Following a sixth consecutive win, which put Arizona 4-0 in the Big 12 in its first season of play, Tommy Lloyd voiced his displeasure with the most recent performance, that his team needed to be better in order to handle the challenges ahead.
One of those tough tasks was Baylor, a perennial power in the Big 12. The Wildcats beat the Bears 81-70, leading for all but 70 seconds, to run their win streak to seven.
“They responded, and they played really well tonight,” Lloyd said. “It was a big game that we needed to play well, we needed this one.”
For at least one night, the UA (11-5, 5-0) is alone atop the Big 12 standings. But there are still 15 more games left, the next two on the road at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.
“It’s a mile,” Lloyd said of the Big 12. “We just finished a lap, so we got three more hard laps to go. Let’s not act like we’ve arrived or all is well. We got to keep fighting.”
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, guard Jaden Bradley and center Henri Veesaar said afterward:
Lloyd on the overall performance: “I thought they came out, they played spirited, good effort. Obviously we have a big lead again, we kind of let it dwindle. We didn’t let it get as close as we did last time. It’s just something we got to focus on, I got to figure out why is it happening? Is it human nature? Is it fatigue? Is it a little bit of selfishness? These are the things I got to figure out. But these guys deserve a lot of credit. They’ve been through a lot this year.”
On the crowd: “McKale showed up. Thank you. 9pm, our fans are great. McKale is such an advantage when everyone shows up. And for me, my dream—I have a lot of dreams, one of them—every home game in the Big 12 should be sold out in McKale. If we don’t sell it out for a directional school in the nonconference, I don’t love it, but maybe I’ll understand it. But every Big 12 game should be sold out. Our fan base is awesome. Our players deserve it so. So my plea to the fans is no empty seats. I mean, it was an awesome atmosphere, but these guys deserve that. The program deserves that. They don’t deserve it because of me. They deserve it because of the 60 years of history of Arizona basketball and what it means to this community.”
On Veesaar: “Henri’s playing great. And I’ve been telling him, hey, Henri, you’re turning into a real player. So what you can’t do now is relax. You got to keep going for it. You’re on the scouting report now, and you’re not a surprise. So you got to keep coming. He gives us real advantages out there. Henri’s an interesting player. He can make a three, he can pass, and he’s a big target on some of your passes. Whether it’s in the zone, trying to get in the middle of the zone, or hitting him on a lob, or a tip dunk on a rebound, he’s a big target.”
On Veesaar’s development: “Henri’s what college basketball is all about. Everyone wants things to happen so fast. And here’s a kid in his third year, and his first year, I thought he was gonna be part of rotation. He was a high-level recruit, and he struggled. So we got to the point where we didn’t play him much, because it just wasn’t right for that team. Last year he had made progress. He has an unfortunate injury in the preseason and continues to work and changes his body and matures. And now an injury happens on our team, so he gets a little bit more of an opportunity. And so that’s what building the program and developing players is all about. So I’m really proud of Henri . Till the day I’m done, I’m always going to be about helping players get better. And so I’m really proud of the way Henri’s progressing, but I’m sure I’ll see a few things on film that I want him to do a little bit better next week.”
On being physical: “That’s how we always want to play. It’s not just a change of style, because we’re in the Big 12. We’ve always wanted to play physical. Number 15 (Norchad Omier) and 17 (Josh Ojianwuna) for them are beasts on the glass, and Scott (Drew) is a great coach. And a lot of things get lost in the shuffle. What Scott does such a good job of is, he hones in and focuses on the things that win consistently, and rebounding wins consistently. His teams are always great on the glass, and we knew we had to match 15 and 17 from the tip. And 7 (VJ Edgecombe) is becoming a good offensive rebounder. So I thought our guys did a great job setting the tone. I would have liked to win the glass by a few more, but we’ll definitely take a positive number there, it’s better than a negative number.”
On if the 2nd half slide was similar to the one against UCF: “There were a few similarities, there were some turnovers. They kind of went more exclusive to their zone. They would be like switching man more in the first half, went more exclusive to their zone. And their zone is unique, and you try to prepare your players for it. You try to tell them what it’s going to look like and feel like. Your scout team maybe can’t simulate it as good as you would like, and so you got to get a feel for it. So hopefully we’ll learn from this and our zone offense will get better. I just thought we were playing way too far out on the perimeter. We kind of lost our energy and effort, so just kind of put the ball overhead, passing it side to side. Get nothing good with penetration, no dribble penetration, no pass penetration. It left a lot to be desired, but you’re also managing a lead and trying to win the ball game. To me, that was the ultimate thing. I wasn’t wasn’t gonna get too worried about it, because my main focus was, we need to get out of here with the win. Because wins in the Big 12 are hard to come by, and we we needed to get this one today because we’re going on a 2-game road trip.”
