Arizona
What Tommy Lloyd, Keshad Johnson and Caleb Love said after Arizona’s win over Michigan State
PALM DESERT, Calif.—In the era of annual roster overhaul in college basketball, it’s very common for teams to struggle early in the season as they figure out their strengths and weaknesses.
And then there’s Arizona, which under Tommy Lloyd is 27-1 in nonconference games with two big ones already this season. The latest was Saturday’s 74-68 victory over No. 21 Michigan State in the Acrisure Invitational, the Wildcats’ 12th win in 16 tries against ranked opponents in Lloyd’s two-plus seasons.
Just don’t ask Lloyd to explain how the UA does so well in these big early games.
“These guys love playing in big games,” he said. “We’re a big game program, and so we’re not going to shy away from any of these moments. It’s been great. Maybe by the time I get the Quartzsite, on the drive back, I’ll have a better answer for you.”
Our recap can be found here. Below is what else Lloyd, game MVP Keshad Johnson and Caleb Love had to say afterward.
Lloyd on the victory: “A game like that you learn so much. We came out we started well, we were the aggressor. Kind of got flipped on us a little bit, but we hung with it and and just found a way to make winning plays down the stretch. It’s not coaching, I mean, it was these two guys here next to me. They did an incredible job down the end. I kind of ran out of ideas of plays to run. I always tell the guys at the end of these games, it’s amazing how often they come (down to) simple fundamentals, whether it’s a jump stop that leads to a back cut, or a shot fake that you get fouled on, or just stepping up and making a shot that the defense breaks down. But a lot of times it’s offensive rebounding. And I think that was evident today.”
On remaining calm after falling behind late: “What I know is, when you play a blueblood-type program that’s used to winning, the game ain’t ever over. And you’re gonna have to find a way to win that thing three or four times, and you’re gonna have to have a lead and next thing you know, you’re going to be down. I’ve been in too many of these games, you just got to stay the course. Our guys, I didn’t feel like we panicked at all. I think we got a lot of great things to learn from.”
On Johnson and Love’s composure down the stretch: “These dudes both played in national championships. They’ve been through the wars. I’m just lucky to coach them, and we’re thankful they’re on our side. They’ve come in and they both have had success in their previous places, but they’ve 100 percent bought into our culture, and they’re 100 percent contributing to our culture every single day.”
On Jaden Bradley hitting a big shot late and defending Tyson Walker: “People have different strengths and weaknesses. JB’s defense on No. 2 today was incredible. Some foul trouble sort of dictate how things happen, and I felt really comfortable with him on the court. When JB’s on the court, I’m not looking for him to score 20 points or anything like that. I I look for him to contribute to winning, and he does that every single time. We’re lucky to have him. I’m 100 percent comfortable with JB on the court in long stretches.”
On if teams will try to take foul Oumar Ballo in close games: “They can, for sure. Oumar has a lot of strengths, and maybe free throw shooting isn’t always one of them, but we trust him, and I’m always gonna give Oumar a chance at some of that. I trust O is going to make those free throws.”
On playing small (with Johnson at the 5) the final 5 minutes: “One of the main reasons I did kind of switch our lineup towards the end is they switched there. They were playing No. 25 at the five, so I was like let’s get Ke out there and give a little more versatility on defense. I didn’t want Oumar to be kind of hung out to dry in some of the ball screen defenses we were trying to do so. So that was the main reason.
“Another guy, Big Mo Krivas, I think he’s gonna really help us down the stretch in these games, and he can really shoot free throws. Maybe today was kind of the first time I saw him maybe a little bit timid. Listen, he’s been awesome, and these guys know how good he is for a freshman, but you’re going to hit some struggle. I felt a little more comfortable with with Ke down the stretch of the game, and he gets that offensive rebound putback and makes those free throws. He made me look good.”
