Arizona men’s basketball coach Tommy Lloyd has coached enough games in Salt Lake City to not take lead for granted playing 4,300 feet above sea level. While the Wildcats got off to a stellar start in their 97-78 win over the Utes to open Big 12, Lloyd said after the game he never felt comfortable. […]
Arizona men’s basketball coach Tommy Lloyd has coached enough games in Salt Lake City to not take lead for granted playing 4,300 feet above sea level.
While the Wildcats got off to a stellar start in their 97-78 win over the Utes to open Big 12, Lloyd said after the game he never felt comfortable.
“Utah, they kept coming. They kept coming. They kept coming,” Lloyd said. “They got some talented players. And I thought they had stretches of the game where they played really well tonight, so I want to give them credit as well.”
Arizona (14-0, 1-0 Big 12) prevailed with another lopsided win thanks to balanced scoring, with four players reaching 17 or more points.
We don’t ever want to be a program that’s just relying on one guy,“ Lloyd said. ”We want our good players to love playing with other good players.“
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, Tobe Awaka and Brayden Burries said after the win.
Lloyd on playing at altitude: “I was waiting for Bruce (Pascoe) to bring up the altitude question, and I felt it walking up here on the ramp. Bruce, did you feel that? My lungs were burning walking up on that ramp?. Lungs and legs.”
On getting off to a strong start to the game: “We wanted to get off to a good start. And obviously, we’ve been really focusing on kind of this, it’s a new year. It’s kind of a, you’re starting a conference season 0 and 0. So let’s treat it as such. Let’s be excited to play. And I thought our guys did that. I thought we came out in the game. And we really had great early effort, early energy. And we were able to kind of build a little bit of a cushion and play off it. But what I will say is, I never felt comfortable. I mean, I played in this building too many times, and Utah, they kept coming. They kept coming. They kept coming. They got some talented players. And I thought they had stretches of the game where they played really well tonight, so I want to give them credit as well.”
On the importance of playing with two bigs: “I mean, guys, I’ve been playing two bigs for a lot of years, and obviously that’s a comfort of mine. And I think there’s a lot a lot of ways to look at the game of basketball, and I think if you look at successful college teams the one thing that they can do, they’re there for the fight. They’re there for the fight, for the physical battle, they’re there. And I think that’s been proven, and that’s allowed teams to be consistent. high level, high level performing especially in the tournament. So of course, we want to look at that and, but I love skilled basketball. I love teaching basketball, but I also understand at the end of the game, you can do all this cute stuff, but if you can’t rebound, if you can’t put your chest on people on defense, if you can’t protect the paint, if you can’t put foul pressure on the other team and rim pressure on the other team, man. You’re living and dying with a lot of jump shots. And for me, let’s not act like I’m some maestro. Sometimes it’s just how it comes together. And a big part of recruiting is you appreciate the ones you were able to get to say yes, and the ones we got to say yes are built to play a certain way, and we want to take advantage of that.”
On whether he encourages Awaka to shoot 3-pointers: “Well, listen, I mean, Tobe’s worked really hard on his shot. And one of the aspects of player development that we really focus on is obviously, the number one objective for me is to win games at Arizona.But secondly, I want these guys to get better and have careers that long, that go way past Arizona and so. So these guys are working on things for the future. We’re not just doing everything for us. And these guys they do individual workouts every day with our coaches. And you can only shoot so many jump hooks. It’s hard to work on offensive rebounding 1 on 0. So they’re allowed to work on, on our stuff. And I’ll give Tobe credit. I mean, Tobe has really changed his shot, over the last year. And to change your shot is something that that takes multiple years to kind of get there. And because you have to fine tune, fine tune, fine tune, then you have to get game confidence, there’s a lot of steps that go into it, so it’s a real long process. That’s why you don’t see many non shooters develop into shooters because it’s just, it’s hard to stick to it. And so I’ll give Tobe a ton of credit. Mo shoots the three really well from the top. Koa shot has really come along. So are we going to live and die in that no, but is it nice to have in your back pocket once in a while? Yeah. Am I proud of those guys for having the confidence to call their own number once in a while? For sure, we want our players to play with that confidence and that freedom.”
On how balanced scoring allows Arizona to absorb when an opponent makes their run: “Well, it allows you to kind of settle in on a rotation, subbing wise. So you can get guys rest. Sometimes a team makes a run and you’re afraid to sub. And it’s happened to me a lot, you’re afraid to sub. So you might leave a guy out there for three or four minutes longer than he usually was, and then you kind of run their legs out of them. I just think when you when you have multiple guys you contribute, you’re a little more comfortable sticking to a kind of a closer to a subbing rotation, where guys have certainty and know where their opportunities are going to come. And then the other thing is, it’s a luxury of having a lot of good players it’s a lot of good players. We don’t ever want to be a program that’s just relying on one guy. We want our good players to love playing with other good players. And we want to be a program that that that guys want to make each other better, and at the same token I want to help my brother, but, I also understand my brother helps me. And we want those things to be kind of a core part of our identity.”
