Arizona knows who it’s playing, where that game is being played, and in which region it’s being played. That’s the easy part.
Being ready to hit a deep run at the 2023 NCAA tournament is where the real work lies. And trainers Tommy Lloyd is not ready to look at the entire group of 68 teams, only First round opponent Princeton and perhaps the potential second-round opponents in Sacramento, California.
“I don’t put too much stock in playstyle or hey that bracket looks like that because y’all know how these tournaments work,” Lloyd said Sunday at the UA picks show watch party at the Union Public House. “The bracket can look like this on Thursday, it looks very different on Saturday. We’ll just try to do our best to get through Thursday and then we’ll figure out Saturday after that. I’m always confident that we can prepare to win game after game.”
Here’s what Lloyd Cedric Henderson Jr. And Pele Larson had to say about UA’s NCAA tournament selection:
Lloyd on whether he’s had a chance to scout Princeton in the 15 minutes since he found out about Arizona’s opponents (yes, that was a real question): “Not at all. We’re getting to the bottom of it tonight. We’re used to that. We’re used to these quick turnarounds and having played in tournaments quite a few times, you have to work tonight and build your game plan tomorrow, and that goes very fast. They usually travel on Tuesday.”
At Princeton’s pace: “I know their reputation is the Princeton offense and maybe they’re executing it. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t seen them play this year so I don’t want to make any assumptions. The fast numbers that I looked at, their pace wasn’t that… we played a lot slower teams that play a lot slower than these guys. We’ll think of something. I look forward to digging into it.”
If you are placed in the South Region instead of the West: “There are only so many spots and someone is always getting bumped. You deserve a 2 seedling, but you’re kind of right in the way with some other teams and you might be seeded a little higher than a team, but it makes more sense to send you out. It just is. It’s a process that’s a mystery to me and I have no complaints about it. For this group of guys to deserve a 2 seed says a lot about them and what they’ve done this season and we look forward to getting on the pitch on Thursday and proving we belong.
At UCLA getting the No. 2 West despite Arizona beating the Bruins twice: “I don’t live in this world. UCLA won my four games in the regular season. I think that carries some weight. I’m glad we beat them last night but they won the regular season by four games so I think they were rewarded for that and rightly so.”
If you’re more familiar with the quick turnaround from Pac-12 Finals to NCAA tournament selection: “I think it’s important. I mean, I know it’s important for me to just get into the rhythm of… I was used to all those years with Gonzaga, the league game was on Tuesday. And so you basically had about five days before you found out where you were playing. And here it was obviously 18 hours ago or 16 hours or whatever, or less than that, when we finished on the court and got home very late. I think I’m a little more comfortable with the rhythm when it comes to preparing your team. But that’s the rhythm we have all seasons in the Pac-12. You usually play on Saturday night, and then your next game is on Thursday. I think it keeps us on the same schedule that we’ve been working on for the past few months.
Whether there’s an advantage to having a roster full of players with NCAA tournament experience: “Always. I think every time you’re comfortable with something, you’ll feel more comfortable the second time around. I think even when we went to the Pac-12 tournament this year, we were a little more comfortable with what that meant I think this group is ready to go and I’m sure they will look forward to training tomorrow and starting implementing the game plan.
On the tradition of the Princeton offense: “The Princeton offense is a staple in college basketball. I mean there are a lot of teams doing variations on that. Like I said, I don’t know if Princeton is running the Princeton Offensive. My eyes will tell me, I’m not going to just assume Jason Scheer found something on Twitter that would be her offense.”
Whether he can turn to other coaches he knows for some tips: “There are 363 Division 1 teams. We don’t have enough time to sit around and split hairs about who’s running what. What you do is you find out who you’re playing, get the movie, start watching it, and then you start making a scouting report. Whether they run the Princeton offense, and I’m sure it evolved from Pete Carril, and I’m sure Coach (Mitch) Henderson has his own version of everything. We will only scout the team we play against and we will not make any assumptions.
On keeping Oumar Ballo and Azuolas Tubelis together in the game against UCLA when things got small: “They’re two first-team All-Conference players and I don’t want another team coming on to affect what we’re going to do. You get small, we stay big, I mean there’s a give and take, right. I felt this group played pretty well. They had some guys that I felt like even though they were small we still had some matchups that I was comfortable with defensively and so we just rode it.
On Tubelis’ recent play and whether it will prevent another bad NCAA tournament: “I know he had some bad games last year. I don’t remember how he played in the Pac-12 tournament. I know he’s playing well right now. I know he’s had a great year and I know he’s a really good player. And the look he has in his eyes right now, I would assume he’ll stay focused and keep playing at a high level.”
Whether this team is better prepared for March Madness than it was a year ago: “Here’s the deal: we could all sit here and speculate about last year’s team, this year’s team, team in three years, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the team you have right now, the team you are going to play against now. Pete Carril’s offense doesn’t matter. But Princeton 2022-23 is important. I don’t spend time thinking about differences and comparing things, I don’t care. I’m just going to snap in and try to do the best job we can to prepare myself to win Thursday.
About playing through injuries: “I think at this time of year everyone’s probably gone nuts. We have a great coaching staff and I didn’t appreciate them yesterday, I (had) just a lot of things to do at the end of this game, but our coaching staff did a great job. Justin Kokoskie, Chris Rounds with strength and conditioning and our medical team did a great job getting these guys game ready and helping them play at a high level. So we’ll just keep attacking like this. We have a world class training staff, medical staff in Arizona, it’s really world class. So we’re just going to keep riding this. I’m sure everyone has nagging injuries. I mean it’s just this time of year. We have a strong, resilient group. And I’m sure most of the other teams in the tournament are in the same boat as we are. I think our boys love each other and love playing for each other, and if that means taking a little pain, I think they’re willing to do it.”
About Ballo playing with a broken hand: “I told Oumar if you have anything to give us, if you feel he can help us, help us. If not, I think that’s fine too. I mean I understand how to do it. But Oumar is a warrior, he has a strong character, he is tough. He always puts the team first so he looks good.”
For sticking to a 7-man rotation for the NCAA tournament: “I’m sure if you’ve taken a little time and looked at the minutes and rosters across the country, I bet a lot of teams play a tighter rotation than you think. It’s not just us, it’s just how college basketball is these days.
Via a public watch party: “The community is a big part of what we do, so we wanted to find a way to share that experience with the community. We always strive to engage with Tucson in any way we can, so we’re grateful that Union offered us this opportunity.”
Where harder to get in, Princeton or Lloyd’s Alma Mater Whitman College: “Definitely Princeton because I ended up at Whitman.”
Henderson on his participation in the NCAA tournament: “It’s big, it means a lot to me. This is my first time going to the big dance.”
On Princeton: “I don’t know them per se, but I’m sure we met a team similar to them.”
On beating UCLA for the Pac-12 title: “It’s a great win, but it doesn’t do anything. It happened, we won it, now it’s time to turn our attention to another team.”
Larsson on his better preparation for the NCAA tournament: “I have some experience now and just the maturity and patience that the tournament requires. We have that now.”
Whether he would have liked to have been in the West Region: “Actually I do not care. I’m not from here, so I don’t care where I play.”
What he thought of Arizona’s game-winning possession against UCLA: “Get the damn ball, pretty much. I knew there would be two possessions because of the shot clock, so I just tried to play the rebound. Zu had a great shot, it was in and out, I actually thought it was going in. And Oumar tipped it (first), that was huge for him.”
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