On scoring a lot off backcuts in the first half: “We kind of picked some things up in scouting. We’re a team that’s … we like cutting and moving, and we had a good little stretch there, I think we hit like three or four back cuts in a row and then I think they made some adjustments. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better. I can’t wait, we have nine days to get better now. And some of their ball screen coverages, we weren’t great at attacking. We always take pride in kind of being able to kind of figure those things out, and today, maybe when we go back and look at their ball screen defense versus our , ball screen offense, maybe they were a little bit better. So I think we can make a big jump in that area. The cuts worked early and then they kind of went away, because they maybe got a little stickier, but maybe that caused a few other things to open up, I don’t know, I’ll have to look.”
On his comfort level with Love wanting the ball late: “It’s really comfortable. I trust he’s going to be aggressive, he’s done it over the course of his career and he’s done it already at Arizona. And I only think he’s gonna get better. And we’ll get better at putting him in advantageous situations. Kylan (Boswell) and Jaden are growing there as well. Pelle (Larsson) is growing there well, playing good late in clocks.”
On Kylan Boswell’s play: “I thought Kylan had an awesome start to the game and then maybe he did a little bit extra. So I can’t wait to see how we can help him, when he starts to feel it like that, kind of simplify. Drill down on what he wants to do and be a little bit more efficient and I think he can have some really explosive games. Maybe they really took him out, I’ll have to go back and watch. He’ll learn how to handle that. He’s a young player playing in big-level games, and he’s a really good player. So I just look for him to continue to get better and better better.”
On defending Michigan State’s ball screens and defending the Spartans’ ball handlers: “These guys did a great job on their own kind of refusing some ball screens. We trust our size. What I really trust is these guards fighting their asses off on ball screens. These guys must have gotten screened 50 times tonight. I don’t think many of them were illegal. I might have been begging for a few illegal ones here, just trying to hope to get lucky. They were setting really hard screens and these guys were fighting over the top of them, and they were you know playing really aggressive downhill. I thought we had a lot of what we call rearview contests today, kind of contesting from in our in our recoveries. If you can do that with effort and we can trust our bigs down, that puts a lot of pressure on teams to make tough shots. And I thought we did that to both those guys today. And they’re both really good players. They’re going to make a few, but I think at the end of the day, we’ve maybe the difference was they didn’t make quite as many as they needed to.”
On the importance of the players knowing Arizona’s history: “We work on our culture everyday. I thought we had a great day spending some time on the culture yesterday. We had a nice little culture stuff today, that we got to keep the internal, and these guys do an awesome job with an old fuddy duddy like me preaching and talking about culture and different activities. I don’t know if they roll their eyes sometimes but they do a great job participating. And I want them to know what it means to play Arizona. So we spend a lot of time talking about the legacy that we’ve inherited, and what this program means to our community, and these guys put their heart and soul into it. I think they got the ability to dig a little bit deeper when they have to.”
On Acrisure Arena hosting its first college basketball game: “Awesome effort by our guys in an awesome environment, it was really cool. Playing here for the first time … for the first kind of big-time college basketball game, I think the community really showed up. I can see this becoming a great neutral site, not only for Arizona but maybe other teams. I thought that we could be walking in here and there’s 1,000 fans. Michigan State obviously travels well, and it was a great environment.”
On if the team will take any time off before the next game Dec. 2 vs. Colgate: “By the time we get to Quartsite I’ll figure that out.”
Johnson on playing the 5: “This guy, he does a great job of throwing out all different types of scenarios out there, so I get little instances when I’m in there at the five. Our preparation is second to none, we just get it done. Anyway which way we got to do it.”
On not getting flustered: “The trust that we have in Tommy’s game plan, the trust that we had on one another, that’s really what leads to that win. We’re just well connected. The strength that we have, the bond that we have on and off the court, that’s all the result that shows with these wins that we get in these tough games. I know I could go out because my brother’s got my back and I got his.”