On inheriting a strong program and how he builds a team: “Well first off, I inherited an amazing legacy at the University of Arizona men’s basketball. They’ve had way more success and sustained success before I got there. So I inherited a program with really strong bones. And that had a brand and name recognition. So that’s obviously, I don’t want to discredit that neck like I got all these great answers and this pixie dust, because I don’t. No geniuses. We’re a day to day program. We, we, we literally try to make one good decision that leads to the next good decision leads to the next good decision. If we make a bad decision, we assess it and try to not to make it again and try to learn from it. We’re not complicated people. So that probably more my formula than anything. I don’t have an algorithm, okay? I don’t have an analytics guru that helps us with whatever. And listen and nothing against people that do. We’ve just chosen to do it our way, and we’re comfortable. So I don’t know, I don’t want to tell other people what the formula is or how they should be successful, because I honestly don’t know. I don’t know if it’s cookie cutter, I think everyone’s got to figure it out from their own I think (Utah coach) Alex (Jensen) and (general manager) Wes (Wilcox) are really smart guys. They’re basketball guys. They’re great people. I know this program has great resources, and it’s a great community. I saw a lot of people out there that I know really well, the McCarthy’s, Donnie Daniels, have a lot of long, lasting relationships from people that are still around here. So yeah, so it’s a great place, and, and they’ll do a great job. I thought their team really battled today. And I would take some encouragement from that.”
On ensuring Arizona stays locked in when leading by a large margin: “Well I don’t know if we did tonight, you know? I mean two things, human nature is powerful and you’re always fighting that. And the other thing is, I think it’s really important in these games to not get caught up in all the ancillary stuff. It’s 0-0. 0-0 possession by possession. I’m trying to hold these guys to a certain standard. And I think they appreciate it, but it probably gets annoying at times, because I think this group is, all of our groups, I mean, I think they’re built to be successful, and I want to make sure I’m doing my part of holding them to a standard and that that’s going to allow us to consistently perform at a high level. But I thought tonight two things. I thought, we had maybe some let downs, whether it was just a shot decision, defensive, being half a step behind, we kind of relaxed a little bit. And I thought Utah had some moments where they kind of ramped up their urgency and took advantage of that. So it goes both ways, and they get credit for pushing back. And we’ll take a look at the film and see if there’s things we can get better. But to be honest with you, to finish it off, it’s 0-0. 00. That’s the approach I try to take.”
Burries on Arizona withstanding Utah’s pushes: “I’d say just trusting one another. Coach told us it’s gonna be ups and downs. Most important part is like, it’s not always gonna go our way, so let’s just lean on each other, have each other’s backs. The crowd got loud, but we just stayed poised and have a great mindset.”
On his rebounding and Awaka’s 3-point shooting: “Just Coach getting on me about getting rebounds, and that’s what I’m supposed to do, get us extra possessions. And if I rebound, it makes the bigs’ job easier, and then I can just run down the floor. And then with shooting, (Awaka) works on his shot every day after practice, so I have, like, total confidence in him shooting that shot, especially when he’s wide open at the top of the key. So I actually like that shot from To.”
On whether he’s noticed defenses guarding him differently as the season progresses: “I just felt like at the beginning of the year, I was like a little new to new to this. In high school I didn’t really guard guards. So when I got to college, I started learning a little techniques, and I’m still learning to this day. And Coach is just like, he’s on me. I just feel like I’m getting better and better by the game.”
Awaka on the team’s overall balance: “Yeah, I think we have a great group of guys, character wise, I think we do a great job of sharing the ball through and through. Guards do a great job of getting it to us. Bigs, if we get double we kick it back out. They’ll drive and help create offense. So I think, yeah, this team is truly unselfish for sure.”
On his pair of 3-pointers and on Burries’ rebounding: “I guess me and him swapped roles today. But yeah I was just open, felt confident to take the shot. So, yeah, that’s all that it was. And then Coach has been on the guards to rebound, and I think Brayden’s done a great job of taking that to heart through our practice, cutting out, and then also trying to get on get more active on the offensive boards as well.”
On getting off to a big start: “I think we just put a lot of pressure on the rim forcing them to foul early. I think that opened up a three point game as well. And, we just kept coming. I thought our game in transition was fluid. Ivan did a great job at the start of the game. I think he really set the tone, getting some early steals, getting us some quick, easy, fast break points. So kudos to him as well.”
On whether Arizona targets a certain number of deflection: “Yeah, in terms of deflections, that’s something we harp on during practice all the time, being up to the touch, being up in the gaps, staring at the ball, recovering all that kind of stuff. So I think we’ve been really focusing on the principles in the process, and then the outcome shows itself out during the game.”
On it being the Big 12 opener: “We’ve been talking about coming out with a fresh, new mindset. What happened in the non-conference is just things of old. It’s a new season. We start off 0-0, so just come in with that beginner mindset and knowing that teams are going to play to sort of resurrect their season and make the most of what they can do to help their chances in March. So we knew that Utah was a great team. They’re gonna come out and play hard, they have great guards, athletic, big. So yeah, kiddos are there, they played great today as well.”
Category: General Sports
