What Tommy Lloyd said about BYU: ‘Everything they did in the Kansas game worked’
Tommy Lloyd knows BYU as well — or better — than any coach in the Big 12.
Before taking over as Arizona’s men’s basketball coach in 2021, Lloyd was Mark Few’s head assistant at Gonzaga. And the Zags and Cougars had some epic battles in the West Coast Conference from 2011 through 2023.
“We know it’s going to be an evenly matched game, and I’ve played against BYU a lot,” Lloyd said on Friday. “I know there there’s some character in that program and there’s going to be a response. You know they’re going to come down here with the mindset of getting a win.”
Arizona (18-8, 12-3) beat BYU (18-8, 9-6) 85-74 in Provo on Feb. 4 in a game that was much closer than the final score indicates. The Wildcats are favored by 7.5 points in Saturday’s matchup in Tucson, but Lloyd knows it will be a dogfight.
“It’s not complicated. You know this time of year every game is going to be competitive. And if you think you’re going to show up and just go through the motions and be successful, you’re delusional,” Lloyd said. “We just need to make sure every time we take the court that we’re serving the game the way it should be served — and that’s with effort, energy, intelligence. … Those are the ingredients that I’m looking for right now.”
Here’s what Lloyd had to say before Arizona’s Big 12 home game vs. BYU on Saturday.
Lloyd on BYU freshman Egor Demin
“He’s very talented. Young player. Obviously he’s got a great future ahead of him and he’s getting a great opportunity to play with the ball in his hands a lot. And he’s having success. He presents a lot of challenges. But those are challenges I think we’re up for.”
Lloyd on BYU’s ‘impressive’ win over Kansas
“BYU played great. Kansas didn’t. I mean, it was impressive. There’s no reason for me to draw any opinions on Kansas because we don’t play them for a few weeks, but BYU looked great. They had their way with them, every which way. Obviously they’re going to be feeling really good about themselves coming down here.”
“Everything they did in the Kansas game worked. That’s what stuck out to me. Their defensive game plan worked. Their offensive execution worked. It’s not very often you go into a game, especially against a great opponent, where you know everything you do works. So obviously they had a great game plan that their staff put together and their players executed it almost to perfection. So that tells me you have a team that’s playing with a lot of belief and a lot of confidence.”
Lloyd on how BYU might attack Arizona’s ‘two-big’ lineup
“In the game of basketball you don’t pitch shutouts. At least I have never pitched one. You know the other teams are going to score. They’re going to have some success. You’re going to try something that’s not going to work, but then you come back and you try it again and maybe it does work.”
“So we’re going to hang with it. I like individually some of the gains we’re making defensively. I like the cohesiveness we’ve been playing with, for the most part, on the defensive end. So I don’t really see, because you have two bigs out there, it’s more difficult in your pick-and-roll coverage than having one big.”
Lloyd on Arizona playing with ‘desperation’
“Just from my experience in college basketball, this time of year you’re starting to see how the standings may look, and so certain teams are making pushes to try to improve their opportunities for the postseason. Sometimes teams can play with a certain desperation that energizes them.”
“We had to play with that desperation for quite a while because obviously we didn’t get off to a start we would have hoped to. And I think that desperation served us well. I think that when we’re at our best it’s part of our DNA. There’s no reason for us to let our guards down and think we’ve arrived, because we haven’t.”
“I would just say that the desperation element you can throw into a team’s approach can maybe impact the effort and energy they play with on any given night. And you kind of start seeing that in mid-February.”
