By defeating Houston at home, something only one Big 12 school has done in three seasons, Arizona has firmly taken control of the West regular-season title race. The Wildcats held a one-game lead in the standings with four games remaining and defeated the Cougars in a tiebreaker.
“We’re ready, now you’ve got to take advantage of that,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd He said after his team’s third win over a top-three opponent, the first school to do so in the regular season since Kansas in 2011-12. “I’m sure this win doesn’t look bad on our resume and when it comes to seeding, you want to have matchups in the tournament. But this win by no means guarantees anything.”
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Our game review can be found here. Below is Lloyd and the freshman wing Ivan Khachenkov Afterwards he said:
On winning in Houston: “It means a lot to us to get the lead, but we’ve got a longer way to go, so we’ve got to make sure we’re locked in and ready to keep going. We will. But it’s just a good day for our program.”
Facing Kelvin Sampson: “I don’t usually talk about myself. I don’t know how my coaching career is going to end, but I know one thing: I’m going to be a better coach after coaching with Kelvin Sampson. One hundred percent. You look at coaches who set the standard in certain areas, and to me, he’s one of them. He’s got this plan here. What you guys are doing here, it’s awesome. It reminds me of where I came from a little old school called Gonzaga, and no one really believed in it, but they have a coach like you, the head coach at Gonzaga and the head coach at Houston who want these programs to be elite, and that’s really encouraging to me.”
On having a better game plan against Houston than in previous games: “You always learn things when you play against others, the more you play against them, but teams are different year after year. Their program has an identity, our program has an identity, and you have to figure out if those identities conflict and if you need to make some adjustments. I think we made some adjustments today in terms of how we moved Moving and stretching the ball, I think it takes some pressure off and gives us some room that maybe we didn’t have before. But at the same time you want to say credit to Houston because if you can get a program like Arizona to adjust, that’s the ultimate sign of respect, and we respect them.”
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After two consecutive losses last week, his message to the team was: “The message is simple: Win. Get back to the things that win and the things that drive winning. Don’t be results-oriented and lock into a process. We just want to get back to our habits and drive to win. We just have to change the way we play the last few games. We have a couple really good players that are not playing right now, so those guys that are not playing have made big adjustments and found ways to win.”
On staying focused: “You lose that tough game at Kansas, lose at home to Texas Tech, and then your reward is you have BYU and Houston next week. Things can get out of hand really fast in this conference. That we were able to turn it around says a lot about this team.”
On defenders stopping Houston: “I’m not a big fan of analytics, but when we analyzed it, we were evenly matched with Houston in every aspect. We’re also a good defensive team. Our coach laid out a good plan, we had good players, and the guys came out and executed it with determination. There were a few times in the game where you were On the road, they hit one or two shots and then you’re like, phew. That’s life on the road sometimes. We had some breaks in those areas and when we played Texas Tech at home, that’s usually what happens to us and you’ve got to keep going.”
On how this win helps Arizona: “A game like this can give you momentum in a lot of ways. No. 1 is confidence and belief and the willingness to find a way. It keeps you chasing the conference championship, which is obviously important. And I’m sure this win doesn’t look bad on our resume when it comes to seeding and you want to get a matchup in the tournament. This win by no means guarantees anything.”
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About Anthony del Oso: “Delly, he’s a grumpy guy. I don’t know how many of you know Australians, but there’s something about him that you know. He had a little bit of that thing where things didn’t go his way for a while, but he soldiered on. Our guys were with him, our staff were with him, and I just told Delly, hang in there, it’s about to happen Coming in. If we have to make some adjustments, we’ll see if we can fix them out, but we believe in you and we believe in you and I don’t think you’re going to get any chance and our media at home are a little worried and I just keep telling them that Daly is at his best when we need him at his best and I think you’ve seen that the last two games.”
A 12-0 winning climax: “I didn’t realize we were already on a 12-0 run. I was just trying to control the game by running the ball, and I guess my memory is like a goldfish. We did have some things that worked out offensively, and we went back-to-back, which I don’t always do, but today we did. It’s a great way to control the game down the stretch.”
Regarding free throw percentage: “Our guys missed some free throws early, which is probably unfortunate, but we made most of our free throws late and that allowed us to keep some distance from them.”
On his tradition of popping open a Coke (or Coke Zero) before his postgame press conference: “I worked for a guy for a long time, Mark Fife, and he used to say it was the coolness of the evening. We loved these afternoon games because you put in a lot and the whole night was pretty cool. Whether you were on the road or at home, you could hang out with your family. You guys are all fans, or the media, and I’m sure you have a little bit of support for you, and that’s why you do it. But we as Coaches, put everything they have into this game, so when you get to have great moments, it’s really special. But I would also say that a lot of us coaches are kind of uncomfortable, but you actually might be doing okay because you can figure things out, and there’s nothing cooler than taking on a challenge and trying to help your team figure things out when things get tough, and that’s probably the most enjoyable thing to coach.”
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On the Big 12 Challenge: “We have a tough schedule. We play Baylor, then I don’t know what order it is, Saturday/Monday, Kansas State and Iowa State are at home, and then we have to go to Colorado. I told our guys, obviously we want to win the Big 12, but what’s really cool about going to the Big 12 is you can finish second or third in the conference and still To win a national championship. The league is so strong. We’ve put ourselves in a position and now you’ve got to take advantage of that and we’re going to start preparing for Baylor tonight and the task at hand now is to continue to get ready for Baylor and try to heal our injured bodies and try to find a way to get a tough road win in a tough environment.”
Khachenkov on recovering from two losses: “Winning a game is nice no matter what, especially in the Big 12. We knew Houston was going to be a tough game for us, especially with us taking some hits. And losing two games doesn’t taste good, so we just figured it out, battled, figured it out, and got the win.”
On winning on the road: “I love playing in tough conditions, both at home and away. Especially away it’s nice because after the game all the fans have left and the stadium gets really quiet and you know you’ve done your job well. There’s no talking after that. Of course it’s a satisfaction, going home or going to the next game you want to do that.”
