Tommy Lloyd is not a coach who likes to point to excuses, and Monday’s game against BYU was no exception. Arizona nearly coughed up a 19-point lead in the second half, including a near monumental collapse in the final minute, but Lloyd wasn’t going to put all the blame on some questionable foul calls. “And […]
Tommy Lloyd is not a coach who likes to point to excuses, and Monday’s game against BYU was no exception.
Arizona nearly coughed up a 19-point lead in the second half, including a near monumental collapse in the final minute, but Lloyd wasn’t going to put all the blame on some questionable foul calls.
“And at the end of the day, you just can’t put it in the refs’ hands,” Lloyd said after Arizona’s 86-83 win. “You got to be cleaner.”
Arizona prevailed to move to 21-0 on the season, but the Wildcats showed they still have some work to do in late game situations.
“We got to watch the film. Still got a lot of stuff to clean up,“ Arizona point guard Jaden Bradley said. ”It shouldn’t have got to that point, but we did a great job, and we still got a lot to clean up.”
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, Bradley and Brayden Burries had to say after the game.
Lloyd on getting the win: “Obviously great game, great environment. BYU is a tough place to win, and we knew it was going to be a real challenge. I thought for long stretches in the game, we played great. They seem to have the ability to, too, they surmounted a hard charge at the end. Fortunate for us. I didn’t think was going to get to that point, but it did. They had the ball with 11 seconds to go down one and Brayden came up with a big time defensive play and got the rebound and made two free throws. It’s a big time finish for us. We’ve been talking a lot about that from going back to this summer that there’s going to be some games that come down to getting one stop and and then we haven’t been in a lot of them. So it was great to experience that and have it come out our way.“
On trying to defend AJ Dybantsa: “AJ is really good. You can do a great job on AJ, and he can still score 30. Just he’s a really unique player in college. We haven’t seen a lot of guys like him that just are so proficient at getting fouled. So it makes for a tough guard. A lot of our guys haven’t played against him. None of them played against him in a college setting, because obviously he’s continuing to get better. I thought once we got through the initial kind of feel of how to guard him, I thought our guys did a pretty good job.”
On how Arizona chose to match up with Dybantsa: “Probably nothing we need to share publicly. We knew we were going to give him a lot of different looks. It wasn’t anything crazy, you know. We knew over the course of the game, we’re gonna have to give him different looks. And so we just kind of started that way. And we felt like that maybe we were going to see how it goes, and we would adjust from there.”
On whether there was more comfortability starting with Koa Peat on Dybantsa: “I don’t think so. I think it just kind of how the matchups worked out. We felt best doing that, and Ivan had his chance guard him. Dwayne had his chance guard him. Tobe had a chance guarding him. JB and Delly ended up on him. You put who you want on them, and they’re going to try to go pick a matchup. So at some point it almost becomes irrelevant who you put on him. They’re going to go try to target somebody and get in their perception a matchup advantage. At the end of the day, everyone has to be able to kind of carry their weight defensively him.”
On capitalizing on points off of turnovers: “I thought our activity was good. I think we were opportunistic. I don’t think it was any crazy scheme or anything like that. There’s no geniuses here. It’s just guys out there playing hard, playing basketball, and maybe had an opportunity, to create an advantage for us, and making a play in the gaps or something like that. So we want our players to have the freedom to kind of do that kind of stuff.”
On what happened in the final minute: “Well, listen, I have an All-American point guard. I don’t know if he got fouled or not, but, it’s not too often you see a jump ball and then no calls like that at the end of a game. I’m really confident with the ball in JB’s hands, and I kind of wanted to save our timeout. Obviously, in hindsight, I would have done something different. And at the end of the day, you just can’t put it in the refs’ hands. You got to be cleaner. We gave up free offensive free throw rebounds. I know Ivan had the ball, had it over his head. They made a nice play, he tipped it out. JB has the ball there, they make a play. And then, AJ picks up the one, and we foul him so he doesn’t get it and it turns into a flagrant one. So just tough stuff. It felt like everything at the end kind of went against us. But you know what? Our guys have competitive character, and hung in there and found a way. But that easily could have went the other way. For sure.”
On calling a timeout with 12 seconds: “I just wanted to kind of see what they’re setting up and then just talk to our guys. I didn’t want to be like, hey, if we lose, I didn’t want to have that in my back pocket and regret not kind of giving our guys a little bit of a plan. So sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But I mean, listen, the kid got the point blank. Fortunately they didn’t call a foul. We had the same situation at home against them last year, they got down close to the rim and they called a foul and we lost the game. Just how it goes sometimes.”
