On a day when Arizona got minimal production from Koa Peat and no scoring from Anthony Dell’Orso, the Wildcats still managed to pull out a convincing road win over UCF.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said postgame that he took comfort in knowing his team can play through tough outings from usually reliable performers..
“(This team) has winning DNA, and we try to do our best job building a good, strong culture and that gives us kind of a foundation to be consistent, and then that’s what I’m looking for,” Lloyd said.
Though Arizona got out-rebounded by UCF, the Wildcats made the most of their size advantage by going routinely to Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka.
“I love big guys and I always will. The more the merrier,” Lloyd said. “I’d play three or four of them at a time if I could. You need a few guys to dribble and move the ball, but I love having those big fellas out there.”
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lloyd said postgame.
On his overall thoughts on the win: “Well, first off, the credit goes to UCF, the university and to Coach Dawkins. That was an amazing environment. It’s a big time college basketball environment. UCF is building their program and establishing their traditions and their legacy. But that was up there with any of them. So a credit to you guys, and it was a joy to compete in that environment. So just thankful for the opportunity.“
On Themus Fulks’ career-high 30 points: “Well, he’s a heck of a player. And he’s got good speed and he’s got good swag and good confidence. We kind of had him pegged as a little bit more of a passer, because he’s had 12 assists each of the last two games. We knew he could score a little bit, we told our guys, he’s also a double figure scorer, but he hit some pretty tough shots. So I think, maybe in the second half, we just got fortunate some of those shots rolled off and, I don’t know, maybe get a little bit tired but to him to drop a 30 piece on us, that says to me he’s a heck of a player.”
On Brayden Burries playing beyond his years: “He’s a basketball junkie from a basketball family. Some kids just have it. They have that poise and that presence and and he has it. I’ll give Brayden a lot of credit. There was obviously high expectations for how he was going to play this year for us. And he may have started out a little bit slow, but he’s really hung with it. He’s just such a steady person that you knew that it would come through in the end. I even told one of our assistants today, I had a sneaky suspicion that he was going to play pretty good today, so he did a great job. He hit a couple of timely shots in the second half, that three kind of on that broken sideline inbounds play was huge. I felt like it kind of gave us enough cushion to kind of ride out the craziness of the last couple minutes.”
On Arizona’s 19-2 run in the first half: “Well, I think our guys settled into the game a little bit, settled into the environment. We attacked the paint, we were able to get some stops, they missed some shots, and kind of able to get some stuff out in transition. Settle in and kind of establish our post players. You always have a healthy respect for your opponent, and so I don’t take lightly being able to build an early lead, because I know there’s ebbs and flows to the game, and just to be able to build a little bit of a cushion, I don’t know, I think they tied it? I don’t know if they ever did to actually take the lead. Maybe they did, but I felt really comfortable where we were at. You don’t want to come to a tough environment like this, and start off slow and be on the other end of that run and and you’re playing uphill on the road, it’s a tough job.”
On UCF’s program under Johnny Dawkins: “Listen, Coach Dawkins is a legend. I grew up watching this guy, and he was just a unbelievable, smooth lefty, one of the first great college guards that I remember watching. He’s just a classy guy. He’s just a classy guy, and he’s doing a great job with the program. It’s not easy for anybody right now. Obviously, with the turnover they’ve had on the roster, he did a great job building a team that looks like it has cohesion. I know it has talent, I know it has experience. And, yeah, just really impressed. To me, it’s early for all of us, so that there’s, no, I don’t need to be a predict the future, but that certainly feels and looks like a good NCAA tournament team to me.”
On overcoming Koa Peat and Anthony Dell’Orso poor scoring nights: “I told our guys that. To be able to kind of win on the road in an environment like this against a team that’s 14-2 with Koa kind of had a couple, a tough foul call early, I thought. You hate to see one of your better players get foul, and the ref called it, so it’s a foul. Then kind of a random kind of hustle, rebound foul, the second one. We had a lead. So subbing wise, I was kind of managing our lead with his fouls. Just felt like it wasn’t worth putting him back in the game while we had a lead. And felt like we were doing okay. Even though they made a little run back at us, we still could absorb that run a little bit and kind of save him and his fouls for the second half. It’s just not going to be your day every day. And Koa is such a high character guy, he understands this is a team game, and he’s going to be great one day and you may not be his day the next, but he’ll bounce back for sure. But credit to our team to absorb that. Delly missed some wide open shots that he hits. He played actually a really good floor game. He just didn’t make any of his shots. That’s how it goes sometimes, but I felt really good with his minutes out there as well. And so to us absorb those two guys not having their normal production on the road says some good stuff about our team.”
On Arizona being intentional about going to Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka: “Yeah for sure. We have big guys, and we’re not afraid to play to that. I feel really comfortable rotating those three bigs in there. They just probably had to play a little bit longer stretches in the first half than normally we’re accustomed to. Maybe they wore down a little bit. But on the road, it takes what it takes. You don’t get to script these games. I don’t get an instruction manual on how to coach them. You just got to kind of feel the game as it plays out, and make adjustments where you need to make adjustments and trust your gut in moments you have to.”
On the comfort of knowing Arizona can overcome a poor half from a player like Peat: “It’s really comfortable. It’s really comfortable. Our young guys have an experience beyond their years. Ivan even had some, turnovers today that are probably a little bit regretful that he’ll learn from whether they were fouls or not fouls, I don’t know. But at the end of the day, you got to be stronger with the ball on the road, especially, but anywhere. But yeah, it’s a group that has a winning DNA. It has winning DNA in it, and that’s something you don’t take for granted. I’m not going to sit here and take all the credit for it. It has winning DNA, and we try to do our best job building a good, strong culture and that gives us kind of a foundation to be consistent, and then that’s what I’m looking for.”
On having an advantage with Arizona’s size: “We always feel like most days, we’re going to have an advantage playing through our bigs inside, and we’re always going to test it. It’s part of our DNA and part of our formula and how we play. I love big guys and I always will. The more the merrier. I’d play three or four of them at a time if I could. You need a few guys to dribble and move the ball, but I love having those big fellas out there.”
On Arizona getting to the free throw line: “Bradley, some of those are at the end. Bradley, he’s world class game finisher for us. So he gets the ball. You want to get the ball to him at the end of the game in those situations, so he can get fouled. Because you trust him at the free throw line. And he trusts his decision making when the ball’s in his hands. So getting to the free throw lines a lot of things, it could be how strong you drive, or do you get knocked off your line? Are you able to hold your line? And if you hold your line, obviously it looks rest will respect that and call fouls on it. It’s not just the inside game. There’s a lot of things that go into the foul pressure. Being a team that goes to the offensive glass, you can get a lot of fouls getting blocked out. When teams aren’t used to maybe blocking out as often.There’s lots of ways to do it. And yeah for sure, we were we love free throws. They’re my favorite shots in the game. Layups too. I like layups too.”
