Winning the first 10 games in a season has happened seven times in Arizona\u2019s history, twice under Tommy Lloyd. But none of the previous instances included five wins over ranked teams or a string of five consecutive wins by at least 20 points.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats (10-0) are on a roll right now, winning their last five\u2014including over ranked Auburn and Alabama squads\u2014by an average of 30.2 points per game. They\u2019re scoring 98 per game during that run and 90 per game for the season.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s so much left in the season, particularly the gauntlet that is the Big 12 Conference schedule, and Lloyd continues to strive for incremental improvement across the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we\u2019re starting to establish who we want to be and what we can be,\u201d Lloyd said after Tuesday\u2019s 96-62 win over Abilene Christian.<\/p>\n
The next opportunity to do that comes Saturday night in Phoenix, against San Diego State, part of a Hall of Fame Series doubleheader that also features Colorado and Stanford meeting at Mortgage Matchup Center (home of the Suns).<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to watch for when the Wildcats and Aztecs face off in Phoenix:<\/p>\n
Will Burries\u2019 fury continue?<\/p>\n
The first half of Arizona\u2019s 10-0 start did not include many highlights from Brayden Burries, unlike fellow freshmen Ivan Kharchenkov and Koa Peat who made big impacts right away. Burries averaged 7.8 points on 33.3 percent shooting those first five games.<\/p>\n
The last five? 19.8 points per game, with three 20-point performances including a career-best 28 against Alabama. He\u2019s shot 61.3 percent in that span, 38.5 percent from 3, while turning it over just seven times in 141 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m starting to get more comfortable, just learning after the vets like JB and Delly, and the coaches believing in me,\u201d Burries said after scoring 20 on Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s just confidence, I\u2019m 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\u2019re going to live and die with the shots I take.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd said he was \u201cnever worried\u201d about Burries during the slow start.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s playing how he\u2019s capable of, and I think he can consistently play at this level for an extended period of time,\u201d Lloyd said.<\/p>\n
A deep but inconsistent opponent<\/p>\n
San Diego State (6-3) received all 26 first-place votes in the Mountain West preseason poll, and is already 1-0 in league play after beating Air Force 81-58 on Wednesday night. But in nonconference action the Aztecs dropped three games.<\/p>\n
The losses to Baylor and Michigan at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas are understandable, though the latter was by 40. The hard-to-swallow result was a 108-107, double-overtime loss at home to Troy.<\/p>\n
SDSU has 11 players that average double figures in minutes, but also no one averaging more than junior guard BJ Davis\u2019 13.3 per game. A starter last season, Davis has come off the bench this year and his shooting 47.2 percent overall, 53.3 percent from 3 and 94.7 percent from the line.<\/p>\n
Junior wing Miles Byrd has four games with 13-plus points and five with seven or fewer, while USC transfer Reese Dixon-Waters is 8 for 29 over the last three games after averaging 14 points prior to that.<\/p>\n
The Aztecs shoot 41.1 percent from 3, fifth-best in Division I and force more than 15 turnovers per game. Arizona just committed a season-high 18 turnovers against Abilene Christian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re ranked right now, but I want to make sure our guys understand that just because they don\u2019t have a number next to their name doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not as good as the teams we played already,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cSo so our guys need to be locked in and understand that Saturday is a super important game, and it\u2019s going to be a battle. And we got a ton of respect for San Diego State and their program.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the third consecutive season Arizona will play a neutral-site game in Phoenix, something Lloyd wants to continue annually. The Wildcats beat Alabama in 2023 and lost to UCLA last season, dropping to 4-5 at the time.<\/p>\n
In both previous instances the crowd was markedly pro-Arizona.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crowd up there it\u2019s crazy, it\u2019s pretty much like a home game for us,\u201d Jaden Bradley said. \u201cWe\u2019re about to go play a great San Diego State team. Just knowing we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. MT, though with Colorado and Stanford playing at 6 the actual start could be a little later. While some coaches\u2014cough, Mick Cronin, cough\u2014have complained about late starts for neutral site games, Lloyd fully embraces the atmosphere such a tip time can create.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re playing this game in Phoenix because we think it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a kid in our roster right now. I think he\u2019s number 10. He\u2019s pretty important to the community of Phoenix. Okay, so let\u2019s get out there and support our program. Let\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winning the first 10 games in a season has happened seven times in Arizona\u2019s history, twice under Tommy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43772,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-102438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-arizona-basketball","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}