Tommy Lloyd has been coaching for nearly 30 years but Wednesday was his first time at Gampel Pavilion. After beating No. 3 UConn he probably can’t wait to come back, and he’s even got an idea for how to ramp up what was already a great atmosphere.
“I’d love to see what this place is on $1 beer night,” Lloyd said following the 71-67 victory, Arizona’s third this season against a ranked team and second over one in the Top 3. “$2 beer night was pretty impressive. $1 beer night, can we take it up another
level? It was pretty impressive.”
Our game recap can be found here, along with social media reactions to Arizona’s big win. Below is what Lloyd and Jaden Bradley, who had 21 points, said afterward:
Lloyd on playing at UConn: “Coming here was a special trip. I’ve never been here before. And just the amount of respect I have for UConn basketball over the years. I mean, literally, they dominated the sport. I’m in my 27th or 28th year, and they’ve always been in the mix. And when I was at Gonzaga all those years we had I think it was like three overtime games in a row with them, some crazy deal like that. And it was just so cool to be a part of that. I appreciate Danny (Hurley) for being up for this. I know scheduling is tough, and I have a ton of respect for him and the program.”
On benefitting from UConn being without forward Tarris Reed: “And we also got a good hop today with Reed out of the game. I mean, we’re not going to say it doesn’t change things. We know that changes things. But if you get a good hop, field it and turn two. Our guys found a way to do that, and so I’m really proud of our team.”
On Bradley: “Proud of this guy here next to me, just so steady. You know all the things he’s going to say in this deal. He’s going to give all his credit to his teammates, which is what a great point guard does. But I’m really proud of him. And just, the player he’s developed into being. JB had big dreams as a basketball player. And sometimes it just takes a little bit of time. But I’m telling you what, it’s really impressive what he’s done here this past month. He’s literally a rock star.”
On playing physical: “That’s how we’re built. As you look at the landscape of college basketball, if you’re not up for the physical fight it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough to be a team that wins consistently at a high level. It’s going to be tough to win on the road. It’s going to be tough to win in the NCAA Tournament. It’s gonna be tough to make a deep run. We want to build our team with guys that are capable of playing physical basketball, and we play a way that I think kind of allows us to kind of accentuate their mobility and their athleticism, but at the same point, we’re here for the hits, and we have no problem with body to body contact.”
On being able to play at Top 3 matchup on the road: “First off, you schedule the game a while back, not knowing you’re both going to be ranked in the top five. It’s pretty cool when you’re on a collision course and it actually hits like that. Just a great opportunity for for our program to have kind of a marquee win in a tough place.”
On moving forward: “My whole mindset coming into this game was, we’ve gotten off to a good start this season. And let’s be honest, the Florida game could have went another direction. The UCLA game could have went another direction. So let’s not act like we’ve got all the world’s problems solved, but we’re having a lot of incredible experiences, and we have a new team, a young team, with some great veteran leadership. I was really looking forward to getting through this game, no matter what the result was, and having an incredible two weeks where we can get better. We need to take a step as a program. This win here isn’t going to mean we’re going to be a great team in January or February, but the next two weeks of practice and our preparation will have more say in how we’re going to be down the line. We’re going to get on the plane, we’re going to get home really late, we’re going to take tomorrow off, and then we’re just going to get back in the gym, and it’s going to be the normal process, and we’re really, really going to double down on getting better the next couple of weeks.”
On where Reed’s absence stood out: “I’m sure on the glass it hurts. We end up outrebounding UConn by 20. Probably the last time that happened … it’s literally probably an anomaly. We really wanted to lock in on the glass, and we had some certain shots we wanted to force them to shoot, and we hoped if they missed, there would be some shorter rebounds and we could kind of use our size and our athleticism, and activity, to kind of corral those rebounds. He’s also a guy they can play through on the block. So when you can play through somebody on a block, it creates foul pressure. So that puts pressure on our bigs. We probably look back at it, we probably could even done a better job of going at Karaban inside, going at Reibe inside. And we were going to go at Reibe inside. We were going to try and because, because I think that foul pressure really, really impacts the game. And we were going to give it a good look. It was a physical game.”
On going after Alex Karaban defensively: “You have to against these guys. What Danny and his staff have done with their offense has really kind of revolutionized the game, but I don’t think anybody else has been able to kind of mimic it yet. It’s just a massive amount of movement. It’s actions layered on top of actions. And there’s actually a rhyme and a reason and an organization to it that, it’s like a Rubik’s Cube. I haven’t figured it out, but the one thing I did figure out is No. 1 and No. 11 are really important in that. So we got to do a great job staying on their bodies. That’s why we decided to go to a non switching plan, where a lot of teams would maybe look at that and say, we want to switch. We were like, we want to stay on their body. We want to top lock when we can. We want to make their catches tough. We want to let them know that every time they get a screen, there’s a good chance we’re going to be fighting them through it with them, and just kind of take our chances of that. We had worked on a plan B of switching some of that stuff, but our Plan A was to fight our asses off and get through it.”
On his trust of Bradley late in games: “Extremely. When you have a point guard who is selfless and also a baller and who has big enough cojones to take and make those shots at the end of a game it’s pretty special, and we have that in him, and it’s really cool to see him kind of grow into that role. It’s honestly nothing he and I have ever talked about. So he gets all the credit. He gets all the credit for taking on that responsibility, and it’s really impacted our team and in a really, really positive way. So I’m really proud of him.”
On having a great start in November after last year’s struggles: “We prepare to try to win every game, and we’re fortunate that a lot of years it’s worked out. But like I said, the journey is long, and I think this team’s built for the journey. So we’re not going to overreact, we’re not going to act like we’re anointed ultimate success, long term. We got to go have a couple good weeks of practice, and we got to get better. And that’s the only mindset we can have, is that growth mindset, and that’s something this group has talked about for the past three or four months, as we’ve been kind of identifying what we want our culture to look like and feel like.”
Bradley on his improvement as a senior: “I would just say, trusting in my work, trusting in the coaches putting me in great positions, and my teammates. Making sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to do on the court.”
On his final basketball: “Most of our games have been down to the wire, down to the stretch. The coaches drew up a great set, and we were able to get a ball screen. My guys gave me great space, and I was able to make the layup.”
