Seen and heard: Tommy Lloyd extends historic home winning streak, Kylan Boswell shines

The triumph marked the 26th home victory for Arizona under Tommy Lloyd. And that in itself is worth celebrating.

Thursday's 70-67 win over Washington gives Lloyd the longest home winning streak for any Pac-12 coach to start his tenure, according to Pac-12 researcher Greg Mroz. The previous mark was held by former Washington coach Hec Edmundson, who won 22 in a row during the 1920-21 and 1921-22 seasons. How'd that work out for Edmundson? Washington named its arena after him.

The others? Tippy Dye (Washington, 21), J.F. "Pop" McKale (Arizona, 20) and Ray Giacoletti (Utah, 20). 

Numbers game

38-2: Arizona has a 38-2 record against unranked opponents since hiring Lloyd, which is the second-best winning percentage during that span; Gonzaga is a perfect 33-0. The Wildcats were tied with Kansas (37-2) going into Thursday night. 

9: The Huskies have lost nine straight road games to ranked opponents going back to the 2017-18 season. UW has not won a conference road game against a ranked opponent since 2009. 

8: When the Wildcats are ranked in the AP Top 10, they’re a perfect 8-0 at home versus Washington since the 1987-88 season. 

49: Ex-Wildcat Lauri Markkanen scored a career-high 49 points on Thursday to lead the Utah Jazz to a 131-114 win over the Houston Rockets, snapping a five-game losing skid. 

3: UA freshman point guard Kylan Boswell shot a career-best 3 for 7 from 3-point range against Washington on Thursday. Entering Thursday, Boswell was 3 for 17 from beyond the arc. Boswell also became the first UA freshman with nine points, six rebounds, six assists and three 3-pointers in a game since Jason Gardner in 1999, per the Pac-12 research team. 

Teachers trek for Bennedict Mathurin

The Indiana Pacers hosted the Toronto Raptors earlier this week, and ex-Wildcat and No. 6 overall pick Bennedict Mathurin received a visit from several of his former elementary school teachers and youth basketball coaches. 

The teachers and coaches traveled nearly 850 miles from Mathurin’s hometown of Montreal to Indianapolis. They spent an entire day at the Pacers’ team facility and arena. 

"We (didn't) know that he could be here now, but when he was younger, he was always playing basketball," said Melissa Jette, Mathurin’s former elementary school teacher, in a video tweeted by the Pacers. "He wanted to be good. … I’m so proud of Benn. We love him so much." 

Mathurin’s older sister, Jennifer Mathurin, said in the video that the visit "means a lot" to both Benn and her. 

"It means a lot to Benn, because they’ve been supporting us forever, and it was super important for us to thank them for that," she said. "But yeah, they drove 14 hours to see us. That’s pretty impressive." 

Added Bennedict Mathurin: "It was a great moment having a lot of people from my elementary school, from Montreal, people that really helped me growing up. It was great having them here, just giving them a gift, spending good time. It was a great moment." 

Mathurin is averaging 17.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game coming off the bench for Indiana this season. 

He said it

"I did Pac-12 Media Day a couple months back, and one of the ... questions that I asked was about the most difficult places to play; 100% percent of the answers were McKale Center. The entire conference fears going into that gym because of our fanbase. They know everything they do, every missed shot, every turnover, every basket, every 3 will be met with some type of cheer. There’s only a few other places in the conference with that type of atmosphere. Every minute of everything you do is met with a reaction from the fans. These guys love it, and it’s feared."

— Former Wildcat and ESPN college basketball analyst Corey Williams (via ESPN Tucson)