With four losses in the previous five games and a losing record overall, there were plenty of things Tommy Lloyd wanted to see from Arizona in its return to action after a week off. But one goal topped the list.
“A win,” Lloyd said after the Wildcats thumped Southern Utah 102-66. “It’s what I wanted. Got it. Feeling good.”
Arizona posted its fourth win by at least 29 points and fourth scoring 93 or more, getting seven players in double figures and showing aggression on defense to turn steals into points. Now comes another week off before the UA faces old friend/foe UCLA on Dec. 7 in Phoenix.
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, guard KJ Lewis and center Henri Veesaar said afterward.
On the week off since the last game: “It’s like I said earlier in the week. Great programs, good coaches, great players are going to stumble once in a while, and the response is the key, and learning from it and coming back stronger is the objective, and that’s the challenge. We obviously have been challenged early in this season, which is a good thing, and we had a good week to kind of really evaluate a lot of things, and figure out if there’s adjustments we need to make. Even how we practice, how we talk to each other, just a lot of behavioral things. Kind of really get back to the nitty gritty of our culture. All in all, it was a good week. It’s a lot. It’s a lot when you have a week like that for the guys. But they responded.”
On this win: “I felt like it was a really good first step. You want to come out on Saturday, we’ve had a week of practice, and you want the players to reward themselves for good performance. And I thought for the most part we did tonight. Second half defensively, we could have been better. We kind of backed off that press a little bit, and they got a little bit comfortable, but that’s the right thing to do, because you’re not going to be able to win games, probably night in and night out just pressing. You’re going to have to be great in the halfcourt defensively. So I’m sure there’ll be some things on film we see that we can adjust better.”
On KJ Lewis not starting: “It really wasn’t planned on early in the week. KJ came to me the past couple days and asked if I would be open to him not starting. It was his idea. He just felt like maybe it would give other guys some opportunities, get some confidence, and kind of put him in a role similar to Pelle played a few years ago for us. I’m really proud of kJ. What’s cool is, you make a selfess decision—we call it in our program an us decision—you make a decision for the greater good, you don’t always get rewarded right away. I thought he played extremely well, and I’m glad he got rewarded, because I think that was a very unselfish ask of him to come off the bench.”
On if this was a 1-time thing or permanent: “We’ll just continue reevaluate it. It’s something that I’m not afraid to do. I’m more interested in rotation and finishing games and things like that. I’ve never been afraid to bring a starting-level player off the bench. And I think when we’ve been at our best at Arizona, we quote unquote had seven starters, and that’s what I hope we can get with this team.”
On getting 62 points from the bench: “I just think it’s really valuable. When you add guys off the bench that can contribute in a lot of ways, especially some offensive firepower, it’s good. But I think you look at a lot of KJ’s points tonight, it was probably defense to offense. So there’s lots of ways to impact the game, but you know you’re a part of a great program when your bench players are at the level of your starters. Sliding KJ to that spot gives us a real solid feel that that’s what we got.”
On finding a starting lineup that works: I also think it’s important at some point to establish a level of certainty with your team, because I think that helps players kind of know when and where their opportunities are going to come from. I don’t want it to be a situation where you’re showing up and right when we get in the huddle we tell you, hey, you’re starting tonight. I don’t know if that’s healthy. But I legitimately feel like we have seven or eight guys that can start. We’ve kind of settled in on this one for now. We’ll give it a look and see how it performs over the next period of time.
On the key to getting out in transition: “You got to get stops, you got to get rebounds, to run the ball. We got to continue to evaluate our running game. It’s a huge part of what we do. It just hasn’t come quite as easy for this group. And the running game could be a lot of things. It could be our first post running down the floor establishing early position. It usually starts with a ball handler, namely your point guard, who is pushing and accelerating the pace of the game and is finding easy opportunities. I thought Conrad (Martinez) came in and did a good job today. Conrad ended up in some numbered fast break situations, where you a 3-on-2, a 4-on-3 advantage. I thought he made really good decisions to get us easy shots. So this is something we got to continue to look at and value and be really opportunistic with.”
