---

ARIZONA PRODUCTIVITY RATING

Player	G	S	BP	ASU	AMIN	PP	TMIN	PR
Solomon Hill	17	17	–	24	39	364	544	.669
Kevin Parrom	17	1	46	15	24	248	388	.639
Nick Johnson	17	17	–	25	36	332	525	.632
Mark Lyons	17	17	–	34	31	312	498	.627
Brandon Ashley	17	14	8	-1	17	225	364	.618
Grant Jerrett	17	2	42	-4	18	142	305	.466
Kaleb Tarczewski	17	17	–	9	22	156	373	.418
Jordin Mayes	17	0	16	2	13	62	223	.278
PRIMARY ROTATION:	17	85	112	104	200	1864	3306	.564
OTHERS:
Gabe York	8	0	5	0	0	30	50	.600
Angelo Chol	15	0	10	-3	4	36	124	.290
PAC-10/12
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR:
Derrick Williams (2011)	38	38	–	–	–	1190	1141	1.043
Sean Elliott (1989)	33	33	–	–	–	1128	1125	1.003
Chris Mills (1993)	28	28	–	–	–	838	870	.963
Sean Elliott (1988)	38	38	–	–	–	1167	1249	.934
Damon Stoudamire (1995)	30	30	–	–	–	964	1092	.883
Mike Bibby (1998)	35	35	–	–	–	905	1124	.805
Jason Terry (1999)	29	29	–	–	–	877	1107	.792

GLOSSARY:
G: Games played. S: Number of starts.
BP: Bench points. A player gets three points if he is first off the bench, two if second and one if third. Shows Sean Miller’s rotation.
OSU: Productivity points against Oregon State
OMIN: Minutes played against Oregon State
PP: Productivity Points (Points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocked shots, FGs made, FTs made added together and then subtracted by missed FGs, missed FTs, personal fouls and turnovers)
TMIN: Minutes played overall
PR: Productivity rating per minute played (Productivity points divided by minutes played)
NOTE: Player must average at least 10 minutes a game to be listed in primary rotation

---

What does senior Mark Lyons have in common with former Arizona point guards Kenny Lofton, Reggie Geary, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, Mustafa Shakur, and Lamont “MoMo” Jones?

They can look back and say they that, as Arizona’s starting point guard, they never lost to arch-rival ASU in Tempe. Lyons played his most productive game of the season Saturday in the Wildcats’ 71-54 victory over the Sun Devils at Wells Fargo Arena. He posted 34 productivity points in 31 minutes and slightly won the game within the game against his credible counterpart, ASU freshman Jahii Carson, who proclaimed on Christmas that he was the best point guard in the Pac-12.

Carson played as he advertised, posting 32 productivity points in 33 minutes, but it was not enough to keep the outmanned Sun Devils afloat.

Lyons not only was the Wildcats’ MVP, he provided the quote of the day to reporters after the game: “I don’t want to be the best point guard in the Pac-12, I want to be the best in the country. I’m aiming for the moon, so I can be amongst the stars. I play every game as if it’s my last.”

Lyons, a senior transfer from Xavier, gets only one shot at ASU in Tempe (the teams play again at McKale Center on March 9). Geary (1996), Terry (1999) and Jones (2011) also had only one try as the UA starting point guard. Lofton (1987 and 1989) and Bibby (1997 and 1998) were 2-0 as starting point guards against ASU in Tempe. Most impressive was Shakur’s 4-0 run from 2004 to 2007.

In a video released by the Arizona athletic department, UA coach Sean Miller tells Lyons (nicknamed “Cheeks”) and the Wildcats in the locker room: “Cheeks, you’re never gonna lose at Arizona State. Every time we come here, you know what, we always play to win and we bring it. Like I said before we came here, bring the muscle … bring the muscle in big games. We were the tougher team. We were the harder playing team. You know what? We beat a good Arizona State team. So let’s enjoy today.”

Lyons scored a team-high 24 points with three assists and three steals. He made 8 of 15 field-goal attempts and was perfect at the free-throw line in six attempts. He tops the Wildcats with a free-throw percentage of 88.2 percent.

“He was aggressive throughout,” Miller told reporters. “He gets to the foul line and he’s such an exceptional free throw shooter that that’s one of the weapons we have in our offense.

“You can take it for granted that the ball always goes in, but when you talk about a point guard closing out games, a lot of times it’s their ability to make free throws, and again that’s something he does very well.”

