Arizona is 10-0 to start a season for the 7th time in school history, and the last five games have been won by at least 20 points.
Arizona
What Tommy Lloyd, Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burries said after Arizona’s win over Abilene Christian
The 96-62 win over Abilene Christian on Tuesday night came only three days after winning in Alabama, with a long, late flight home in between. And there’s another game in four days in Phoenix, a stark contrast from the previous few weeks where the Wildcats played three times in a span of 19 days.
“I told our guys, this is normal,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “This is the rhythm we need to get accustomed to. We had, like, a football schedule. We played three Saturdays in a row. It’s not normal. You build in days off and prep time. So we got to get more comfortable playing and preparing in tighter windows. I welcome the change in schedule, because this is definitely way more realistic than what we’ve been doing.”
Our full game recap can be found here. Below is what Lloyd and guards Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burries said afterward:
On facing a team that fouls a lot: “Abilene Christian has an identity, they’re a scrappy defensive team. They do a great job stealing the basketball and putting pressure on you, and kind of denying some maybe normal passes you would get. So you want to be able to attack that pressure. But one of the downfalls of the way they place, there’s a lot of fouls. They have a high foul rate. We don’t overthink that, but for sure, we wanted our guys to be strong with the ball. We were able to get in the bonus early, but we still had (19) turnovers, and that’s a credit to them, a little bit, and maybe just a little bit of casualness on us that we can definitely tighten up. But I want to give Abilene some credit. They are scrappy program, and those guys played hard, and, they’ve had a lot of success for kind of a newly found Division I program.”
On having that kind of opponent in between Alabama and San Diego State: “Let’s not give us enough credit to think that we scheduled Abilene Christian in between here, thinking it’s going to prepare us for the next game. It’s just kind of how the dates worked out. But there’s no doubt. I mean, we know we’re going to have to take a look at where some of those turnovers came from and tighten some things up a little bit before Saturday.”
On Bradley going 10 for 10 from the line in first 11 minutes: “I don’t know if I had in my notes before the game that it would happen, but it happened. Jaden’s kind of proficient in getting fouls, he’s good playing downhill. He’s good playing on balance. And that’s usually a good recipe for getting a good whistle.”
On starting 10-0: “Hopefully we’re starting to establish who we want to be and what we can be. I really challenged our guys, before the game, to kind of hone in on our on-court values and our on-court identity. I think it’s important to kind of refocus on those things, they can kind of be a beacon for how we want to play and understand what’s important to us. AS opposed to thinking maybe this can be a certain game where I can play well and or I’m going to get a highlight tonight. We want to think like that. We want to honor our our values and honor our identity, and that’s what we focus on.”
On Burries’ last 5 games: “Brayden obviously is a good player, and I’ll let his performance do the speaking. And I was never worried. Maybe some people were, I don’t know if they were or not, but I know how good of a player he is. I trust my judgment. He’s playing how he’s capable of, and I think he can consistently play at this level for an extended period of time.”
On Sidi Gueye’s development: “Before the Alabama game, I grabbed Sidi and I told him, I want him to be ready to play in a high-level game in four weeks. Sidi has gotten off to a slow, slower start here for a variety of reasons. But Sidi is really talented, and he’s a great kid. He can catch up fast, so I want to get him in catch up mode right now. Physically, just with his strength, his conditioning, his physicality, his IQ and understanding of what we’re trying to do. You could see just his ability out there and some flashes. There’s obviously more we need to get to, but let’s just have a good day today, and we’re going to follow the good day in the weight room tomorrow, and a good day of practice. We’ll just stack, and then, you know what? We’ll periodically poke our head up from the ditch that he’s digging, and we’ll see where he’s at. I don’t have a yearlong plan.”
