Arizona fans had a field day Saturday debating all the fouls that seemed to go against the Wildcats in a physical Big 12 matchup with TCU.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd didn’t find it productive to discuss the officiating after Arizona pulled out the 86-73 victory over the Horned Frogs.
“We had great officials today. We’re not going to sit and beg for foul calls,” Lloyd said. “That’s how it goes. And, you know what, on the road this is how it goes sometimes.”
Indeed, Arizona managed to overcome some questionable fouls en route to the team’s 16th straight victory to start the season.
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, Anthony Dell’Orso and Jaden Bradley said.
Lloyd on what he said in timeouts during TCU’s runs: “This is great. It’s exactly what we need. We don’t have hubris. We understand these games are going to be hard. And we don’t expect to come in here and have a 20 point lead build to a 40 point lead. This is not how it goes. So we’re realistic optimists. We’re always optimistic things are going to work out, but we’re realistic and knowing how tough it’s going to be. So we embrace the challenge. And I just wanted to make sure our guys understood that, and they’ve done a great job all season when they’ve been pushed and tested to kind of respond.”
On whether this is what he expected from TCU: “100%. We knew how hard it’s going to be. I know how good of a coach Jamie (Dixon) is. He’s been doing this for a long time, and I knew how physical the game was going to be. I understand what Big 12 games are. Yeah, I thought our guys did a great job. I feel really good how the game went. Obviously, I feel great about the result. We knew coming in when you really do a deep dive on TCU, they had lost four games by combined 14 points, and they haven’t lost in regulation since November something. So this was a team that that has a lot of fight in it, and they’re well coached, they have a lot of pride as a program, and they’re playing at home, and we expected a response out of them. When things looked like they were going well for us, we knew that they were going to keep coming, and credit to them, they did.
On how TCU handled Arizona’s bigs: “Fine. We’re built for it. Bring it on. If people want to play us physical, we’ll play physical back. And our guys probably got to figure out how to find a few more advantages with that physicality. We had great officials today. We’re not going to sit and beg for foul calls. That’s how it goes. And, you know what, on the road this is how it goes sometimes. the other team play spirited, and maybe have a few calls you wish go your way, but they don’t. So that’s called reality, and you deal with it. You don’t whine and complain about it. All in all, I’m happy with how our guys responded and with all the adversity that we faced.”
On getting help from the perimeter: “I haven’t even looked at the stats, you guys are talking 3s. What did we make, six, five, seven? Okay, we made seven threes. But that’s not crazy. And that’s like an average night, isn’t it? Pretty much for us, it’s like an average night. So good percentage, we got some free throws, I’m sure we finished some layups. I thought the times we bogged down a little bit maybe we got the ball in the paint and didn’t deliver, and we had a stretch there in the in the first half, where maybe our shot selection and decision making kind of dipped a little bit, but our guys were able to kind of reel it back in.”
On Dell’Orso’s shooting: “Delly, listen, he hadn’t played as well offensively as he would hope, and that that’s just how these seasons go. There’s an ebb and a flow to them. And what he does is really hard, to be a sniper is a hard deal. If your value is making threes and shots off the dribble, that that’s there’s a reason you guys are in the media and not playing, because it’s really, really, really hard. And so you’re going to have stretches of the season where you don’t shoot the ball well. I appreciate his resilience and how he hung with it. He’s practiced for the last couple days, and so I’m glad he was able to have that today, and hopefully it’ll kick start him for a good, another positive stretch.”
On Koa Peat’s outing after picking up a technical foul last game: “The tech’s a learning deal, you know? I’ve never dunked on anybody, so I don’t know what I would do if I dunked on somebody. But Koa he’s 100% always accountable for his action. He’s a responsible, high character guy. I challenged him to play good today, and he did. He played really well. To come on the road in this environment and play the way he did and at a physical game, it says something about him as a player.”
On Arizona’s Big 12 scheduling cadence: “Hey, however they schedule, we play it. So we don’t sit there and dissect, it doesn’t do any good. So we’re happy to play. We love Saturday afternoon games, especially on the road. I’m going to get home, relax, probably watch the last game on TV tonight, re-watch this game, and then get back to it tomorrow morning.”
On Tobe Awaka’s status: “I haven’t talked to J-Rock, so I’ll figure out what they’re but Tobe’s a warrior. And yeah, he’s battling. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know he was available to play, and he closed the game. So he’s really valuable to us.”
Dell’Orso on how he got Arizona going with his scoring: “Yeah we came out, they were back and forth, a little slow stuff for both teams. And I just see when I come in, I got to bring that spark, bring that energy, whether that’s scoring the ball defensively, or just doing a little things doesn’t really matter, as long as it kind of gives everyone a spark and gets us going. And that’s that’s kind of what I do.
On feeling better shooting the basketball: “Yeah, for sure, definitely. To get one back, kind of like what you expect, and makes the emotions feel a little better. But at the end of the day we won, we’re winning, so I feel good every time.”
On having a big contingent of Arizona fans: “ It was great. Obviously, the fan base is something that we can’t mention enough. They help us. They’re like a six man for us, traveling, home. Shout out to them. Appreciate the support. Keep bringing it, because we got a lot of big games coming up.”
On being leaders on a team with several freshmen, especially in Big 12 environments: “Yeah, it’s good. They’re obviously a step ahead of the game, like five years ago, freshmen probably weren’t like that. But, yeah, taking them under the wing, just showing them what we went through, trying to give them as much advice. And let them also take their own path, and build their own journey. Because you can’t just come in and be a robot. You definitely got to play the way you played all your life. So they’ve been great. They’ve been able to listen and do their own thing. And it’s helping us great.”
Bradley on the rhythm of the game: “TCU was a great team. They play fast, great defensive team with their ball screen coverage. So it was slow start. Hard to find our rhythm, but we did a great job at the end finding it and making easy plays.”
On whether he had to adjust his game after getting into foul trouble: “I mean, it’s kind of next man up. Brayden and everybody else did a great job of managing the game. Just got to find better ways to play without fouling, and just make the adjustments.”
On whether they were surprised they’d need to rely on 3-point shooting: “They did a great job with our post. They kind of doubled up. We got Big Mo, we got Tobe, we got Koa. They did a great job, their forces down there. So we were able to get some open 3s. So we trusted our open 3s and knowing (the bigs) were going to offensive rebound. So just trusting what they give us.”
On being able to win in a variety of ways: “Like you said, very well versatile team. We got Koa, To, Big Mo, forces in the paint, and they make it easier for us guards to get open shots, and we just playing off each other, making it easy for each other. That’s the goal at the end of the day.”