On whether he was surprised Rob Wright got the ball on the final play: “I don’t know. Listen, they threw the ball to Rob Wright deep against our baseline out of bounds defense, and he came with a head of steam. And I haven’t seen the film to see where the gaps are, where the other guys are, even where AJ was. So I don’t know why. Rob Wright’s a really good player and a winner, so I’m sure he probably felt comfortable doing that, and then they probably felt comfortable with him making that play as well. It just didn’t work out. It could have easily worked out.”
On Bradley’s growth: “Well I think obviously JB has played at an All-mAerican level all year, and meaning that, that I don’t need to be the one promoting that. That’s obvious. I think the thing that’s not talked about with JB enough is just how much better he’s gotten over he’s gotten over the course of his college career, and JB gets all the credit for that. JB has incredible character. He’s a hard worker. He kind of waited his turn, and he was patient. And for a kid that was highly ranked like he was, he stuck to a process. So he and his family get a lot of credit for that and and I think because he stuck with that process. I think he’s going to be rewarded with a great, long basketball career.”
On the challenge of coaching at BYU: “Well fortunate for me, I played here a lot. So I know how hard it is, and I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for the BYU basketball program and the legacy they have. We come here, it’s got our full attention. I know that you’re not always going to come out on the winning side, but we really wanted this challenge for our team. This was a great opportunity for us, win or lose, and we approached it as such. Obviously it’s a quick turnaround. We played Saturday, and we really only were able to kind of walk through yesterday. So our guys get a lot of credit. Our coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for the preparation. And fortunately, we made one more play than they did tonight, where it felt like for stretches we made a lot more place in them, but, they were able to kind of close the gap. So we’ll evaluate that and figure out why. But I’m going to tip my hat to BYU, and I’m going to tip my hat to our to our players.”
On Burries’ flagrant and the role of officials going to review: “It’s hard. This game’s hard. I don’t know. It’s hard. I don’t know what happens in some of these reviews. They’re tough. They’re tough. It seems like every time they go to review, like, you know come on, it’s a good basketball play. You’re not trying to, you’re not trying to hurt a guy. You’re literally got an All-American player, point blank, what he’s supposed to do, get out of the way and let him dunk it on you. Like I mean, come on, guys, we all played basketball growing up. You foul, you foul, and you can’t give up an and one or your coach is going to yell at you. It’s just tough. It’s just tough. It’s tough. Tobe’s deal was tough. (Burries’ flagrant) was tough. But again, we did have great officials tonight, so I don’t know if it’s the official’s fault or just the way they’re trying to administer the rules, but, but guys that really didn’t have anything to do with the game, I’m just saying that. I’m talking on the the the when the rest are going to evaluate stuff, and, for flagrant ones, it’s tough. It’s tough. We had a couple games ago (against UCF) where they they literally flopped and, like, grabbing our guys’ arms and putting them up in their face, and they were asking for appeals, and there’s no penalty for it should be a technical foul. If you call for an appeal and it’s not, it should be a technical foul. Like there’s got to be something on the line here. So I don’t know. That’s a conversation for another day. Great environment, super impressed with BYU team. Coach Young’s a great coach, doing a great job. We were fortunate enough to make one more play than them tonight, and I’m looking forward to a couple days off.”
Burries on his game-winning block: “Honestly, I was just thinking like my teammates have been having my back this whole year. Like that was the least I can do is help them in that position right there. So I just wanted to have them miss the shot and just checking the rebound, and I seen that he was open. I just went for the block.”
On relying on mid-range shots: “Yeah, I think it was just more like a read and react type of flow, that they’re so far behind that you just with the middy, if they come up, you go all the way. Pretty simple.”
On the freshmen class: “I feel like we just just getting better each and every day. I feel like we have the best freshman on our team in the whole nation with Ivan, Sidi, Mabil, Dwayne. It’s just getting better every day. And just continue to have that growth mindset.”
On playing against Dybantsa: “Yeah, of course, because he’s one of the better players out there, but I kind of go into every game just trying to dominate in every aspect, rebounding, defending, playmaking.”
Bradley on him and Burries getting going offensively: “I just feel like making easy plays. Our bigs did a great job creating open lanes and shots for us, and so we hit those and we had the flow early. So that was all.”
On how the team prepares to beat the press: “That’s what we work on in practice. On the road, games are coming down to being press breaks. And I feel like we did a decent job. We got to watch the film. Still got a lot of stuff to clean up. It shouldn’t have got to that point, but we did a great job, and we still got a lot to clean up.”
On playing aggressively: “Just take it with the defense. What they’re giving us. They were in the gaps. My teammates believe in me throwing me the throw ahead passes. Just trying to go out there and play for my teammates.”
Category: General Sports