Love on Lloyd letting things play out rather than calling timeouts: “He knows what he’s doing. He trusts us out on the floor. You see a head coach not panicking, I mean, why would you panic. We know those situations, we practice those situations, day in and day out in practice, and so we’ll comfortable in those type of situations.”
On being able to stay composed after giving up a big lead: “It’s hard to win those games, so whatever you gotta do, it’s gotta get done. A lot of times you can’t script nothing that goes on in a game like this with two wonderful programs, especially two winning programs. I know they got a lot of stuff that they do to try to win, we just got to stick to whatever we got to do.”
On building a 34-19 lead: “That was an emphasis for us, to come out strong and kind of hit them in the mouth. That’s kind of our game plan every single game, anytime we come into a game we want to hit hit first. We’re going to take a few punches, we’re not gonna fall we. If we do fall we’re gonna get back up. It all comes down to execution and playing hard and toughness and so that’s what we did.”
On Michigan State taking away the back cuts: “During the course of a game, no team is going to let a team do the same thing over and over again, they’re gonna make adjustments. So as they adjust, we adjust. We were kind of the aggressor in the first half and they kind of made their adjustments and switch it up. So we had switch up our game plan a little bit, we had to go to what was working.”
The Arizona Cardinals lost to the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 16-6 on Sunday. It was a poorly-played game, riddled with mistakes and penalties on both sides of the ball.
As I predicted earlier this week, much to the chagrin of Twitter/X, Arizona faced an unfavorable matchup in a tough road environment, and could not get the job done in a critical moment, despite a final score that gives the illusion of a close contest.
The Cardinals fall to 6-5, albeit not the worst position to be in, but will relinquish first place in the NFC West to the Seahawks, who are looking hotter by the week.
With playoff implications rolling out as the calendar nears December, here’s what the loss means for the Cardinals:
The Cardinals didn’t need to win to remain in playoff contention. With that said, it sure feels like Sunday’s loss might be setting an inauspicious tone for the rest of the season. On paper, Arizona has favorable matchups, but most (not this writer) probably assumed they had a favorable matchup coming into week 12.
With today’s loss, the Cardinals’ playoff chances drop to 40%. That in and of itself isn’t the worst number to see, but a win would’ve given them a 76% chance, with a temporary two-game lead in the division.
Now, Seattle holds the division. The 49ers aren’t coming to save the day, and no one truly knows what the Rams can and can’t do in 2024.
I also wrote this during the bye week: Arizona’s playoff hopes ride very heavily on the two matchups with Seattle. A loss at home in Week 14 would likely put this season on ice, unless they somehow win out all their other games.
After four straight wins, and coming off a bye week, it’s actually quite understandable to see a bit of a dud in this type of situation. What’s not acceptable is to do so against a division rival, with first place on the line.
Jonathan Gannon was swept out of the NFC West last season, again, understandably so with the roster he had. Prior to Sunday, he’d gone 2-0, blowing out the Rams at home and coming back to beat the 49ers in Santa Clara.
Those are both great wins, no doubt about it. Gannon, his coaches and his squad deserved the credit they got for doing so. But to truly succeed in this league, you have to be able to win games like Sunday’s in Seattle.
You have to be able to win the close, ugly, sloppy games against a tough opponent in a tough environment. It’s eat or be eaten in the NFC West, and a loss of this caliber is not encouraging as to their ability to play in critical moments down the stretch.
There are three NFC West matchups remaining, and the stakes will only get higher. 2-1 is the worst Arizona could go without sinking to the depths of the division, and they’ll need to play better in brighter lights.
Arizona’s defense played a very good game on Sunday. They allowed just 10 points, with six coming from a Seattle defensive score, picked off Geno Smith in a crucial down, and generated tons of pressure, including five sacks. The Seahawks only managed 285 yards of offense.
With that said, the Cardinals’ offense was the difference in the game – and not in a positive way. There were plenty of missed opportunities, some bad officiating and penalties that hurt them, and mental mistakes on everyone’s part, but Sunday’s loss was one of the most incompetent offensive games we’ve seen Arizona play.