On getting to the line more than the previous few games: “It could be how games are officiated. It could be a lot of things that goes into the drawing fouls thing. We’ve really been challenging our guys kind of just home back in on the basics and the fundamentals. Play with two feet on the ground, turn down the tough shot to get the better shot.All the basketball cliches that you guys know and hear of. I think when you do that, I think you start getting rewarded with more foul calls. All those things start falling into place. When you jump off one foot or try to make a really hard shot, it makes it really hard for the official, especially now with verticality is part of our game defensively. I think the officials want to err on the side of not calling the foul, and so when you jump into, when you kind of launch into somebody, and they’re kind of vertical, but you’re moving the ball around, moving your arms around, I think it’s just a lot for the referee to see. The referees don’t want to be guessing, so they’re not usually guessing on the side of the offensive player. They’re guessing and erring on the side of the defensive player. So we gotta be smart there. We gotta be smart, and you gotta be a good enough player to know this is the time I can kind of launch off to and initiate contact and find a way to finish. Or, you know what? This might be a little tough, so maybe I stop on two and play off a shot fake or make a play for a teammate.”
On Anthony Dell’Orso’s recent surge: “I knew it might take him a little bit of time to adjust coming here, but he did practice really well this fall. And all the scrimmages we had, all the things where we really kept score, he performed. But then you gotta go do it under the lights, and it’s your first time coming off the bench, and so he had to work himself to those things. Your first kind of real moment, away from McKale is a tough one, you’re at Wisconsin. It doesn’t go good. Your second, you come back, try to rebound from that, you’re (against) Duke at home, and you lose a tough game. Then bam, you go right to the Bahamas for three games in three days. He’s worked himself through it, I think. And I think you guys are seeing somebody that, I’m hoping this guy’s a double-figure type scorer in that role. And the way he shoots the ball, I think he’s a guy that can draw a lot of attention and really helps in a lot of other areas.”
On Caleb Love: “I don’t know if he’s going through a funk, I think he’s just kind of finding his way. I thought for stretches in that game, Caleb was great. They were really being aggressive on his ball screen, kind of showing on his ball screen, not on anybody else’s. I thought he was doing a good job moving the ball. I thought he was good in some of those open-side ball screens. He got some layups and some dunks, he was kind of the guy making the play. When you’re a good player, you draw a lot of attention. I thought he did a good job of that. I thought he made a few timely shots. I wish his finishing would have been a little bit better today. I mean, if his finishing is a little bit better today, he’s efficient, instead of being 3 for 12 he’s 6 for 12, 7 for 12 and has 16, 18 points. I think it’s right there. I don’t think it’s any that there needs to be alarm bells going off.”
On Tobe Awaka: “Tobe is kind of being asked to play a new role, maybe a little bit bigger and more consistent role that he’s played in the past. I think he’s adjusted really well. I was watching some of these games, and the thing I kept noticing he was just always on balance. And he really hadn’t practice like that. So, why? Why in these games are you getting off balance? Are you rushing? Are you breathing? Are you are you relaxing in the moments you need to relax? He kind of got a little wound tight. We really kind of worked on it this week. Tobe is an adult, you can have good conversations with him. I think you see the game, the way he can kind of impact the game the way he did today, he’s a lot to deal with.”
On Carter Bryant: “Carter, he’s going through all the experiences he needs to go through right now. I know it’s not coming easy for him, but that’s not because he’s not a good player. He’s just got to kind of figure it out. And then he’s going to have a few Arizona moments where he kind of breaks through. He kind of had them in the second half of that Duke game a little bit. He’ll have some more of those. And when he has more of those, he’ll be able to kind of galvanize and understand what it feels like, and kind understand how to make it happen, but also understand to kind of let it come to a little bit. I’m comfortable with Carter in that role. You look at his stat line today. He has four assists, one turnover. I’ve challenged him to be a connector. What’s that, nine rebounds? He makes a shot and a couple free throws he has a double double (if he) grabs some more rebounds. That’s a really productive night. So let’s not be like just so sensitive on scoring. Some of these bigger wings, like him coming out of high school, it just takes him a little time to adjust to kind of being more like a true perimeter player. Because in high school, Carter was also the biggest guy on him. So you have to understand it takes these guys a little bit of time, and they haven’t had the ball in their hands their entire life dribbling the ball like young point guards have. Young point guards can kind of sometimes adjust a little quicker. True five men are kind of what they are, they’ve just got to figure out the physicality. It’s those in between guys that sometimes this takes a little bit of time, and I think I put Carter in that category. I’m really optimistic about what he did today. To have four assists and nine rebounds in that role today was awesome.”
