While it may not have felt like it was possible a few nights ago, the sun did indeed still rise on the morning after Arizona lost its first game of the season.
The Wildcats are still No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 but no longer unbeaten, that distinction done away by Kansas on Monday night. The 23-0 start was the best in school history, and best by a Big 12 school, but now that it’s over there’s not really much point in lingering over it.
So said Tommy Lloyd during his press conference following
the Kansas loss, saying he felt like Arizona’s season had just started.
“We have a heck of a stretch coming up, and it starts with Texas Tech,” Lloyd said Thursday. “Then BYU and Houston, pretty much in like an 8-day window. That’s pretty awesome. So we need to gear up for that, and for us, it’s always been about moving forward.”
It will be a busy day in and around the freshly renamed McKale Center at ALKEME Arena on Saturday. ESPN’s College GameDay show will broadcast from the court from 8-10 a.m. MT, then the UA women host ASU at noon. The latest edition of the Bear Down Bash concert series is at 1:30 p.m. outside the arena, then the Wildcats host the 16th-ranked Red Raiders at 4:30 p.m. MT.
To top it all off, Caleb Love is getting inducted into the Ring of Honor during halftime.
“And I even heard a rumor that Mix Master Mike might be performing at the Bear Down Bash, so I don’t know how much bigger it gets,” Lloyd said, referring to the DJ from his favorite band (The Beastie Boys) and his partner from a DJ set Lloyd performed on campus in October.
Here’s what to watch for when Arizona and Texas Tech (18-6, 8-3) battle in its latest Big 12 showdown:
Moving on and staying focused
Lloyd said he was “not mad” Arizona lost at Kansas, not because it took away the pressure of going undefeated, something he’d been through twice before as an assistant at Gonzaga including his final season when the Bulldogs reached the NCAA title game with a perfect record. Instead, he was referring to the importance of knowing that losses are part of the game, and how a team and its players react to that setback is far more valuable.
“I was never delusional and thought that it was our God-given right to win every game,” he said. “You work on a culture all year round to be able to respond to things like this. We all know as competitors that losing as part of the equation, so you have to be able to handle that. I mean, there’s no panic.
“And guys, I hate to break it to you, we might lose another game or two or three, I don’t know. I mean, we could lose Saturday, I don’t know, but you got to keep it moving. You got to keep it moving and and then you have to have faith and trust that you’re building for something bigger.”
Arizona has only lost consecutive games three times under Lloyd, all last season.
Three for thee, not for me
While Arizona continues to be one of the least-frequent 3-point shooting teams, now sitting 363rd out of 365 in Division I with only 26.5 percent of its shots from outside, Texas Tech is almost the complete opposite. The Red Raiders take 47 percent of their shots from 3, and their 48.8 percent 3-point rate in Big 12 games is tops in the league.
And they’re pretty good at making those shots, too, ranking 10th nationally at 39.1 percent. Two starters—point guard Christian Anderson and forward Donovan Atwell—shoot better than 43 percent and make more than three per game, and Atwell is shooting 48 percent in Big 12 play.
But it’s not all just chucking from deep. Anderson also leads the Big 12 in assists per game, at 7.7, and Tech boasts an All-American inside in JT Toppin. The 6-foot-9 junior is averaging 22.1 points and 11.2 rebounds in conference games.
“They really have a great ability to focus on the things that they feel like drive winning for their program,” Lloyd said of the Red Raiders. “And they recruit to it, they coach to it, and they’re going to put you in a ton of situations where you have to make a decision. They surround an All-American player with great shooters, and that’s a great formula. And they have a dynamic playmaker that can put the ball in his hands, and he can create shots for others and for himself. So they do a really good job of putting you in a bind defensively and forcing you to make a lot of decisions.
“They hang a couple things over you. If you don’t get enough help here, we think our big guy can score enough points to basically do a lot of damage. If you start bringing help here, we think we’ve surrounded them with a lot of shooters, and we can find them to do a lot of damage. So it puts you in a conundrum, for sure.”
A return to form in the paint?
Arizona outscored Kansas 42-40 in the paint on Monday but it missed a lot of shots in close that it normally makes. The Wildcats were credited with attempting 39 2-point jumpers, far more than normal due to how the Jayhawks defended inside.
Texas Tech doesn’t have nearly as good an interior defense, allowing more than 50 percent of opponent 2-pointers to go in during conference play. It also doesn’t avoid fouls as well as Kansas, which should be music to Arizona’s ears.
The UA was 8 of 14 from the line on Monday, and while the percentage was bad the number of attempts was more problematic. Arizona is top-40 in the country in free throw attempt rate, at 42.2 percent, and tops in the Big 12 (40.7).
“I would have liked to have shot more free throws at Kansas to give us a chance to shoot better,” Lloyd said. “It’s a little bit lower than the number we’re used to shooting but that’s how the game was officiated. So we have to adjust and move on and take advantage of the opportunities we do get.”
As a team, Arizona still shoots 73 percent from the line but is 24 of 39 (61.5 percent) the last two games. Koa Peat has been struggling the most, at 61 percent for the season (57.5 percent in Big 12 games), while Tobe Awaka is at 64.6 percent in league play.
GameDay and Love Day
This will be the first time ESPN’s College GameDay comes to Tucson since 2022, when in Lloyd’s first season they were in town ahead of a win over Oregon. Lloyd is expected to appear on the show, as could some players (both past and present, possibly).
With the game set to be played more than six hours after the show ends, Lloyd doesn’t expect it to be a distraction for his team.
“The main thing for us is playing well in the game,” he said. “The circus around it is a good thing, but the main thing for me as a coach is to make sure our team is prepared to play. Obviously GameDay is an honor. You’re one of the programs that they choose to showcase. I think it says a great thing about our legacy, and I think it says a great thing about the season our team is having. It’s an honor to have them here. Is it a distraction category? No, not at all. It’s an honor, and we embrace it. When you’re in a place like Arizona, basketball means a lot, and anything you can do to promote your program and the university is a good thing.”
Lloyd said he’s looking forward to the return of Love, who starred for him the previous two seasons and earned his spot in the Ring of Honor by winning Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2023-24.
“I think it’s gonna be really cool to have him come back this weekend and give him a big hug,” Lloyd said.
