Head coach Tommy Lloyd and the Wildcats travelled back to McKale Centre to battle the UCF Knights in an attempt to stay unblemished in Big 12 play.
UCF put Arizona to the test in their first home game of the year, but they prevailed 88-80.
Lloyd, forward Tobe Awaka, and guard Anthony Dell’Orso said the following:
Lloyd on UCF speeding things up for the Wildcats: “Not that we weren’t prepared for it, but they do a great job being aggressive. I mean they’re relentless, and I was really impressed, not only their relentlessness with the pace, but driving, asserting their will, and trying to get to the paint and then on the glass.
They did a great job, and they’re a tough out. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. When you have a game like they did a home against Kansas, you know, Coach Dawkins is a great coach. I’m sure he’s been on those guys, and they’ve responded so they gave great effort today, and definitely a formidable opponent, we were fortunate to come out on top.”
Regarding Arizona’s performance: “I’m disappointed in how poorly we performed. We were stupid. Our fundamentals were poor.
Our late-game execution was poor, and it’s not acceptable. Hey, I love the result, and I told the staff and the players, if somebody would’ve told me when we got back to Tucson after the UCLA debacle, that we’d be 4-0 in conference, I probably wouldn’t believe you.
So, I love where we’re at, but I’m also going to fight for where we’re going, and Arizona basketball does not play dumb at the end of the game. We just weren’t good enough at the end of the game.
“Whether it’s disrespecting the game or getting casual, whatever you want to call it, we’ve got to be better. Those guys that are playing heavy minutes, they’ve got to be better. At the end of the game, they have to be better. There’s no other way to put it. I could try to put them in better positions, and maybe the best position might be off the court. So, you know, those are conversations we’re going to have. Winning is important and we need to value those opportunities.”
On late game mistakes: “It’s frustrating. We come out and get off to a great start, a great start. I thought our energy was good.
I thought the defense was okay, you know, offensively, I thought we were clicking. Then it’s like we get a little bit of a lead, and if you go back, and if you watch possession by possession, it’s just like are we really making the best play for the team? When we’ve struggled this year, we haven’t made the best play for the team. We’ve been good when we’ve made the best play for the team.
It’s really not complicated, and I think that’s probably most all teams across the board. So we got to be better. We got to be better at those moments. We got to be better in that first half.
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