On if Bryant was struggling not being a starter: “Every guy that comes to Arizona has never done his life. We’re not taking players that played JV their senior year. Every one of these guys was a star, played in all-star games, had multiple stars next to their name on the recruiting website. So it’s an adjustment for every one of them. Let’s give it a little bit of time. When KJ made the decision, I really thought about it, about how it made sense, let’s put some shooting on the floor early, and we know Carter’s a good catch-and-shoot shooter, we know over time, that’s going to play out where the numbers are going to be what we expect them to be. It gives him an opportunity maybe to spread the floor a little bit early in these games. And KJ comes in the game, and (on) that second unit can kind of become a little bit more of a ball handler and a playmaker.”
On Conrad Martinez: “I know I can rely on him, now I just have to find the opportunities for him. That’s what I’m I’m trying to figure out. Conrad is an awesome kid. He came in my office a week or two ago. You think it’s going to be the talk, like Coach,what does this mean for me. He said I just want to let you know, when you’re ready to give you the opportunity to play I’m ready, and I’m going to do it with confidence. And I’m like, wow, thank you. So you have a guy telling you that, you have a guy in KJ coming in and saying hey, I think it would be better for the team if I came off the bench. Those are the us decisions that’s going to make us a team. And when you have guys that have that high character and are making those decisions, that bodes well for the future. Those are the things I’m going to really wrap my arms around right now, but Conrad is a guy that I would love to try to find a way to give an opportunity every game. I can’t promise that’s going to happen. But I think when you you see when he gets out there, he brings something to the floor, for sure.”
On the upcoming week: “We’re gonna have a great week of practice. We’re gonna roll up our sleeves, we’re gonna compete. We’re gonna gonna get to work. We’re gonna attack it with the character we want our program to show. But we also gotta understand we know where we’re at, we know we don’t have all the answers, and we know we have a really big game on Saturday, so we’re fired up for that.”
On preparing for UCLA: “You know what our focus is going to be on? Arizona basketball. UCLA is a good program, and if we go in and then all we’re worried about his UCLA and assume that we’re going to show up and play well we’re going to get out ass kicked. So we got to make sure we go into that game and we do the things to play well to give ourselves a chance.”
Lewis on the past week: “It was really good, very important for us. This whole week was probably one of the most, I don’t want to say hardest, but one of the most disciplined weeks that we had since I’ve been here. And it was definitely needed.”
On what was worked on: “We just knew our standard wasn’t to where we would like it to be. We’ve been focusing on a bunch of us basketball, playing as a team and just moving the ball like Arizona has been before. I think today we had one of the highest assists that we had so far this year, we had 23, so we’re just gonna try to build on this going into next week.”
On his conversations with Lloyd about his technicals: “Just wanting to get on the same page, apologize to him and my teammates for how I’ve been acting emotionally, because I know I’m one of the leaders of this group, so I’m just trying to be better in that aspect.”
On if his role changes coming off the bench: “I’m going play the same regardless, starting or coming off the bench. I’m always had that edge and play with intensity defensively. Offensively, just letting it come to me and trying to help my teammates be in the best position they can be possibly.”
On volunteering to not start: “Whatever is gonna help the team. The conversation me and Coach Lloyd had, I just want to win, and I know the program wants to win, and the fans want us to win, and the team wants to win, so just trying to do whatever it takes to be in a winning position for the team. Making us plays and us sacrifices.”
On hearing from fans about the start to the season: “I’m pretty sure the city of Tucson is disappointed, but it’s a long season. We got a great coach, we got a great coaching staff and a great team. We’re going to get this thing turned around.”
On if opponents try to bait him into getting T’d up: “Maybe, but that’s something I gotta control, too. I’m just an ultra competitive guy. I don’t want to say anything about the refs, but I think it just depends how the game is being reffed and how the game is going, and I just got to learn how to find ways to control my emotions. And then when I want to be emotional, be emotional with my teammates.”
Veesaar on his offensive aggression: “I let the game come to me mostly. Play as a team, all week we’ve been building as a team.”
On lobbing to himself off the backboard for a dunk: “(KJ) faked a back cut and I was in the air so I had to throw it off the glass.”
On the bench being productive: “It’s very important as a team. If you come off the bench you just got to give energy to the guys who were on the court. Whatever it is, like points, rebounds, blocks, defense and effort.”