18 (7-13)
  11. Oregon State, 11-20 (5-15)
  12. California, 3-28 (2-18)

The Pac-12’s top two seeds, No. 4 UCLA and No. 8 Arizona, have set themselves apart from the rest of the group as two of the elite college basketball programs this season. The two teams duked it out in their respective regular-season finales Saturday night, where the Bruins evened the season series with an 82-73 victory at home.

Regardless of the outcome, it was a preview of what many expect to be the Pac-12 Tournament championship game when it’s all said and done. Still, an impressive win for UCLA over a top-10 ranked Arizona team isn’t something the committee can ignore, and if they go on to run the gauntlet in next week’s tournament — the Bruins are looking at a one-seed when March Madness rolls around.

With the final standings and potential NCAA Tournament fallout in mind, here is a look at the official game schedule and times for next week’s Pac-12 Tournament:

Wednesday, March 8 (TV Talent)
Game 1: Washington vs. Colorado, 12:00 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Roxy Bernstein, Don MacLean)
Game 2: Washington State vs. California, 2:30 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Roxy Bernstein, Don MacLean)
Game 3: Utah vs. Stanford, 6:00 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Ted Robinson, Bill Walton)
Game 4: Arizona State vs. Oregon State, 8:30 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Ted Robinson, Bill Walton)
Thurs., March 9
Game 5: UCLA vs. Game 1 winner, 12:00 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Roxy Bernstein, Don MacLean)
Game 6: Oregon vs. Game 2 winner, 2:30 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Roxy Bernstein, Don MacLean)
Game 7: Arizona vs. Game 3 winner, 6:00 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Ted Robinson, Bill Walton)
Game 8: USC vs. Game 4 winner, 8:30 p.m. PT ESPN (Dave Pasch, Bill Walton)
Fri., March 10
Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 6:00 p.m. PT Pac-12 Network (Ted Robinson, Bill Walton)
Game 10: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 8:30 p.m. PT ESPN (Dave Pasch, Bill Walton)
Sat., March 11
Game 11: Championship, 7:30 p.m. PT ESPN (Dave Pasch, Bill Walton)