On Gueye’s block/dunk sequence: “He’s had some of those plays in practice. And he’s really given our big fits protecting the rim. He’s not easy to score over there. He’s got great timing on blocking shots. What I really encouraging him to do, like a week ago, I’m like Sidi, when we were watching you, when we were recruiting you, you were catching all these alley-oops. I don’t think our team thinks you can catch one. So start showing us, show your teammates and then let’s create some belief in yourself and go but. But I like where he’s at, tonight, and just looking forward to what tomorrow brings.”
On going to the press early: “We spent some time on it, worked on it. We feel like we got some good pressing lineups. We want to keep exploring, we don’t want to lock ourselves in and maybe just play it one way all the time. Honestly, there was no master plan. It just kind of how the game started. I think we got a foul or something on the first possession. I’m like, what the heck? Let’s just go to our press right now. And then, to be honest with you, I called it one time, then the guys put themselves in it after that.”
On Anthony Dell’Orso: “There’s a few turnover issues today, and he’ll have to take a look at those. Delly is a really important piece. We can’t be the team we want to be without Delly being the player he can be. There’s really no other way to put it. I really appreciate what he brings to the table. I got a ton of trust and confidence in him, a few turnovers today. I really trust that guy, we’ll move on and figure out if there’s a way we can help him. In a lot of way, a guy like him will probably figure it out on his own. You know, how he how he can avoid some of those.”
On San Diego State: “I haven’t watched really any of them yet this year. I’ll start digging into them, I’m sure, tomorrow. But Coach (Dutcher), he’s done a great job there. I mean, that program with Coach Fisher before him, they’re going on a long run and being very successful. I don’t think they’re ranked right now, but I want to make sure our guys understand that just because they don’t have a number next to their name doesn’t mean they’re not as good as the teams we played already. So so our guys need to be locked in and understand that Saturday is a super important game, and it’s going to be a battle. And we got a ton of respect for San Diego State and their program.”
On SDSU and Gonzaga joining the Pac-12 next season: “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about stuff outside of my my reality that I’m living in every day. I’m sure it’s exciting for all of them, and I hope it ends up being a great basketball conference. I think that would be great for the West Coast to kind of re-establish another strong basketball conference.”
On playing in Phoenix: “We’re playing this game in Phoenix because we think it’s really important to connect with our fan base up there, and and I hope as many people come to that game as possible. We know there’s a lot going on around the holidays. We totally respect that, okay, but we want to go up there and we want to connect with our fans, and we have players from that area. There’s a kid in our roster right now. I think he’s number 10. He’s pretty important to the community of Phoenix. Okay, so let’s get out there and support our program. Let’s support our local players and get as many people as we can Saturday night. And this is what I know, late Saturday night games in Phoenix can be pretty special. So let’s have a ton of fun, and I hope to see everybody out there on Saturday and then at our two games over winter break.”
Bradley on scoring in double figures without a field goal: “I was just fortunate enough to make all my free throws, and my teammates took care of the rest.”
On playing a team that fouls a lot: “Just play through it, not depending on the ref to call a foul, just block that out.”
On Burries coming around after a slow start: “His first couple games we played UConn and those other games. Other freshmen were able to get their feet wet with kind of some easy games and he was thrown in the fire right away. I knew he was going to get better.”
On past games in Phoenix: “Phoenix, the crowd up there it’s crazy, it’s pretty much like a home game for us. We’re about to go play a great San Diego State team. Just knowing we’re gonna have the crowd on our side, we still got to come and bring it, bring the energy and do everything we need to take to win.”
Burries on his recent run: “I feel like I’m starting to get more comfortable, just learning after the vets like JB and Delly, and the coaches believing in me. It’s just confidence, I’m starting to get it. It comes from teammates just trusting me, putting extra work. And just now that if I miss a few shots I know they’re going to live and die with the shots I take.”
On what could be improved from this game: “All the turnovers we had, myself included, mainly it was just ill-advised. I feel like I got to get better at that.”
On playing Tuesday night after a flight home late Saturday: “I feel like all of us have goals of getting to like the next level, and I feel like the next level has a lot of back-to-backs. You have to get used to it.”