Backcourt mate Nick Johnson was also effective with 25 productivity points in 36 minutes. Solomon Hill posted 24 productivity points in 39 minutes. Their performance, along with sixth man Kevin Parrom (15 productivity points in 24 minutes), made up for the overall production of Arizona’s freshmen big men Kaleb Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley and Grant Jerrett (who combined for five productivity points in 57 minutes).

In his locker room speech, Miller complimented Ashley with his defense against 7-footer Jordan Bachynski, who finished with only three points on 1-of-5 shooting. Tarczewski was effective on the boards, grabbing a team-high eight rebounds. The Wildcats won the rebounding battle 33-27 against ASU, which also includes 7-footer Ruslan Pateev. ASU only had five offensive rebounds.

The Wildcats are 16-1 for only the third time in the program’s 112-year history. They can become the second team to start 17-1 with a victory over another rival — UCLA — at McKale Center on Thursday. The 1987-88 team started 20-1.

“It’s hard to be 16-1, you guys know that,” Miller told reporters. “But we have a huge game coming up on Thursday. One of the things we did really well before this game is we practiced really well. We practiced hard, we watched film, and we tried to work on our weaknesses.

“Everybody showed up on time and worked and knew this was a big game, and we have to do that same thing all over again so when we get to Thursday, we’re ready.”

Defensive Rebounding Percentage (DRB%): Determined by dividing Arizona’s defensive rebounds (25 against Arizona State) by the opposition’s offensive rebounds (Arizona State had only five) added to Arizona’s defensive rebounds (25) — 25/(5 + 25) = 83.3 percent.

Offensive Rebounding Percentage (ORB%): Determined by taking Arizona’s offensive rebound total (eight) divided by that total (eight) and the defensive rebounds of the opponent (22 for Arizona State) — 8/(8+22) = 26.7 percent.

Ideal marks are 75 percent DRB% and 40 percent ORB%.

NEXT UP: UCLA at Arizona, Jan. 24 BOX SCORES/PRODUCTIVITY LEADER: Arizona 71, Arizona State 54 – Mark Lyons 34 PP/31 MIN Arizona 80, Oregon State 70 – Brandon Ashley 19 PP/22 MIN Oregon 70, Arizona 66 – Mark Lyons 24 PP/37 MIN Arizona 60, Utah 57 – Solomon Hill 29 PP/35 MIN Arizona 92, Colorado 83 (OT) – Kevin Parrom 28 PP/34 MIN Arizona 68, San Diego State 67 – Kevin Parrom 28 PP/26 MIN Arizona 69, Miami 50 – Kevin Parrom 21 PP/21 MIN Arizona 73, East Tennessee State 53 – Brandon Ashley 27 PP/22 MIN Arizona 89, Oral Roberts 64 – Grant Jerrett 24 PP/21 MIN Arizona 65, Florida 64 – Solomon Hill 31 PP/37 MIN Arizona 66, Clemson 54 – Mark Lyons 30 PP/33 MIN Arizona 63, Southern Mississippi 55 – Kevin Parrom 19 PP/30 MIN Arizona 85, Texas Tech 57 – Solomon Hill 26 PP/26 MIN Arizona 93, NAU 50 – Nick Johnson 27 PP/22 MIN Arizona 94, Long Beach State 72 – Brandon Ashley 40 PP/24 MIN Arizona 72, UTEP 51 – Mark Lyons 21 PP/25 MIN Arizona 82, Charleston Southern 73 – Brandon Ashley 26 PP/24 MIN

DEFENSIVE/OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING% Opp DRB% ORB% Margin ASU 83.3 26.7 33-27 OSU 72.1 32.4 43-37 Oregon 79.3 29.0 32-28 Utah 71.4 48.6 38-27 Col 82.9 35.7 44-33 SDSU 63.3 36.1 30-32 Miami 86.8 46.4 46-20 ETSU 84.6 38.2 46-27 ORU 78.3 29.6 37-27 Florida 60.0 16.0 22-33 Clemson 66.7 48.8 44-33 So.Miss 58.3 52.0 34-27 TTech 72.1 41.7 41-26 NAU 81.6 28.6 39-27 LBSU 82.4 43.3 41-23 UTEP 81.5 56.5 35-15 CSU 64.5 32.4 31-34 74.8 37.8 638-478

Site publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner