After the NCAA Tournament field was completely unveiled Sunday afternoon, the selection committee released the ranking of all 68 teams as part of its transparency to show the bracket’s overall balance. Arizona came in at No. 16, essentially the last of the No. 4 seeds, despite losing 12 games.
The five teams ranked directly behind the Wildcats had between five and nine losses but ended up getting seeded 5th or 6th.
“It’s a great amount of respect from the NCAA committee to give us a 4 seed,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Obviously we know we had a little bit of up and down year, but I’m really proud of our guys and how we hung in there. I think it shows the strength of our conference and the kind of the challenges we faced. Somebody told me … we played the 4th-hardest schedule the country. It felt like that at times, so it’s good to be rewarded. We’re excited to get to Seattle, we’re excited to be in the tournament and we got Akron on our mind.”
As the No. 4 seed in the East Region, the UA (22-12) will open play Friday at 4:35 p.m. PT against 13th-seeded Akron. The Wildcats leave for Seattle, where they used to play almost annually against Washington during the Pac-10/12 era, on Wednesday.
“We got a lot of alums there,” Lloyd said. “In all those Pac-12 (arenas) it felt like we had fans everywhere, we had a great, loyal following up and down the West Coast. So hopefully, this will be a way for some of our fans up in the Northwest that don’t get to see us now get an opportunity to watch us play.”
Below is what Lloyd and senior forward Trey Townsend said about Arizona’s seed, first-round matchup and the season to this point:
Lloyd on his first impression of Akron: “I know Coach (John) Groce, he’s been around for a long time. I played against him way back in the day when he was at Illinois and I was in Gonzaga, and I think they got the better of us. He’s a well-respected coach. He’s done a great job. Looks like they had a great year. I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t watched them play. Just looking at their stats, they get up and down, they shoot the three.I know he’s always been a creative coach. I’m excited to take a look at them.”
On if he is happy with being a No. 4 seed in Seattle: “I’m not gonna get greedy. Now that the tournament is set you kind of to throw the seed out. We gotta go play the games. Seattle’s not real close to Tucson, but it’s on the West Coast, and it’s a place some of us are comfortable with. But I don’t think that’ll have any bearing on how the game plays out.”
On Climate Pledge Arena: “It’s a really cool, cool place. I actually have been since they’ve renovated it. We used to play in the old Key Arena. I know downtown Seattle well, obviously being a guy from the northwest. Hope my wife can handle all the ticket demands so I can focus on the business, the task at hand, coaching.”
On the possibility of playing Oregon in the 2nd round: “I’m not even thinking about that. We’re going to be 100 percent focused on Akron. No one knows that more than us.”
On going back to his home state: “It’s good to go back to a place where I’m from. It’s not about me, it’s about the program. It’ll be a place that our fans can get to, and hopefully come support us.”
On what he learned about his team in the Big 12 Tournament: “We’re good, we’re a good team, we’re competitive with anybody. Like anybody, we’re not perfect. I think we’re a team that continues to get better. We had a really tough end of the season schedule, and we had some bumps in the road. Maybe a few things didn’t go away, but our guys stuck with it. Getting to a championship game against Houston and have a chance to win in the last minute. I mean, we’re right there. Now we got to get it done.”
On if the Big 12 prepared Arizona for the NCAA tourney: “We’re going to find out. Obviously we’ve been battle tested. We’ve been tested from November through December, through January, February, March. We didn’t really have an easy stretch. This team has been tested, and it knows that in order for us to win, we know we have to play at our best. If we don’t play our best, we’re vulnerable like everybody else.”
On if Arizona’s schedule prepared it for all possible opponents: “I think we’ve seen a lot of good basketball and seen a lot of variations and styles. We’ll take a look at Akron and we’ll figure out what they look like, and then we’ll scheme and gameplan the best we can play against Akron. But I feel like we’ve had a great schedule over the course of this year that hopefully put us in position to take advantage of that.”
On if this season feels different than the first three going into the tourney: “I think we had a little more adversity over the course of this year. So I’m really proud. Are you going to be a program that front runs everything? Because that’s not realistic. Or are you going to be a program that, in your tougher days you could dig deep and find a way to still be successful? We’re right there. Now, you know what? You got to go win games, and you got to take advantage of these opportunities.”
On his emotional in-the-huddle rant during a TV timeout: “ESPN was really on me about doing it. I’m gonna be honest with you, I had a friend who’s high up at ESPN reach out to me, and kind of made me feel guilty for not doing the in-game stuff. Listen, here’s the deal. I’m not a psycho. Obviously, I was trying to get my team’s attention in a big game, that’s coaching. And I don’t do that stuff because I’m not trying to look smart. I’m not trying to look crazy. I’m just a normal guy. I want to be a normal guy in Tucson. I don’t want people to come in and look at me like a crazy guy and with pictures of my face on their T-shirt yelling at somebody. I mean, that’s kind of embarrassing for me. I said yes because it was for a friend. It probably didn’t turn out the way I like.”
On saying Arizona isn’t ‘West Coast soft’: “We’ve never been soft. People that want to use that perception, they’re just being lazy. We’re here for the fight. We’re here for the battles. I think if you ask Houston, I don’t think they’re sitting there saying, yeah, we can punk Arizona. They know they’re in for a battle. And you know what, they’ve gotten the best of us two times, and I can’t wait to play them next time.”
On Houston targeting some of his players: “The Big 12 is a target league, more than any conference I’ve played in. Teams attack matchups. I mean, listen, the big 12 to target league. I mean, it’s more than any comments I’ve ever played in, you know, teams attack matchups. In college you just don’t see it that often. And yesterday, it worked out. I was a little bit disappointed, because I think individually defensively, we can win those matchups. That’s the challenge for our guys. When you’re getting ISO’d like that, own it and step up and make it our advantage. We’ll learn from that and grow from that. They ISO’d us in a few scenarios, and then they made all the shots. Usually you can ISO and get off a good shot and miss it. But yesterday, they all went in, so congrats to Houston.”
On people thinking he isn’t competitive enough: “You don’t do this job if you’re not competitive. You don’t do this job if you’re not wired a little different. But that doesn’t mean, when you step away from it that you can’t be a normal person. Like, my job doesn’t define me. Who I am as a person, how I treat people. The relationships I have, my family, those are the things that define me. I just happen to coach basketball, and I coach basketball in a really competitive space. I think you could be both things. I think you could be competitive at your job, and I think you could be a normal person in your day to day life.”
On not overreacting to losses: “You have to have perspective, because if you lose, what am I going to do? Freak out and burn the whole thing down, or am I going to build it back up and find a way to make it better? Losing is part of the job I do, and you better learn how to handle it, because if you can’t, it’ll eat you up, and you probably won’t be a very good coach. Listen, I want to go undefeated every year, but that’s not possible. So you have to coach like in a realistic world, not in a fantasy world. People can say what they want, but you guys know how much attention I pay to that stuff.”
On Houston coach Kelvin Sampson calling Henri Veesaar a 1st round NBA pick: “Kelvin’s a great judge of talent, and maybe someday. I think there’s still meat on the bone and work to be done there, but I appreciate him thinking highly of one of our players.”
Townsend on his experience playing schools from the MAC like Akron: “They’re hard working teams, very talented. Last year, they had a superstar player ended up being drafted. So they’re known for having a lot of talent. It’ll be a good game, I’m excited to just play March Madness again.”
On if being ‘battle-tested’ by the Big 12 is a thing: “Definitely I’d say it is. It’s a very physical league, very talented top to bottom. So every single game has that March Madness feel to it, and that just gets you ready for this tournament throughout the whole season. But now it is just win or go home.”
On the difference between this Selection Sunday and last year: “Fortunately, last year, I was able to make the tournament with Oakland, and we had a cool little watch party. But obviously we came in as a 14 seat, so it was a little different feel. But to me, it’s all it’s all the same. It’s just super exciting, no matter what seed it is to be a part of an event like this, it’s something not everyone that plays college basketball gets to experience. So to be able to do it as a higher seed it does add a little pressure, but it just makes it that much more exciting.”
On the emergence of #MarchTrey: “I just started seeing the ball going a little bit more, that always builds the confidence. My coaches and teammates never lost that confidence in me. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes and I’ve been really trying to play with the mentality that these are my last couple college games ever. Especially now that it’s March, it is tournament time, it’s win or go home, so trying to play with that mindset that this could be last time I step on the court and pass that to my teammates as well.”
On starting to wear an undershirt: “On Senior Night I decided to change it up a little bit. I wore one last year, I didn’t have the arm sleeve on with it. I decided to change it up and it’s been going pretty well.”
On dealing with pressure: “I have high expectations for myself. I think everyone that plays at this level does. When you don’t reach those obviously you get a little disappointed in yourself, but it’s also just some more motivation to want to keep playing better. Like I said, my teammates and coaches never lost that faith in me, so I wouldn’t say it was pressure. Thankfully, I’m on such a talented team, and a lot of guys are super talented, so it’s not that big of a thing for me, but just getting back in the flow things obviously feels great for myself.”
On Lloyd calling him a big game player: “Obviously that’s a great compliment to have, knowing that they trust me to be able to step up in big games. Being a veteran player, have played in college this long, and fortunate enough to play some high-level games at Oakland. Even though it was a mid-major, we played a lot of power five conference teams, high-major games. So having that experience it’s been good, and obviously in my play personally, but just being able to lead and help the guys, the young guys like Carter who haven’t played in these big games like this, and guys that haven’t at this level.”
On where this team is at right now: “This team’s just super excited for this postseason. We look at these little chapters throughout the season as new seasons in a sense. Rocky start, but then we righted the ship and got on a little roll. And obviously the Big 12 is such a beast of a conference, so you’re gonna lose a couple games in there, and then once the postseason started we’ve looked at that as a new season, and now the main tournament is starting. So we’re gonna go in and prepare like it’s Game 1, a zero-zero mentality, and go have some fun.”
On being targeted by opponents: “Every team is going to have specific game plans, guys they want to go at. And the way we guard, we switch a lot of things so we’ll have bigs on guards and guards on bigs. Everyone will be targeted. I think our staff has done a great job to help myself and other individuals in those situations, through those moments.”
On giving perspective to younger players who haven’t been in March Madness: “My entire career at Oakland, my coach would always say the tournament is something like you could never imagine. It’s such a special thing. And it took until my fourth season there to finally get there. So the biggest thing for me, I just want them to enjoy the whole experience. It really is such a special thing. Like everyone says it, but once you’re there playing in it, you see everything. There’s nothing like it throughout the whole season. Just go play your game, like you don’t want to change a whole lot about what you’re doing, because that’s where I think things can go wrong, like you just do what you did to get there.”
On the play of him and Veesaar: “We’re definitely both playing with a lot of confidence. He and I are guys that work out together a lot outside of practice and things like that. We’ve been played well together. I love being on the court with him. We just feed off of each other. We’re both very versatile players. And obviously, Henri’s got a lot of size. Just seeing each other succeed, I think motivates the other person to do the same.”
On knowing what it’s like to be part of an NCAA Tournament upset: “It is March, and anything can happen especially nowadays. Any team can beat anybody, you don’t want to overlook anyone, and that’s when you start to kind of face those problems if you are overlooking, thinking about what’s ahead. We’ve learned from beginning of the season struggles to never underestimate any opponent. Just play like it is your last game because really, now that we’re here, this is. Every time we step on the go to could be the last time so just playing every game like you’re playing the 1 seed.”