Arizona men’s basketball clinched a share of the Big 12 regular season title with Saturday’s 84-61 win over Kansas. The Wildcats now turn their attention to the home finale against Iowa State on Monday night to try and earn the Big 12 title outright. Our game recap can be found here. Below is what coach […]
Arizona men’s basketball clinched a share of the Big 12 regular season title with Saturday’s 84-61 win over Kansas. The Wildcats now turn their attention to the home finale against Iowa State on Monday night to try and earn the Big 12 title outright.
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what coach Tommy Lloyd and players Jaden Bradley, Koa Peat and Brayden Burries said following the win over the Jayhawks.
Lloyd on the win: “Obviously a great day in McKale, I know a lot of people have been looking forward to this game for a long time, and we understand the magnitude of what these two programs mean when they play. That’s just a testament to the history and the legacy of both places. For us, it’s one of 18 games in a conference schedule, and it counts as much as any of the other ones. We put ourselves in a good position. We wanted to take care of business today at home against Kansas. We made a great run, then they were able to make a little run back at us, and then we were able to make another run, and then kind of finish it off. So, it’s a great day overall.”
On building an early cushion: “When you get a lead, what it allows you to do is absorb a run. You always have respect for your opponents. Kansas is a great program coach. Self is a great coach. They’re not going to roll over, so you got to keep on it. I really challenge our guys today. My focus was like, ‘How good can we be defensive, we know we have good defensive numbers. We’ve had great defensive games.’ Last game at Baylor wasn’t our best defensive game, so we really wanted to kind of tighten things up on the defensive end. I thought our guys did a great job of that. They probably missed some shots that are makeable, but when you get them out of the rhythm a little bit, sometimes those balances just go your way.”
On Ivan Kharchenkov being the defensive catalyst: “He’s a constant professional. The guy plays extremely hard. He takes scouting before games really seriously. He takes guarding the guy and his individual tendencies, extremely seriously. He’s just a winner. He’s a winner, and he’s really grown into that role.
On if Peat was on a minutes restriction: “Nothing in particular. Obviously we want to judge and kind of see how he feels day by day. So we’ll just take a look and see how he feels tomorrow. He had some fresh legs today. He was out there breathing a little harder a couple times, but he looked pretty good to me.”
On Dwayne Aristode not playing until the final minutes: “Dwayne’s good. I just kind of settled into a rhythm with those guys on the court. I just didn’t find an opportunity to put him in the game, maybe another good day of practice, and we’ll get him back at it.”
On Motiejus Krivas’ presence around the rim: “Mo is a really good player, and I want him just to understand, his impact on the game is really unique. This rim protection and his rebounding at both ends of the floor, his ability to post up. What he’s kind of added recently is being able to handle double teams, and even if you’re that multifaceted, you have high expectations and high standards for a player like that. I just want to make sure Mo remembers that on a day to day basis.”
On being aggressive in the paint: “To be honest with you, I’m telling our guys to shoot more threes. This is what they’re comfortable doing. We probably could have taken a few more threes out there. I thought we had a couple threes rim out towards the end of that first half that I thought were good shots, and I thought we turned down a couple that were good looks. Sometimes when you turn down that good look, one or two dribbles later, one or two passes later, you turn the ball over. So it’s just the opportunity cost of that possession. When you shoot threes and you’re a good offensive rebounding team, there’s a lot of value in that. So just reminding our guys of that, those are good shots, and I’m comfortable with taking them.”
On his team being able to respond to Kansas cutting the deficit: “I don’t know if I saw one thing in particular. They cut it to four, and I just told our guys, we’re gonna win the game. Take a breath. Stay steady. Let’s see if we can put together a little bit of a run here. How you put together a run, play by play, play by play, play by play, I mean that’s just possession by possession by possession. That’s how you put together a run. So, get a stop and score. Get a stop and score. It’s not much more complicated than that. So I think we made a shot or two, I think Ivan shot a three that kind of hung up on the rim and bounced around, hit the backward and then in. We get a defensive rebound to get out of transition, and you kind of build that lead back to where we could kind of control it down the stretch of the game.”
On Burries having back-to-back strong performances: “Brayden is obviously a really good player, and you guys see how comfortable and how confident he is out there. To have that stat line, in a game of this magnitude, and honestly have it kind of relatively easy. It tells you his impact on the game is significant. He’s a really good player, playing with really good confidence.”
On what makes a guard a good rebounder: “Have a nose for the ball. Brayden’s got good physical tools with length and athleticism. The shot goes up sometimes, and it’s like I don’t know, it’s like reading a pop fly. You judge it off the bat. You have people that are really good at it, and you have people that can’t do it at all. Sometimes you notice by the flight of the ball, but as it’s leaving a shooter’s hands, you can kind of figure out where the ball is going to bounce. When guards have that instinct, man, you can really beat a lot of people to a lot of balls.”
On having his team back to full strength: “You don’t take it for granted. I keep reminding you, you never know your team next week. That’s part of how it goes and if you have a team that you know is committed to solving problems and can stay together, you can weather a lot of tough storms, and we did that. So it’s good to kind of get all the pieces back together. Now we got to kind of see if we can kind of reform and earn something even better down the stretch of the season.”
