Postgame notes: On Arizona's pandemic plan, the Wildcats' twin towers and Kim Aiken's continued absence

Early in the second half of Saturday’s game, Arizona sent out a news release saying that the UA women’s basketball game against Texas on Sunday was being canceled because of COVID-19 issues that struck the Wildcats.

That development happened after the next opponent for the men’s team, Tennessee, had its game with Memphis canceled earlier Saturday because of COVID-19 issues within the Tigers’ program.

And in the previous days and weeks, of course, COVID-19 has resulted in Washington postponing its scheduled Dec. 2 game with Arizona and the Wildcats’ scheduled Dec. 30 opponent, UCLA, taking a pause. (Not to mention the craziness in the rest of the sports world).

Bennedict Mathurin said the Wildcats have talked about it in the locker room and know they have to be careful not to have COVID-19 issues themselves.

“We have plans and our plan is to win the national championship,” Mathurin said.

“So if we see a guy go away, go (down) the wrong road, we just need to bring him back, because it's the best for the team," Mathurin said.

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he’s recommending his players get booster shots and that the staff has educated them about the situation but that “guys are gonna make their own choices.” Entering the season, Lloyd said the Wildcats were 100% vaccinated.

“To my knowledge, everybody's been double-vaxxed and a lot of guys have been boosted,” Lloyd said. “Then it’s just a little bit of common sense and hopefully we'll be OK. But as you guys are seeing in all of society, it's not avoidable. It's happening. So we're going to do the best job we can.”

The Wildcats have still not had to pull out of a single game since the pandemic began, though they had eight games rescheduled or canceled last season because of opponents’ COVID-19 issues and one so far this season when Washington backed out of the Dec. 2 game.

After scoring 30 points at Illinois and becoming the national player of the week, Mathurin found teams defending him in different ways this week. Northern Colorado held him to 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting on Wednesday while Mathurin had 14 on 5-for-11 shooting Saturday against Cal Baptist.

“I've noticed a little bit,” Mathurin said. “Coming to the game against Northern Colorado I just came back from a big game against Illinois, so they knew I was a hot player. I think they just changed the way they would they would play me. Well, that got my teammates open. So it was the best for the team.”

Not only did backup center Oumar Ballo play a season-high 20 minutes on Wednesday against Northern Colorado, and another 19 on Saturday against Cal Baptist, but he also played alongside fellow 7-footer Christian Koloko for part of Saturday’s game.

Lloyd said he didn’t have a plan to trot them both out at the same time entering Saturday’s game but decided to do so when Tubelis needed a rest, instead of going with a smaller lineup that hasn’t always been successful.

“I'm not uncomfortable doing it,” Lloyd said. “I still think (it’s valuable) having Azuolas out there, with him being a little more mobile, able to play inside and outside a little bit. I'm a little more comfortable with that. But that super lineup or the giant lineup -- or whatever you want to call it -- we'll see how that develops.”

Lloyd said Ballo’s improved play and conditioning have given him confidence to use him more in whatever fashion.

“There's no doubt if Oumar starts playing like that, it opens up a lot of doors,” Lloyd said. “I told Oumar, and it's not always easy for a guy to hear, that 'If you want more, you have to do more. You need to be working really hard and he has been working hard. You guys can see how his body's changing. His conditioning is getting better.

"But just because you want something more doesn't mean it's going to happen every day. And when it doesn't happen, you’ve got to handle it with maturity and be a professional and I thought he did that.”

Koloko said it was “really cool” to play with Ballo, and also complimented Ballo for backing him up.

“You could see it out there,” Koloko said. “He had energy today. He did a really good job when he took my spot. That's what we want him to do, and I think he’s gonna continue to do it.”

Kim Aiken was averaging 13.7 minutes before he began a string of four straight absences from the Wildcats including games against Wyoming, Illinois, Northern Colorado and Cal Baptist.

Lloyd has tightened up his rotation to just eight players but said other than that there were “not really” many adjustments that had to be made.

“We’re just playing the same way and hopefully it'll continue to be successful,” Lloyd said. “We’ve got to tighten up some execution things. We’re getting a lot of things thrown at us. Like I’ve told you guys before, that's a sign of respect for your team.”

It's unclear whether Aiken’s situation will change anytime soon. UA officials have only said he's out for a personal reason.