here<\/a>. Below is what Lloyd, guard Jaden Bradley and freshman forward Koa Peat said afterward:<\/p>\nLloyd on returning to Las Vegas: \u201cArizona fans have a special relationship with Vegas, and we love coming here. Being the first game of the year, it\u2019s really early. Never played a game on November 3 that counted. To see all our fans around and the excitement for this game, it just kind of helps remind us why we do this. We know at Arizona basketball, we always talk about it, we\u2019re part of something much bigger than ourselves, and we know we have an amazing legacy that we\u2019re honoring all the time. For our guys to come out and put on a show like they did, in an awesome atmosphere, against a really impressive, formidable opponent was pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Bradley not making the Bob Cousy Award preseason watch list: \u201cThe Hall of Fame is awesome, but how in the world do they not have Jaden Bradley as one of the top 20 point guards in the country? You guys know, I don\u2019t mess with these lists that much, but JB and I talk about it a little bit. JB is a guy that he doesn\u2019t need anything extra. He doesn\u2019t take up any extra space in the room that he has to. He\u2019s always leaving room for for his teammates to be special, and at the end of the day, he\u2019s just a get it done type of guy. I know there\u2019s add ons to that list, but if there\u2019s any way this guy\u2019s not one of the top two or three point guards in the country, I mean, I\u2019ve been doing this for a while, and then they don\u2019t make them much better than this. He was amazing today.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Peat: \u201cKoa, it was a coming out party for him, so to speak. Everyone\u2019s known about him, but no one\u2019s really studied him and watched him. He\u2019s a special player. The way he came out in that atmosphere, and he went against a first team All-American, and that kid\u2019s a heck of a player, and Koa obviously more than held his own.\u201d<\/p>\n
On starting Ivan Kharchenkov: \u201cHe\u2019s seasoned. He obviously is young, he just turned 19, but he\u2019s played high level basketball. He was coached by a guy named Pablo Laso. You guys might not know that name, but he was also the guy that coached Luca Doncic at Real Madrid. I\u2019ve gotten to know Coach Lasso over the years. A couple years ago Coach Laso was the head coach of Bayern Munich, where Ivan was playing, and so I obviously called to do my homework, and he\u2019s just like Tommy, you\u2019re going to be blown away how ready he is from day one. And he showed flashes of this, but he\u2019s also had some ups and downs and practices, but for him to come out today and before like he did on this stage, was impressive. Because what I\u2019ve been on is you know what about rebounding, and he led us in rebounding tonight. So that shows me he\u2019s a good learner, so it probably gives me the liberty to keep getting on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
On falling behind 12 early: \u201cFlorida came out, and some of our coverages weren\u2019t great. There\u2019s a lot of things that they do similar to us, and it\u2019s hard to guard, and that\u2019s why we do it. And they did a great job kind of taking advantage of some of that early and getting some deep penetration, and just got a bunch of points at the rim of their bigs. And then our guys kind of settled in and made some adjustments. But I told our guys, these games are crazy and they\u2019re emotional, but they\u2019re long, so take a breath. Tou can get down, you can get up.\u201d<\/p>\n
On nearly giving the game away: \u201cObviously, we got to work on our end-of-game stuff a little bit, we weren\u2019t as clean as we needed to be at the end of the game to close it out. When you have that lead, it\u2019s paramount that you find a way to close out the game and not to give your opponent a chance to tie it. And I think Florida had the ball down three under a minute to go. That\u2019s awesome, it gives us something to work on. So we\u2019re going to focus on that and get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
On only attempting five 3-pointers: \u201cThat\u2019s not totally the game plan, but it\u2019s just kind of how they\u2019re guarding you sometimes. But if you shoot five threes and you can attempt 38 free throws, I don\u2019t know. I know you guys are probably all smarter at analytics than I am, but that puts a lot of pressure on a defense, because you know what happens when you shoot a free throw? They fouled you, and those fouls add up, and then they get deeper into the bench. Maybe guys, if they are playing, they\u2019re a little more tentative, they can\u2019t be as aggressive. There\u2019s lots of ways to win a game, and I know a trend is shooting threes. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to shoot five threes a game. I mean, obviously I\u2019d like to be in the 20s, if they\u2019re the right threes. And I think we\u2019ll get there over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the value of this win: \u201cWe\u2019re in a great spot, and I like where we\u2019re at, but you know what? But I also know, we got a couple games at home, and then I know there\u2019s this thorn in our side from LA that we\u2019ve got to go over and play in their city in 10 or 11 days from now. I got a lot of respect for them, and we\u2019re not even thinking about that game yet. There\u2019s so many battles to be high and you know what\u2019s really cool, as I\u2019m getting more experience coaching, just enjoy it. Enjoy the battles. Don\u2019t get too worked up, don\u2019t get too stressed out. Just try to figure out what you got to do to win the game. But, man, this is a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the frontcourt: \u201cTobe (Awaka) didn\u2019t have his great game, great game for him, with the work he\u2019s put in, but he\u2019s going to. And Dwayne (Aristode) didn\u2019t probably play as much as he could have, but he\u2019s going to be fine. Tobe, we were down 10, and we put him in the game. We had foul trouble, and he was a big part of why we got back in the game. There\u2019s lots of things that impact winning. And Tobe is a stud, and I know he\u2019s going to be great. Mo (Krivas) is showing progress, and he\u2019s going to grow. Mo has really worked hard and gotten a lot better. He just needs a few games under his belt where he\u2019s the impact guy that we want him to be, and then he\u2019s going to get his real confidence. And obviously Koa is a force. I think Koa is a matchup nightmare every day, and I think you\u2019re going to continue to see more and more from him game. He also had five assists, seven rebounds. Should have been double digits on the boards, but we\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peat on tapping into his Team USA experience: \u201cI think it really helped me this summer, especially playing with Coach Lloyd. He ran some of the same sets at USA, so coming to U of A in the fall, it was pretty easy to adapt to those. I think me and Coach built a really good relationship this summer, and I\u2019m just excited for the season, and I\u2019m just really happy to be coached by Coach Lloyd.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the exhibitions helping prepare him: \u201cI think those helped me a lot for sure, just getting on the floor in McKale, playing a live game. But I think what really helped me was just the practices. We practiced really hard throughout the week leading up to this game. I\u2019m just grateful to have coaches and teammates that put me in positions to be good, and especially JB. He just makes my game so easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bradley on falling behind by 12: \u201cWe just knew Florida was a great team, so we tried not to panic when we got down. We trusted in each other, trusted in the system, two, three ball screens, and we just took what they gave us. We just trusted each other, and we ended up getting that lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
On if playing Florida meant Arizona had arrived: \u201cIt\u2019s a long season. We just treat every game like it\u2019s a big one. And most importantly, don\u2019t get too high, don\u2019t get too low. And have a great practice Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS\u2014Arizona hasn\u2019t lost the first game of a season since 2006, but with the opener against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22204,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-32535","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\/32535","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=32535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}