The Houston Cougars have been a barometer of success for Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona program since the two teams squared off in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
Houston got the better of Arizona that Sweet 16 game. Three years later, Arizona is still looking to get to the Cougars’ level. While Arizona fell to Houston Saturday in the Big 12 Tournament championship game, the Wildcats showed once again they can hang with a team that is set to earn a No. 1 seed in this year’s Big Dance.
“We’re right there, but it doesn’t matter,” Lloyd said after the loss. “Doesn’t matter if you close the gap or not. You gotta get it done. We’re Arizona basketball. We’re used to winning championships, too, and we know that’s where we belong and that’s where we want to get.”
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lloyd, Caleb Love and Jaden Bradley had to say.
Lloyd on Arizona falling short: “Yeah, congrats to Houston. Obviously they’ve had a great season and they’ve had a couple of great seasons. Of Coach Sampson deserves a ton of credit. They got us twice this year and they won the conference by four or five games and they win the conference tournament, so at this moment they’re the King of the Big 12. Nothing but respect for them.
Proud of our guys. We obviously came here, wanted to compete for a Championship, and we did. To the last couple minutes of the game we were right there. I don’t know what the time is. We had a lead there, under four minutes to go, and we gave ourselves a chance. We just didn’t get it done.
Hopefully we will learn from it. Obviously we’re at the time of the year where there’s no margin for error and, you know, we’re excited to take the next step into the NCAA Tournament.”
On whether Arizona is closing the gap on Houston: “Listen, we’re right there. They’re obviously missing one of their better players, so you gotta acknowledge that. I mean, that guy — he’s a really good player that sat out today.
We’re right there, but it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if you close the gap or not. You gotta get it done. We’re Arizona basketball. We’re used to winning championships, too, and we know that’s where we belong and that’s where we want to get.
Right now Houston is above us and we’re going to do what we can to close that gap.”
On what makes Houston such a tough team: “I mean, come on. That’s almost like a hard level — high-level, hypothetical question. Obviously they play with great effort. They got a great coach. They’re relentless, and offensively they got a plan.
Obviously he saw some match-ups he wanted to target in the second half and he did, and it’s disappointing for me that — we have good players too, and our guys shouldn’t be able to be targeted like that.
So individually you’ve gotta answer the challenge. I don’t know what else I can do. I guess I can go zone. I can do that. But like you’ve got to own the challenge.
They’re literally isolating you and targeting you and it’s obvious they’re doing it so step up and get it done. That was disappointing to me in the second half that we weren’t able to do that.”
On how quickly Arizona will move on to NCAA Tournament prep: “The moment we shower, leave this locker room, it’s on to the next thing. We’re excited to be participating in the NCAA Tournament. It’s an honor. It’s something you should never take for granted. It’s really hard to do.
“We’re proud we were able to compete for a conference championship today. We just want to get it done. We’ll move forward. We’ll move forward, and I can’t wait to see who’s line pops up tomorrow. We will be excited to meet them next Thursday or Friday.”
On how Arizona’s Big 12 Tournament run affects its seeding: “Bruce, I know this is our deal, but I don’t live in hypotheticals. I have no idea. You talking seeds or what are you talking?”
On whether Arizona has played itself back into a 4 seed: “I have no idea. Even if we’re a 13 seed we’ll be fine. We can’t wait till Thursday. … I will let you speculate on that. Whatever they give us, I’m ready.”
On Arizona’s defensive performance: “Listen, I think — whatever, I know you guys look at KenPom and you’re going to talk about defensive numbers, and it’s hard. We had a moment when we were the top defense in the country and now I don’t know, we’re a little bit below that.
We’re a good defensive team. That’s what I was disappointed today. We got isolated and targeted a little bit and we didn’t get stops. It wasn’t complicated stuff. It was literally picking a guy, we’re going to go at this guy, and we’re going to score on him.
Step up. Step up as a competitor. It’s one-on-one in the park, with your brother in the backyard. That’s what we do. That was disappointing to me but it’s obviously something we gotta get better at.”
Love on how he feels entering the NCAA Tournament: “Feels good, but the people is most important, how is the team flowing and how are we getting better. Like I said earlier, we gonna watch film when we get back. We’re going to clean up some things we have to work on, and like Coach said, we will be ready for whatever they put us up against.”
On reaching the Big 12 Tournament championship game: “It was a tough year, well, a tough conference, and for us to compete with the best of the best, you know, as far as conferences, I’m proud of my guys. I’m proud of the coaches for leading us.
And, you know, we’ve been through so much adversity and we’ve overcome so much adversity and hardship. I’m just proud we made it this far, and we will be ready for the postseason and March Madness.”
Love and Bradley on how they would describe the final five minutes:
Love: “You know, it was kind of just a lot of iso ball on their end on the offense, and we decided to, you know, just play one-on-one. You know, that’s something we gotta get better at, looking at film and knowing our tendencies of guys, certain moves and things like that.
“Then our offense, me and J.B., we gotta own those two turnovers we had in the clutch. Coach put a lot of confidence into us and a lot of responsibility, putting the ball in our hands in those moments and we gotta deliver.
“We’ll own it and we will be better, better for it.”
Bradley: “Like what C. Love said, we gotta own those turnovers at the end. Gotta get stops when needed at the end of the games, and the 50/50 balls felt like we were getting tip-outs. That’s something we worked on and we really didn’t do a good job of, just following the game plan.”
