No. 2 in the nation<\/a>. \u201cThis is another big stage, at a different level of basketball. I\u2019m not going to act like everything equates. But these guys, for freshmen, they\u2019re seasoned. They didn\u2019t just turn up and end up being a good player. These guys have been in the limelight, and they performed in the limelight and been very successful.\u201d<\/p>\nBurries looked the most polished during the preseason, scoring 10 against Saint Mary\u2019s and 13 against Embry-Riddle, making 10 of 16 shots with one turnover in 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a dynamic offensive player,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cI see him as a guy that, when the ball is in his hands, he\u2019s going to make the right decision for the team, whatever that may be. And the right decision could be him scored in any one of those three levels, or making a play for someone else. He\u2019s somebody that I\u2019m sure over the course of year is gonna grow in that role. We\u2019re very comfortable when the ball is in hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burries, Jaden Bradley and Anthony Dell\u2019Orso are likely to start in the backcourt, with some combination of Peat, Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas in the frontcourt. Lloyd said that decision hadn\u2019t been made as of Friday but it\u2019s not a priority for him who the first five on the court are.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes it more concrete and it feels better for you guys, but it\u2019s just not how I operate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re a team that, we really don\u2019t care about the starting lineup. We\u2019re going to figure out a rotation. We\u2019re going to figure out a rotation that we feel like makes the most sense. We\u2019re going to figure out a rotation we feel like puts guys in the best position to be successful. I always feel it\u2019s a luxury to have seven starters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aristode, Ivan Kharchenkov and Evan Nelson will round out what should be a 9-man rotation.<\/p>\n
Florida lost three starters from the team that went 36-4 and won its third national title in April, outlasting Houston in the championship game. The Gators aren\u2019t rebuilding, though, as they return their entire frontcourt including 6-foot-11 junior Alex Condon, a preseason All-American.<\/p>\n
They had to replace their backcourt and did so via the portal, bringing in guards Boogie Fland from Arkansas, Xaivan Lee from Princeton and Isaiah Brown from Ohio. The UA has previously faced Lee and Brown in first round NCAA Tournament games, with mixed results.<\/p>\n
How those newcomers gel with the returning talent is a bit of an unknown, though. While Arizona\u2019s exhibitions and the Red-Blue intrasquad game aired on ESPN+, Florida opted to stick with the \u201csecret scrimmage\u201d format against Florida Atlantic and Illinois.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going in a little more blind, but that\u2019s happened in years past,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cCommon sense says they won the national championship last year, right? They have a lot of recruiting players, so whatever they did worked. So my guess is they\u2019re going to really lean into heavy what won them a national championship would be my guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd and Florida coach Todd Golden have history from their respective time in the West Coast Conference. Golden was head coach at San Francisco during Lloyd\u2019s last two seasons at Gonzaga, serving as an assistant for the Dons before that, and was a point guard at Saint Mary\u2019s from 2004-08.<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd is a really talented young coach,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cHe\u2019s found a really good identity with how he wants to play with his teams. They built a team that was capable winning the national championship, and being capable of winning it and winning it are two different things. And then they got it done. So, you know, got a ton of respect for what he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd has made it very well known he wants to play a game in Phoenix every year, outside of the one at ASU, and this season that will be Dec. 20 against San Diego State. Arizona is also making a return to Los Angeles on Nov. 14 to face old Pac-12 foe UCLA after not playing a game in the state of California last season for the first time in forever.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas is another home away from home for the Wildcats, and T-Mobile Center in particular has been incredibly friendly. Arizona is 9-2 at \u201cMcKale North\u201d including the 2022 and 2023 Pac-12 Tournament titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m zero for zero this year,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cI don\u2019t think past history is going to be an indicator of what will happen this year. From what I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s going to be a great crowd, I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s pretty much sold out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arizona and BYU figure to have the bulk of the fans, and each could be rooting for the other. A strong following has been nothing new for the Wildcats outside of Tucson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI experienced last year basically anywhere we were, whether it\u2019s Vegas or anywhere, we get a lot of fans, and that\u2019s a great part of being U of A,\u201d Dell\u2019Orso said. \u201cVegas, being so close, I\u2019m expecting a huge turnout.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To many Arizona fans, college basketball season technically begins with the Red-Blue game, or even after the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22204,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-30955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-arizona-basketball","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}