On the crowd: “Our crowd generally is very, very good. So let’s not act like it’s not. If you want to be in that top here, we’re talking top five, and we know we want to be there as a program, well, I think it takes just a little more intention for the fans. If you just understand the impact you have on the game, and how much more fun are you having if you’re screaming and yelling than if you’re sitting there nervous? So, that, in my view, is the greatest thing about Arizona basketball is it brings southern Arizona, the state of Arizona together. That’s the greatest thing, and when we play, I know it’s an event down here, and it’s cool driving down, seeing the bear down bash going on, all these things. Everyone that’s an alumni of you should get together with other people. Use it as an opportunity to congregate, to hang out with friends, hang out with family when we play. Our game should be a rallying point for people to get together and enjoy each other’s company and get behind something in route to win and have a ton of fun doing it. You felt the community rise up today. I think that’s really special. Why don’t we do that every time? Why don’t we make it a celebration every time? Why does it just depend on who we’re playing? I mean, I get it a little bit, but like let’s continue to think of our program being in the center of the community, and the community rallying around our program and our program is a galvanizing force for the community to be united, and that’s why I love being the coach here.”
On turning around and playing Iowa State: “We already started on the scout. We started on the scout and it looks like they had a tough one at home against Texas Tech. I’m sure they’re gonna come in here hungry on Monday this year. They’re a unique team to play against at both ends of the floor. So, we’re gonna have to dig deep and have a plan and see if we can come out and execute it on Monday night, and obviously it’s gonna be another great atmosphere, and it’s gonna be senior night.”
On clinching a share of the Big 12 regular season title: “It’s awesome but the job’s not done. The job’s not done, I don’t think you set a goal at the start of the year to tie for the Big 12 championship. Let’s see if we can win it. We got a couple games down the stretch here to give ourselves an opportunity to do that. Let’s focus on Monday and see if we can get it done on Monday. If we can, we’ll take a breath to see if we get it done Saturday. The Big 12 is a monster. We all know that. We know we have to earn our keep, and we know that we’re going to be given nothing, and I don’t say that in a bad way. We want to earn everything we get. So, if you can earn a conference championship, that’s a good first step.”
On the conversations he has with his team to focus on the bigger picture: “I tell our guys, we put ourselves in position to win a conference championship. Let’s go take advantage of the position we’re in. What does your focus need to be? Your focus needs to be on your next team, and then you drill down some more. Let’s go possession by possession. I know it’s not sexy, it’s not fun, but it’s really cool. It’s really cool to be present in the moment and locked in on doing something, possession by possession, not being distracted by what happened in the past or what may happen in the future. Just being locked into the right now is a pretty cool place to be”
Bradley on responding to Kansas cutting the lead to single digits: “Just make simple plays. They’re a great team, so we know they’re going to go on a run at some point, so we got to keep our composure. We got great players to share the ball and made great plays. Mo hits some big shots. Brayden hit some big shots and just trusted each other.”
On the team’s defense: “We hang our hats on the defensive end. One of the top defenses in the country, coach Murph and coach Lloyd are always on us to get stopped and it makes it easier to play in transition.”
On Kharchenkov’s defense: “It might not show up on the stat sheet, the score and all that stuff, but he’s doing all the dirty work that others don’t want to do. Taking on the best matchup every night. It’s challenging, and he’s doing a great job, and definitely the X factor for our team.”
On multiple players scoring double figures: “Playing with each other, building that chemistry. We’re very unselfish guys. Brayden had it going. Other games, somebody might have it going. So just feeding them the ball and knowing they’re going to make the right play as well. Brayden’s gonna come off and hit it. We just got so many options. So just playing with each other, it’s fun out there.”
On playing his last game at McKale on Monday: “It’s crazy, time flies. I was just a freshman, and I transferred in not long ago. I’m very thankful for Tucson and everything they’ve done for me, coach Lloyd and everybody. It’s time to take on the real challenge, the Big 12 tournament, March Madness, and bring home a championship.”
On having faced the projected number one and two picks in the NBA draft: “They love to compete. That’s what you want from the top players in their class to do every night, going out there, starting on the defensive, guarding multiple positions. They can score on all three levels. I definitely think they’re the top two picks in this next upcoming draft and continue to show that and continue to break out, excited for these guys’ journey.”
Peat on coming back to play: “It felt great to be out there again with my brothers and just competing at a high level. It was really special to come back and play in McKale.”
On going through rehab: “Just a lot of conditioning stuff, like for workouts, not really
putting a lot of pressure on my leg. When I was on the court, shooting simple stuff like that. So just trying to get back to my guys.”
On if he wanted to play against Baylor: “I always want to play honestly. I’ll go out there and play with a broken leg, but I was just listening to the trainers and just working with them and trying to figure out when I was going to come back.”
On Kharchenkov’s defensive tenacity: “It’s big time, he took on a tough matchup today against Darryn Petterson and I thought he did well. Ivan always plays his butt off. He’s always gonna play hard and he’s definitely a spark plug. He gets the car going. I’m sure all the fans love him. He’s a fan favorite, so I’m really proud of Ivan.”
On having to face Iowa State: “That’s just the Big 12, playing a big team every night. So I think now we’re just gonna go recover tonight, have a good practice tomorrow and get ready for Iowa State on Monday.”
On responding to the energy of the crowd: “Coach always tells us to try to get the crowd involved after a big play. Diving on the floor, getting a loose ball or making a big shot. Just trying to get the crowd involved because it’s really special here at McKale.”
Burries on being compared to Jamal Murray: “I’m not too familiar with his game. I know he’s a great point guard, a great scorer. He can put his team in position to be successful. That’s a great player and a great comparison to me.”
On going against Krivas and Tobe Awaka to become a better rebounder: “Just going against them has helped me a lot. Going into the year, I never really played with a big so I just try to get every rebound even though they’re tall. Me helping rebound just makes the job so much easier for my bigs, and to just start a fast break and kick it out for anybody.”
On Kharchenkov’s energy: “His energy, even at practice, like the ball will start to roll out and he’ll just dive for it. Everybody will get hyped and you just feel the energy.”
Category: General Sports
