What to watch for when Arizona men’s basketball plays in Battle4Atlantis

3 games in 3 days in a ballroom-turned-basketball court

Arizona is on its first losing streak of the Tommy Lloyd era, sitting at 2-2 after consecutive losses to Wisconsin and Duke. This would be the perfect opportunity for the Wildcats to have a easy game before Thanksgiving, to get themselves right and head into December with some momentum.

Instead, they’re more than 2,000 miles away and set to play three games in three days on a court inside a resort ballroom with a 26-foot ceiling. Then again, the beach is right outside the door, so take the good with the bad.

“We’re playing basketball in the Bahamas, I’m grateful for that,” senior guard Caleb Love said. “We are grateful to be here, and step on the floor and kind of redeem ourselves. We’re bringing our hard hats, and coming with the right mindset, the right mental state of mind. We’re ready to go out there and play.”

Arizona, which remained in the AP Top 25 at No. 24, opens play in the Battle4Atlantis at 5:30 p.m. MT against Davidson. The Wildcats will play either Oklahoma or Providence on Thanksgiving, with Friday’s final opponent potentially one with some connections to the UA.

“We’re excited to be here,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We can’t wait to get out and play. We’ve been going through it a little bit these last couple weeks, but I think I’m at a point right now where I’m grateful for where we’re at and grateful for the opportunity we have in front of us and and just looking for an opportunity to respond, with the risk that we know that the response might not be the one that you want.

“We’re a program that has a lot of pride, we pride ourselves on working on our culture every day. So this is a great challenge for us right now.”

This is Arizona’s second appearance in the Battle4Atlantis, the previous one in 2018 an infamous one when it showed up No. 2 in the country and left unranked after going 0-3.

Here’s what to watch for during Arizona’s time at the Atlantis Resort in Nassau:

Dangerous Davidson

The 8-team Battle4Atlantis field features six teams from power conferences—two from the Big 12—as well as perennial mid-major power Gonzaga, which is the highest-ranked team in the event at No. 3.

And then there’s Davidson, a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference that at No. 117 in KenPom is the lowest-rated team in the tournament. Sometimes the most unknown opponents are the most dangerous ones, but Lloyd is well aware of what the Wildcats will face in the … Wildcats.

“Playing Davidson tests your character, and that’s nothing but respect for them when I say that,” Lloyd said. “They’re a program that’s really done a great job sticking to their their core values and their identity. Davidson today is the Davidson when Steph Curry was there which is just remarkable. We know the challenge we’re up against tomorrow. I’ve played against some Davidson teams over the years, and I know this: that there’s more than meets the eye. And so our guys need to come out and respect that and understand that it’s a program that has deeply ingrained values that they can call on in big moments.”

Davidson (4-0) is averaging 87 points per game this season and shooting 50.8 percent. Junior forward Reed Bailey leads the Wildcats in scoring (19.0) and rebouning (7.8) and two other players—sophomore forward Bobby Durkin and senior guard Connor Kochera—are averaging 16 points per game, and all five starters are in their second or third year with the program.

Third-year coach Matt McKillop is the son of longtime Davidson coach Bob McKillop, who won 634 games and made 10 NCAA tourney appearances in 33 seasons.

“The McKillop clan has done an amazing job running that program,” Lloyd said. “A little known fact is that my son took an unofficial visit there out of high school, so I’ve known their their coaches for a long time.”

Looking ahead

Lloyd hates talking hypotheticals, but he’s well aware that the other side of the Battle4Atlantis bracket features two teams he’d rather not have to play. Not just because of the quality of the opponent but for his connections to them.

Topping that list is Gonzaga, where Lloyd was an assistant under Mark Few for 21 seasons before taking the Arizona job. The schools were set to play in Spokane in 2020-21 before COVID got in the way, and Lloyd has held off on rescheduling that game against his longtime mentor.

Arizona/Gonzaga would be a Friday matchup, possibly the title game, and Lloyd joked that he tried to get out of the tourney when he saw the Bulldogs were also set to play in Nassau.

