New Year, new (Big 12) season ... but same balanced, dominant Arizona men's basketball

SALT LAKE CITY — Arizona’s 13-0 nonconference record and its five wins over ranked teams will never go away. In fact, that history will be fully baked into whatever NCAA Tournament seed the Wildcats end up getting in March.

But "human nature is powerful," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after the Wildcats beat Utah 97-78 in their Big 12 opener Saturday at the Huntsman Center. "And you’re always fighting that."

So in an effort to avoid complacency against the struggling Utes, to make sure his guys didn’t think too much about the things they did in nonconference play and the things people have been saying about them as they climbed to the No. 1 ranking, he tried resetting the clock.

New Year, new (conference) season, new clock.

Go.

“I think it's really important in these games to not get caught up in all the ancillary stuff,” Lloyd said. “It’s 0-0, possession by possession. I'm trying to hold these guys to a certain standard.

“I think they appreciate it, but it probably gets annoying at times because I think this group is built to be successful. I want to make sure I'm doing my part of holding them to a standard and that's going to allow us to consistently perform at a high level.”

The Wildcats did not play like they were annoyed at Lloyd. If anything, they started playing Saturday like they were annoyed by all those folks who picked them to finish fourth in the Big 12.

They also played like they knew Utah, and maybe everyone else, probably has their own sense of urgency, knowing the conference season starts a new clock, and that a win over Arizona can change everything.

“We've been talking about coming out with a fresh, new mindset,” said center Tobe Awaka, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds against Utah. “It’s coming in with that mindset and knowing that teams are gonna play to resurrect their season and make the most of what they can do to help their chances in March.”

If the Utes had that mindset, it was clear after about four minutes Saturday that the Wildcats had all but stomped on it.

After Utah’s Don McHenry opened the scoring with a jump shot, Arizona rattled off a 14-0 run to take a 12-point lead, thanks to the sparkplug effort of wing Ivan Kharchenkov, who hit a jumper, then stole a pass from James Okonkwo and drove in for a layup.

Kharchenkov later made another steal that eventually led to a 3-pointer from Jaden Bradley and finished UA’s run with a fast-break layup off a steal from Brayden Burries.

“Ivan did a great job at the start of the game,” Awaka said. “I think he really set the tone.”

Awaka said it also helped that the Wildcats put a lot of pressure on the rim, forcing Utah to foul early while opening up the 3-point game and its transition efforts.

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“We just kept coming,” he said.

Arizona wound up hitting 7 of 18 3-pointers – including two from Awaka, who had attempted only three previously this season — and outscored Utah 15-6 in fast-break points. UA also turned 12 Utah turnovers into 18 points.

But even still, there were moments when human nature may have popped up.

After UA took a 27-10 lead when Awaka made his first 3-pointer eight minutes into the game, the Utes cut it to single digits several times during the rest of the first half.

Then after Arizona led 58-39 at halftime and went ahead by 24 early in the second half, the Wildcats gave up eight straight points from Utah and shot just 35.3% over the first 10 minutes of the second half.

That’s why, when Lloyd was asked after the game how he managed to keep the Wildcats’ intensity up after gaining a big lead, he softly dismissed it.

“I don’t know if we did,” he said. “I thought we had some letdowns, whether it was just a shot decision, being half a step behind (on defense). We kind of relaxed a little bit. And I thought Utah had some moments where they kind of ramped up their urgency and took advantage of that.”

Lloyd had another reason to fret. In three previous visits to the Huntsman Center under Lloyd, the Wildcats won by 20 in 2021-22, but lost an 81-66 shocker just after winning the 2022-23 Maui Invitational and needed triple-overtime to escape with a win over the Utes in 2023-24.

“We really had great early effort, early energy,” Lloyd said. “We were able to build a little bit of a cushion and play off it. But what I will say is, I never felt comfortable. I’ve played in this building too many times, and Utah kept coming. They kept coming. They kept coming. They got some talented players.”

But the Wildcats also kept coming because, despite all the resets they focused on, they were still pretty much the same Wildcats they were in nonconference play.

That is, balanced and powerful.

Both Awaka and Burries posted double doubles, while three other Wildcats scored 13 or more points. Awaka tied his career high in scoring with 18 points while pulling down 12 rebounds. Burries had 17 points and 11 rebounds.  Bradley had 18 points, four rebounds and five assists. Koa Peat had 17 points and Kharchenkov finished with 13.

Arizona shot 53.6% and outrebounded Utah 43-30.

“It’s a new year,” Lloyd said of his approach to his players. “Let’s be excited to play. I thought our guys did that.”