PHOENIX—For the third consecutive December Arizona played a nonconference game in the same arena in the state’s capital. And while the name of the venue keeps changing the atmosphere hasn’t. The announced crowd of 10,567 at the Mortgage Matchup Center was almost entirely on the Wildcats’ side, a fact that wasn’t lost on Tommy Lloyd […]
PHOENIX—For the third consecutive December Arizona played a nonconference game in the same arena in the state’s capital. And while the name of the venue keeps changing the atmosphere hasn’t.
The announced crowd of 10,567 at the Mortgage Matchup Center was almost entirely on the Wildcats’ side, a fact that wasn’t lost on Tommy Lloyd even in the middle of coaching his team to a 68-45 win over San Diego State to remain unbeaten.
“When I looked up (at the video board) people were drinking beer out of their shoes,” Lloyd said. “UConn’s $2 beer night has nothing on us.”
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, senior Tobe Awaka and freshmen Koa Peat and Dwayne Aristode said about the victory, Arizona’s sixth in a row by at least 20 points:
Lloyd on the 1st half: “I think we just kind of had to find our rhythm and our flow a little bit. Give San Diego State a lot of credit, they came out with a game plan where they were really forcing us to play outside in. They were really heavy in that first gap. They were going under a lot of our ball screens. We really haven’t faced that much conviction with that defense. So I think it just took a while for our guys to get comfortable in the game. So sometimes you got to make a decision, maybe today is not the day you shoot it as good as we hoped. There’s lots of ways to win, and if you can win in the effort areas, which we did today, that’ll go a long way to helping it.”
On Awaka: “If people aren’t paying attention, I don’t know what to tell them. It was amazing what he did. To be honest with you, the only guy I can compare him with, with just how he impacts a game with effort and toughness, is Domas Sabonis. An NBA All-Star. I know Tobe’s putting hisemlf on people’s radar with just the force he’s playing with and how much better he’s gotten. It’s crazy impressive. And you know what, I’m going to give credit to Big Mo, too. Big Mo, he was always kind of an offensive-minded player. An offseason project was kind of trying to rewire him. He takes one shot today, they were double teaming him. He had a couple turnovers I’m sure he’s not happy about, but he has 13 rebounds, and he impacts the game defensively. He draws five fouls. Those two, the combination of those two, man, I’m telling you.”
On Aristode: “Dwayne played some of his most valuable minutes, his offensive rebounding. The dive, that play when he dove on the floor in the second half was big time. And then, sticking that three, and then he also had a couple great drives, jump stops, to kick outs.”
On Peat’s return to Phoenix: “It’s not easy to come back home. He started off good then had a couple fouls and I’m kind of managing the game. And I’m sure he wanted to go back in. I just kind of decided not to do for those last couple minutes (of the first half), because I was hoping it was manageable. But we got down seven, and I was thinking about it, but then we made that quick 8-0 run at the end of the half.”
On the poor 3-point shooting: “They’re playing with a ball they’ve never played with before. That can be difficult, it just has a different feel. You’re not making excuses, because, I think both teams probably suffered from it. They were 1 for 14 from 3 and their only one was a bank. And coming into the game, they were shooting 41 percent from 3 as a team. The plan wasn’t to let San Diego State shoot open threes and they’re going to miss in an NBA arena. That just happens sometimes. I just proud of the way our guys hung with it, because then that can be a little bit frustrating to think you’re heavy in the gaps and and you’re missing a few shots you want to make, but we hit the ones at the right time, and we were kind of able to get a knockout punch in that second half.”
On playing with a ‘new’ ball: “When you’re playing these events there’s a sponsor. The ball is probably fine, I’m not here to bash the ball, it’s just if you haven’t been using it. Could you imagine baseball, if they played with a different style of baseball? They don’t do that. They have a standardized one. And we just don’t have that in college basketball. You’re seeing a lot of Nike balls, a lot of Wilson balls. You just don’t see many Spaldings. The Spalding kind of throws our guys for a little bit of a curve, but I’m sure there’s been other nights where we’ve shot the ball well, tonight just wasn’t the night. Maybe we’ll chop it up to great defense.”
On what he said during halftime: “I told them this is how I thought the game might go. There’s no reason to feel bad. We obviously didn’t play our best in the first half and you’re up one, because we made a nice little run there. And I just really challenged our guys. What happens if we come out and hit first. It probably doesn’t get enough attention, but you we’re also a pretty good defensive team, and I thought our guys did a great job just being sticky and having constant ball pressure on these guys and in the right spots in the gaps. I mean, you hold a team that good to 26 percent shooting? I mean man, that’s impressive. That really was the story of the game. It was our man-to-man defense.”
On playing in Phoenix: “It’s special when we come up here and we want to keep building it. Obviously, we really value our fans that come out with the support we get up here, and I think there’s a lot more potential. I think we got to kind of go back to the drawing board and figure out, how we could make this a bigger and better event for the University of Arizona, because it’s special.”
On the quick turnaround with a Monday game: “We’ll come meet in the afternoon, go over Monday’s game plan, kind of a light practice, and come out Monday and have the same effort energy we’ve had in the other games this year. It’s obviously been a good start, but we want to keep pushing. We know this is a long season, and we also respect that no one knows how things look in a week or two, so you just gotta keep going at it day by day.”
Awaka on his rebounding: “Honestly, it’s just whatever I can do to help the team win at the end of the day. If it’s scoring 15,if it’s getting 15 rebounds, so be it. Five blocks, whatever.”
On leading the nation in offensive and defensive rebounding percentage: “I didn’t know that. At the end of the day, it’s just when the shot goes up, go chase the ball. The stats and stuff are cool, I know people are going to bring it up. As long as we win that’s all that matters.”
On having only one turnover in the 2nd half after 10 in the 1st half: “Just stay poised. We know what kind of team they are in terms of their full court press and what they do defensively. I think it’s just getting a feel for the game, seeing what the style is like, how they’re playing. At halftime we’re going to make an adjustment.”
Peat on returning to Phoenix: “It felt great. When they announced my name in the starting lineup I had goosebumps, the cheering and all that. It was great to come back to Phoenix and be victorious like that. And just just to see the U of A fans in this stands like that, them cheering us on, getting us hyped, it was really cool to see.”
On his fan section: “My whole family came out and supported me like they always do. I mean, they’re coming out in Tucson too, and supporting me down there too. But it’s special to see them and see all my friends. I was just out there for like 10 minutes just talking to them, it was real special.”
On the 2nd half: “We also started playing with swag.”
Aristode on the 3-point shooting: “We just had to stay confident about the shot. I think we’re a good 3-point shooting team. Some days we might not hit 3-pointers but second half we found a way.”
Category: General Sports