On Anthony Dell’Orso: “He’s playing his role, I thought he had a real defining moment in his short Arizona career in that first half, those three threes, kind of bang, bang, bang. That electrifies the gym. It provides a spark and a run for us. I think he’s playing really well. He’s kind of really figuring out how he fits in here. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for him to do that on a consistent basis.”
On Trey Townsend: “I thought Trey played great today. He’s 4 for 7, a couple of those balls just rolled off the rim. He literally should have been 6 for 6 from two. And then he battled, he got offensive rebound throughout the game. He battled number 15. Number 15 is the No. 1 rebounder all-time in college basketball, right now, active rebounder, and has the most double doubles. And he only got four rebounds today. And Trey gets a lot of credit for that. He played great defense. He was physical. I thought he was great today. I thought Trey was spectacular. And that’s winning basketball, and that’s what you have to do on winning teams.”
On Jaden Bradley: “He’s just rock solid. Jaden is really becoming a rock solid point guard and running the team. He’s doing a great job communicating with me, giving me ideas. And when you have a lead guard doing that, that means a lot. I’m really liking the player he’s developing into. I mean, we’re riding pretty hard right now, but to have 13 points, six assists, one turnover, is pretty impressive.”
On the importance of rebounding: “The Big 12 is a rebounding conference. Teams rebound. Every team rebounds. Iowa State, one of the best things they do is rebound. Houston, the best thing they do is rebound, among other things. Kansas can be great on the glass. I think it’s just a byproduct of the conference, and you have to be able to go toe to toe on the glass, or you’re going to have some tough nights.”
On struggling to finish: “I asked them for a full 40 minutes. We didn’t quite get it. It’s a little bit of a cliche, let’s put 40 minutes together. It’s hard in high level basketball, and the other team is good, too, and they have a good coach, and they have good players, they have pride. They’re going to respond. I asked them for a full 40 minutes, and we came out and got off to a good start, and then we kind of started trading baskets and we could kind of sustain the lead, and then they kind of were able to cut into it. The closest they got to was what, nine? I probably should have felt a little more comfortable than I did, but when it got to nine, I was like, I knew we were in a game. It’s hard to put away a game. You gotta win a game multiple times. And we just didn’t do a good enough job during that stretch.”
On if he thought, before the season, his team would turn a corner around now: “I don’t live in hypotheticals, so I didn’t know early. I thought we had a good team. I knew we had a good team. We got off to a little bit of a rough start. So you know that that might skew things a little bit, but we really wanted to build. We wanted to get off to a good start in conference, that was important for us. And I think we’ve done that.”
On Arizona winning without Caleb Love having a big game: “I think it says a lot. I think we have good players. I think that we’re always going to be team first. Caleb’s a team guy as well. And I feel good that when he’s not playing well we’re okay. There’s some reassurance that okay, we got this, because it’s a lot of pressure on a guy to play good every single day. I know this: he’s gonna have great games, he’s gonna have great stretches. And tonight just wasn’this best night. He had some good looks early, obviously, a couple of those threes early, he makes couple of those maybe it’s a different story. We’re a team, and we always talk about team. We talk about us, all the time. And so I don’t really get caught up in one player but I know this: Caleb is a great dude, he’s really talented. He’s had an incredible college basketball career and a lot of success, and a lot of success this year. Who’s to say he doesn’t go out next Saturday on the road and play his best game of the season?”
Bradley on Veesaar: “Henri’s amazing, off the court as well. For a 5 man he’s a matchup problem. We can do a lot of different things with Henri out there, it’s making our team better right now.”
On responding to the poor effort last game: “We know Baylor’s a great team. We couldn’t come in here flat with no energy. We got all the Tucson in here. That’s the best fan base in the country.”
On starting out strong but not finishing: “Credit to the guys first half, we did amazing. But for stretches of the game we got to figure out what we can do. We’ve had a big lead these last couple games, and teams are kind of coming back, in the future that could kind of haunt us, so we got to figure out what we got to do to take care of the ball and get stops, continue to grow on that side of the put together a full 40.”
On being 2-0 on the road in Big 12 play: “That previous road trip definitely helped us, but we can’t look back at that and dwell on that too much. It’s new teams, new everything.”
Veesaar on Baylor coach Scott Drew calling him a pro: “I have definitely not heard that from (another) coach. I appreciate that a lot. I thought I always had the confidence, because I remember how I played when I was younger. I know I’ve had tough two years here, but I always had the confidence I could play this way.”
On not letting the entire lead slip away: “We did a great job staying poised. They made a good one in the second half, and we just kind of stayed poised and kept our calm, kept moving the ball.”