There wasn’t much drama involved in Monday night’s game at McKale Center, not unless you were concerned about the point spread and how the final few possessions went. Arizona easily beat Denver by 30, doing so with 72 points from freshmen.
It was the first game for the Wildcats (6-0) since moving up to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25. They got 11 first-place votes, compared to 46 for No. 1 Purdue, but also still had a few voters rank them fifth overall.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” UA coach Tommy
Lloyd said when asked about the rankings. “I mean, that team they have that’s number one looks pretty good to me, too. If I’m worried about that kind of stuff, I’m not worried about the right stuff.”
Arizona is off until Saturday when it hosts Norfolk State. Our game recap from the win over Denver can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, guard Brayden Burries and wing Ivan Kharchenkov said afterward:
On Burries scoring 20 after rough games vs. Florida, UCLA and UConn: “He just needs at-bats. He just needs to continue to take at-bats and take swings and he’ll figure it out. He had a lot of really good parts of the game today, but the cool thing is, there’s so many things he can continue to get better at that. But I was really happy with how he he went about today.”
On if Burries needs to make adjustments to his game: “I’m sure there’s adjustments, for sure. But I think the one thing we got to understand is, he’s a freshman, and experience is a great teacher. I think he’s learning, and we always talk about committing to the process and understanding that our view is we’re trying to build over the course of the season. Guys get better, guys play better. And sometimes you can point to a single thing, and sometimes you can just say, it’s just an accumulation of experience. Brayden works really hard, and I’m happy he got some results today.”
On pressing early: “We’ve spent some time our presses this offseason, and we haven’t utilized them much. I want to work on some stuff. and I just felt like they were going to really try to maybe slow the game down a little bit. And they’re really good off the dribble. The Johnson kid and the Nelson kid can really shoot off the dribble. You just don’t see it. They might be leading the country in scoring on kind of midrange, long 2s. A lot of times, maybe you say you’re living with that shot, but against these guys it’s their strength. I really wanted our guys to challenge and knock them off that rhythm.”
On dealing with added national attention: “I don’t care if people are talking about us or not, business as usual. I mean, we didn’t so one thing different. Steady, steady the ship, help guys get better. That’s our mindset. Figure out the growth areas you want to attack on the team, and also kind of identify our strengths and reinforce those. So it was literally a normal couple days of Arizona basketball. I would expect the next couple days to be very normal days in Arizona basketball as well.”
On national rankings: “Here’s what I tell our guys, the rankings are a vote. They’re voted on by people. It’s not a result, it’s a vote. I’m not calling into question the votes, because I really spend no energy thinking about it. We’re not into what people are voting. If we were into that, we would have been worried about the preseason stuff. We’re into actually what we’re doing on the court and where we’re going. Process, process, process, process, process, process. That’s my job as a coach, not to worry about voting results. This isn’t an election. This is a competition, so I’m going to focus on making my team the best team possible.”
On Anthony Dell’Orso having 7 assists: “He’s just a really good player, and he’s coming into his own. He’s got experience, he’s got confidence, he’s not scared. I like he’s being aggressive with the ball. And he’s figuring out what that fine line is of being aggressive to make simple plays, or maybe doing a little bit too much. But I think you got to explore to figure out where that line is, and I think he’s in that process right now. So I like where he’s at. I love his contributions right now that he’s given us.”
On Kharchenkov’s offensive skills: “He’s a really good all around player. I love his physicality. Actually, I think there’s some real potential for playmaking with him and being able to play through him a little bit certain scenarios. I like that he’s kind of figuring it out on his own. The shooting is going to come. And I think that’s an important growth piece for us over the course of this season, is his kind of settling in on what are the right shots for him, and when is the right times. Kind of settle in it, because he can do so many other things we don’t want to just get hung up on one thing.”
On if Arizona should be taking more 3s: “I have no idea, to be honest with you. I mean, I wouldn’t even know how to answer that. We obviously value free throws. I wish we shot those a little better tonight. We value paint points. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to shoot threes. I was happy with most of the shots we took tonight. I don’t have like a set formula, it’s more like a mentality and a possession-by-possession thing to find great team shots, whatever those may be. Honestly, I didn’t even realize in the UConn game that we only shot 10 threes. It didn’t even cross my mind.”
On the freshmen scoring 72 points: “I think our freshmen are really mature. I think our freshmen, they’ve been highly sought out, sought after, highly ranked prospects probably for a long time since they played basketball. So I don’t think being ranked or whatever is … it’s fleeting for them. I think it’s just like, oh, yeah, we’re ranked, whatever. Let’s go play. The veterans have all been there. They know the most important thing is performance, performance of process, not a ranking.”
On Bryce James’ status: “Same. It’s a tough spot. I mean, Bryce is an awesome kid, and he’s working hard, getting better at practice. But everyone’s running a different race. Bryce is, I think, comfortable with our conversations, and I think his family is comfortable with those conversations. And again, we want to give Bryce the most options he has long term. And so that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing?”
On signing 4-star guard Cameron Holmes: “First off, he’s a great young man from a great family, super high character, great energy. He’s fun to be around. His teammates love him, coaches love him, and he’s a really talented player. He’s got electric athleticism. He’s a lefty, which makes him really unique as a perimeter player. He’s got good size. I think he’s a really good two-way player, he can already shoot the three, handle the ball, finish above the rim. There’s a lot of things to really like about him. We’re really excited we got him. We love his talent, but we’re more excited about his his character and how he’s going to fit into our program.”
Burries on having a game like this after recent struggles: “Most importantly was actually I’m just having fun, like so much fun winning with my teammates.”
On pressing: “We do it in practice, but live reps in games you could see the difference between live reps and in practice. We can go back and watch film on it, see where we could work on it, see where we get better at it.”
On the freshmen scoring 72: “We have a great group of guys. We’re not your average freshmen, and I think that’s because our veterans on the team give us confidence. If I have a bad game I know Ivan or one of my teammates is going to pick me up.”
On if he’s noticed teams going after him: “A little bit. I’m trying to get more comfortable, be more aggressive, and not help off as much. But most important thing is, I think it’s just experience going through (those) games, just getting the experience of it early on in as the season goes on, so by time we hit later on in conference and March we’ll be ready for it.”
Kharchenkov on being aggressive to the basket: “I knew I could drive. I just had to get the speed down, what speed and what rhythm, and when exactly I could drive and make a play. I think I figured it out a little bit. I’m going keep working on it.”
On what he’s learned from the big games so far: “Attention to detail, because in those games every mistake matters, even if it happens in their first half, on the first play.”