Kyler Murray, who has been quietly playing elite football, was very poor. He threw for 285 yards, but was sacked five times, couldn’t break contain, and was inaccurate, with a costly pick-six in the third quarter.
He looked uncomfortable overall in the pocket, wouldn’t commit to running, and seemed to be in a twitchy state, leading to overthrows and poor decisions.
Part of that was on the poor offensive line play. Murray was pressured 14 times and was a mere 1-for-8 on those dropbacks. But game-breaking running back James Conner was also held to just eight yards on only seven carries. Arizona only ran the ball 14 times, despite never trailing by more than 10.
The Cardinals’ offense is run-first, and it seemed that they never attempted to establish it. When this unit becomes one-dimensional, bad things happen. Outside of a monster 133-yard (and zero-touchdown) day from Trey McBride, even the passing game looked pedestrian.
The Cardinals will face a tough opponent in the Minnesota Vikings next week, before the ultimate showdown rematch with Seattle the week after. If they can flush some of these issues, we’re in for some good, high-stakes football, but it’s hard to be optimistic after a showing like Sunday’s.
Chad Mitton and family running the show for ALA West Foothills football
ALA West Foothills HC Chad Mitton coaches his son and quarterback Hudson Mitton. His father, ex-Trevor Browne head coach Bill Mitton, gives him input.
With 18 of their 22 suspended players back for the 2A semifinals, the 12th-seeded Scottsdale Christian Eagles pulled the biggest upset of the small-school state football playoffs Saturday.
They avenged their season-opening loss to No. 1-seed Gilbert San Tan Charter with a 34-21 victory at Mesa Westwood High School.
Scottsdale Christian (9-4) will face No. 3 Pima (12-1), which stunned No. 2 Tonopah Valley 40-34 in the earlier semifinal on Saturday.
SCA and Pima will play next Saturday at Glendale Mountain Ridge High School at 2 p.m. It is a rematch of last year’s state championship game that Scottsdale Christian won 41-22. The teams met in Week 7 this year with Pima winning 20-17.
Scottsdale Christian had 22 players suspended for leaving the sideline in the final minute of its first-round upset of No. 5 Eloy Santa Cruz, after a fight broke out.
The Eagles were able to escape Phoenix Veritas Prep 26-24 with a depleted roster, before getting most of their players back for San Tan Charter, a powerful team led by Arizona State-bound Uriah Neloms, a wide receiver who played quarterback in his final high school season.
SCA quarterback Sean Helgeson passed for three touchdowns, including a 70-yarder to Lawson Lavallee that broke a 14-14 tie late in the third quarter. Midway through the final quarter, Caleb Randall, a top small-schools linebacker who added running back duties this season, scored on a 2-yard run to give the Eagles a 27-14 lead.
On STC’s ensuing possession, sophomore Caleb Murphy intercepted a pass and returned it 40 yards for a score, sealing the win.
“This time we just concentrated on us,” SCA coach Mike Sheahan said. “We have had so much adversity the last couple of weeks and, honestly, all season, that we had to slow down and just do our thing.
“All attention was inward and the opponent just happened to be 12-0 and the No. 1 seed. These boys played for each other and the SCA community with heart.”
In the August loss to San Tan Charter (12-1), SCA was without its best player, Randall. He’s been a difference maker since returning from an injury that caused him to miss the first three games.
3A final set
The 3A football championship game is set between No. 2 ALA West Foothills of Waddell and No. 4 Tucson Pusch Ridge at 6 p.m., Saturday at Mountain Ridge. This is the American Leadership Academy school’s first trip to the championship in only its third year.
