Playing in front of approximately 150 family and friends, Alabama native Caleb Holt had one thing on his mind Friday night.
“I just wanted to go out there and win at the end of the day,“ Holt said. Arizona’s star freshman guard did just that, scoring a career-best 24 points to lead the Wildcats to an 80-69 road victory at Auburn.
Winning on the road anywhere is hard. but especially at Auburn, which hadn’t lost a home nonconference game since 2016. That was also the year Arizona last won a true road game at an SEC
school, when it beat Mizzou.
Arizona’s victory over Auburn moves the Wildcats to 3-1 on the year. Here’s what Tommy Lloyd and Holt said after the win.
Lloyd on Holt’s performance and his overall progress: “An incredibly mature performance for a 19-year-old guy. To come back home and and to play the way he did. When we landed yesterday, thank God there were flights so we got here on the plane, and we came to the gym and shot a little bit. And I kind of peeked down, nothing crazy, and I saw Caleb shoot a few balls. I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s pretty tight.‘ It felt good. I had a good feeling about how he was going to come out today. The great thing about about Caleb is his best days are ahead of him. I think he’s a really unique player. He’s just this ferocious competitor and has this bundle of energy and we’re trying to help him harness it and find his way at a sophisticated high level basketball with it. He really wants to learn. So to me, that gives this guy a really high ceiling. It’s a joy to coach him every day. He’s grateful and he’s he’s fun to be around. He wants to deliver for his teammates, and that makes him special.”
On what Arizona did defensively to close out the win: “I think we just kind of hung in there. (That) was the biggest thing. And I think we were able to get Mo back on the floor, which really helped. It’s one of those situations where playing on the road is tough. Obviously, this is a tough place to play, and so anytime you can get a lead and then make a little bit of a run to extend your lead, not that you’re gonna let them try to make a run back, but you know it’s coming. You’re so much more comfortable, even as that lead’s dwindling a little bit, that you know if you take a breath and you can put together two or three possessions in a row and build your lead back up, it’s really important on the road to do that. Like, hey, our first game of the year, obviously we didn’t play good against a good UCLA team, and we got down and we were battling back all game, and then we had to make the run to come back. Then sometimes you make that run to come back, and you just take a little bit of a breath, and it feels like the team that was ahead makes a run again, and that that was just the case tonight. So we were fortunate.”
On Auburn’s team and how they challenged Arizona: “I think they’re good. Obviously Keyshawn Hall was a problem at that four spot with his skill.I think they’ve kind of got more shooting this year, and just I’m telling you, those big fellas are a problem. To be able to have two of them and kind of roll them out there, I think it really impacted us early. Ivan didn’t play his best game till towards later in the second half when closing time. But I think they got a few of his shots, and it was kind of surprising. The big fella has six blocks. It’s game changing. So they had, what, 13 blocks total. That’s going to be interesting to see how that evolves over the course of this year. It’s hard to play against.”
On going with a tighter lineup: “We felt like this was a really important game for our season, no it’s a must-win situation in game four. But we knew coming here, I’m expecting it to be a quad one win. This team’s trying to establish its identity and kind of build our confidence. I I tightened the lineup today, changed the starting lineup because I wanted to put a little bit more ball handling out on the court, and that lineup has been our best lineup. Sometimes you start it, you fall into six or eight more minutes a game of it and we kind of opened with that lineup and we were able to close with that lineup. So the guys off the bench came in and made their impact. But there’s no doubt, I mean our bench is going to have to develop over the course of this season. Just maybe today wasn’t the day you know to to go deep and give them long runs.”
On Bryce James not playing: “Bryce and I had a great conversation. I wish I would have got him in the game. It just kind of got tight there and we got the lead. It’s just one of those things, you get the lead, playing a certain way, and then they come back, and then sometimes it’s hard to kind of thrust a guy into that moment when he hasn’t been on the court much. I went with the guys who had been out there and were able to get us that lead, and hoping they could do it again. But Bryce has really shown me a lot the last couple weeks, and we’ll continue to try to find ways to give him opportunities for sure.”
On playing in front of a lot of family and friends: “I wasn’t really nervous. Just more excited. I got a lot of family here, a lot of people, probably like 150 people and all. Not nervous or anything. I just wanted to go out here and win.”
