Down 20 points in the second half to a top 10 team in a tough road environment, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd wanted to see whether his team would show some fight.
The Wildcats indeed fought back, closing Iowa State’s lead to single figures before the Cyclones pulled away for an 84-67 victory in Ames. In a game that didn’t feature many positives for Arizona, Lloyd was pleased with the Wildcats’ resolve.
“We’re gonna fight back,” Lloyd said. “We’re not a bunch of bums. Iowa State played good and our guys have pride, and they’ll battle back.”
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lloyd had to say afterwards.
Lloyd on Iowa State: “Hey, awesome atmosphere. Congrats to Iowa State, and they played great today. They obviously had a great shooting stretch there in the first half that kind of gave them the cushion they needed, and were able to kind of ride it out. So a lot of respect for TJ and what he’s doing here. The fans were great today. So I guess good for Ames and bad for Arizona. So we’ll move on.”
On the Cyclones getting what they wanted offensively: “I mean, listen, they’re a really good team, and they’ve been kind of banged up with injuries and fighting themselves. And listen, it’s not rocket science. All you got to do is look at their shooting splits home and away. And you know obviously they shoot the ball well at home, and and you’re hoping your defense can have a little bit of an impact on that. And I’m sure we’re going to go back and watch that and feel some defensive errors we did that could have either taken away a shot here or there or made one more contested. But we just didn’t get it done. And you dug yourself a big hole. And I’m really proud of our guys for battling back. That could have been a 30 piece right there, and our guys hung with it. We got pride. We’re here for it, and we’re on to the next one.”
On Arizona’s defensive breakdowns guarding Milan Momcilovic: “It’s a problem. I don’t think some of his threes were necessarily us keeping them out of the paint. They’re on little actions, you know, fake ball screens to a quick pin away. And that’s a defensive mistake. I mean, you can guard that if you have awareness. And our guys just didn’t guard it. And that’s good execution by them but that had nothing to do with keeping them out of the paint. Hey. we’re trying to keep them out of paint. they’re trying to keep us out of the paint. And they made some threes during the stretch that allowed them to kind of get a lead at home, which is too much to overcome.”
On what to say to the team when Iowa State can’t miss: “I mean, they can miss. They just weren’t. Let’s make them miss. Let’s play better defense. I don’t know what to say to that. I mean, they’re a really good team with really good players, and I’m sure they feel like they got a big push in them now. Because obviously they came into the season with great expectations and have had some injuries and maybe threw them off the rhythm a little bit, but that they feel like they’re fully loaded now. So I’m sure they’re excited.”
On what got through to the team in the second half: “We’ve got pride. We’re gonna fight back. I mean, we’re not a bunch of bums, you know. Like Iowa State played good, and our guys have pride, and they’ll battle back. And we got good players, too. It would have been awesome to get off to a little bit better start and make that game go down to the wire. I mean, that was the goal, and we weren’t able to do it.”
On playing Conrad Martinez: “Listen, Conrad is an amazing kid. I love that kid, high character, incredible player. I just haven’t given a lot of opportunities in the way that game was going. You never know. You throw a curve ball in there and see what happens and and I thought he really, really, really impacted the game. His stat line won’t show it, but I thought he really impacted the game, and it was a spark. So that that definitely something I could put in my back pocket going forward.”
On whether there was any hesitation playing Martinez: “I mean you’re down 20 points. I mean, you got to try something, you know what? You got to try something. And the kid deserved an opportunity. If we were down four, I probably wouldn’t have did it. So the way the game played out, I thought it was an opportunity for him to come in and if it went well, it gives me a good look. I don’t want to put him in those situations sometimes we’re down two or four because what if it goes bad? You know, I’m trying to build the kid’s confidence and and he was great today. So we’ll see what happens to going forward. But I’m really proud of Conrad and his character.”