“We know that our paths are going to cross eventually,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something that anybody necessarily wants to play to get something up on the other guy. It’s nothing like that. But when you have two great programs, eventually they’re going to cross paths. There’s no potential matchup with the Zags until the third day, so I’m not even there yet, so I might give you a different answer if we end up playing them.”

Another team Arizona could play Friday is No. 14 Indiana, which features former Wildcat Oumar Ballo as its starting center. The 7-foot Ballo spent three seasons with the UA after following Lloyd from Gonzaga and reportedly got paid seven figures to play his final college year with the Hoosiers.

“He obviously had some great opportunities with other programs, and he took a full advantage of them,” Lloyd said. “I was 100 percent supportive of him. I’m rooting for Big O every day. I saw that he switched his free throw to left hand, and I’m like, maybe I was missing something the last few years. But I’m excited for him and his journey, and it looks like he’s off to a good start.”

Ballo is averaging 12.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks on 70.4 percent shooting. The field goal percentage and block numbers are career highs, making you wonder what he’d be doing at Arizona if he stuck around.

But according to Lloyd, Ballo’s decision to move on was at least partly due to wanting to give Motiejus Krivas an opportunity to take the next step in his UA career.

“He said it’s not fair that a guy like me get six years in college, and a guy like Mo Krivas gets four,” Lloyd said of Ballo, who redshirted his first season at Gonzaga and also got an extra year of eligibility from COVID. “Obviously I want to take advantage of that, but I don’t want to be in Mo’s way either. I’m 100 percent proud of him as a man that he was able to see a good player underneath him who he thought deserved a chance to take the next step in a great program. So that’s how it happened. There was nothing more to it.”

Big opportunity under a low ceiling

Depending on what time Arizona plays on Friday, it could end up playing three times in less than 72 hours. Only once during the remainder of the regular season will it play twice in a 3-day span, making this tournament both a physical and mental test.

“It takes a lot out of your team,” Lloyd said. “The challenging thing is, the other time of year you do that is when? The conference tournament. And so you have these two times of the year you put a lot of stress on your team.”

With the potential for fatigue, Arizona could easily lose two of three—or, gasp, all three—and head into December in a real rut. Or it can use the tournament as a chance to “flip the script” as Lloyd put it after the home loss to Duke.

“Every single time we get to lace up the shoes and play a basketball game is a new opportunity and an opportunity for us to prove ourselves,” senior wing Trey Townsend said. “We’ve had a couple days off, but a couple great days to really hone in, as coach was saying, and find our identities. What better way to do it then play three great teams in three days in a row. This will test us more than a lot of challenges throughout the year, but having an opportunity like this early on, I know we’re all excited for it. I know a lot of guys are just ready to show what they can do, but also show you know what this team is capable of.”

The tourney is a big opportunity for Love to right his own ship after back-to-back rough outings. Against Wisconsin and Duke he had 14 points on 5-of-26 shooting including 1 of 15 from 3, his first time failing to score in double figures in consecutive games since midway through the 2022-23 season with North Carolina.

Love hasn’t gone three-plus games without at least 10 points since February 2021, during his freshman year.

“My teammates, my coaches support me each and every day, and that never wavered,” Love said. “Good game, bad game, good shot, bad shot, assist, turnover. I’m going to go out there and play with confidence, the utmost confidence, and not put any pressure on myself. Just hoop and have fun.”

Added Lloyd: “Caleb’s gonna come out and he could play out of his mind the next three days. If he doesn’t play out of his mind the next few days, we’re gonna keep going forward. There’s no concern on my end. If Caleb playing well is what’s going to stand between us and being a good team, I feel pretty good that ultimately he’s going to play great. So I like the security of that feeling.”

Love, like most Wildcats, will be playing for the first time in the Imperial Arena, a venue that’s normally a ballroom and has 26-foot ceilings. Lloyd has been there before, with Gonzaga, but after the initial reaction—“the first time you walk in you’re like, oh, that’s different”—you forget about it.

We practiced yesterday, and it felt great just playing on the floor and getting shots up, and I didn’t see a problem with it at all,” Love said.