ALA West Foothills has been The Arizona Republic’s No. 1-ranked 3A team since preseason. Coach Chad Mitton’s team got past No. 3 Thatcher 34-22 in Saturday’s semifinal at Mesa High. But the Guardians will be without their best player, two-way star J.J. Brutus, who suffered a broken leg in the final quarter. Brutus, a running back/edge rusher, had two first-half rushing TDs. He also had a fumble recovery.
The Guardians (13-0) led by as much as 27-9, before Thatcher (10-3) scored two touchdowns to become the first team to score more than three touchdowns against ALA West Foothills this season.
Pusch Ridge (12-1) avenged its only loss this season to Benjamin Franklin Queen Creek with a 24-13 win.
Since losing to Benjamin Franklin 31-7 on Sept. 6, Pusch Ridge has reeled off 11 wins, giving up no more than two touchdowns in any of those games.
Pusch Ridge led 14-0, before Talan Speir scored on a 16-yard run with five minutes left in the third quarter to cut it to 14-7. In the final minute of the quarter, Pusch Ridge increased its lead to 21-7 on Blake Reed’s 4-yard scoring run.
After Benjamin Franklin (11-2) scored with a minute to play, Pusch Ridge recovered the on-side kick and ate up the remaining time.
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azc_obert
An already crazy college football season got a whole lot crazier on Saturday.
And Arizona State was right in the middle of it.
The Sun Devils held off BYU 28-23 in a game that ended twice, creating a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12.
After it appeared Arizona State had run out the clock with a fourth down throw that sailed 50-plus yards down the sideline and landed in the stands, Sun Devils fans stormed the field and brought down the goalposts.
But the game wasn’t over. Officials determined that Sam Leavitt’s throw landed in the stands with one second on the clock. So they cleared the field, put the goalposts back up, and gave BYU one final play from midfield.
On the final play, BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw a Hail Mary pass that was caught short of the goal line, officially ending the game.
Then the fans stormed the field again.
“We won the football game,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said. “We beat another ranked team at Mountain America Stadium. So this is all about the guys. These guys battled, these guys fought and found a way to win. Whatever happened at the end, it happened.
“You know what? We got to rush the field twice, how about that?”
Losses Clear CFP Path For Arizona State
The upsets on Saturday started early and continued all day.
Seven Top 25 teams lost, including No. 5 Indiana, No. 7 Alabama and No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 15 Texas A&M and No. 16 Colorado.
Arizona State’s win over No. 14 BYU, coupled with Colorado’s 37-21 loss to Kansas, means the Sun Devils will be the highest-ranked Big 12 team in the next College Football Playoff Rankings.
So how high will the Sun Devils climb?
You can make a case that they should be in the top 10.
Indiana (10-1) has played a historically soft schedule and showed it has no business being in the top 10 with a blowout loss to Ohio State — the only ranked opponent they will play all season.
Alabama (8-3) was soundly beaten by an average Oklahoma team and now has three losses. Ole Miss (8-3) also has three losses, including a bad one to Kentucky.
All three teams should drop out of the top 10 — and Arizona State should move in.
Predicting the Next CFP Rankings
Arizona State easily had the best win of any Top 25 team on Saturday. And they have repeatedly showed they are one of the best college football teams in the country, with NFL talent all over the roster. What they have accomplished is not a fluke.
They’re better than Indiana and Boise State. The Broncos barely beat a Wyoming team that the Sun Devils blasted 48-7 earlier this season.
Here’s how the Top 13 of the next CFP Rankings should look:
1. Oregon (11-0)
2. Ohio State (9-1)
3. Texas (9-1)
4. Notre Dame (9-1)
5. Penn State (9-1)
6. Miami (9-1)
7. Georgia (8-2)
8. Tennessee (8-2)
9. SMU (9-1)
10. Arizona State (9-2)
11. Alabama (8-3)
12. Indiana (10-1)
13. Boise State (9-1)
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where Arizona State is ranked because they just need to win two more games to get in — next week at Arizona, then the Big 12 championship game.
But the national respect for the Sun Devils — and the Big 12 — is long overdue.
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