Here's what we've learned during Arizona's 3-0 start to the 2022-23 season

Because it doesn’t matter who is lining up when a foul sends somebody to the line, there is at least one Arizona men’s basketball statistic that means something so far.

The Wildcats look to be pretty good free-throw shooters.

Arizona set a new school record by hitting all 22 free throws it shot in a 104-77 win over Utah Tech on Thursday, surpassing its 18-for-18 performance against Stanford in 2004-05. The Wildcats also shot 75.0% from the line in their season-opening win over Nicholls and are averaging 75.9% over their first three games.

But because UA’s first three games were all played at home against low-major opponents, just about every other stat must be taken within the proper context. Like the Wildcats’ 46.7% 3-point shooting, their 72.8% two-point shooting and 39.3% 3-point percentage defense.

Still, there are some things Arizona learned over its initial homecourt stretch, heading into the always competitive Maui Invitational next week.

Here’s five of them:

They found the accelerator

Not only did Arizona score an absurd total of 316 points in lopsided wins over Nicholls, Southern and Utah Tech, the most the Wildcats have ever scored in their first three games, but they also kept the intensity up most of the time even when they build up 20- or 30-point leads.

Moreover, coach Tommy Lloyd appeared glad to see the newcomers begin to understand how hard they need to play.

“Our new guys are understanding that there’s a level of effort and a standard that you gotta meet to be an Arizona basketball player,” Lloyd said. “They’re starting to hit that.”

That goes not only for freshmen such as guard Kylan Boswell and big man Henri Veesaar, but also grad transfer Cedric Henderson, who was caught up in a much slower tempo at Campbell.

Lloyd said he and Henderson reviewed a transition opportunity from a previous game in which wing Pelle Larsson outran him and scored on a layup.

“We showed him, like, ‘Ced, that’s how you get going in this system,’” Lloyd said. “He had some great effort today. I think that resonated with him.”

Then Henderson went out against Utah Tech and scored 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, showing a confidence and production that forward Azuolas Tubelis called “amazing.”

Lloyd went a step further.

“I thought Cedric tonight was electric,” Lloyd said. “To see him play with that effort, that’s what I kind of envisioned for him. But it takes time for that to happen.”

Kriisa’s mojo is back

After a poor-shooting preseason, point guard Kerr Kriisa was shaken enough that he tore off his signature headband for some preseason practices and the Wildcats’ opener against Nicholls.

Then he put it back on and posted a triple-double on Nov. 11 against Southern, while dropping a career-high 24 points against Utah Tech, making 6 of 7 3-pointers. He also has 24 assists to seven turnovers, better than a 3-1 assist-turnover ratio.

“Let’s wait and see,” Kriisa said, when asked if his confidence was up. “So far, so good. That’s what I can say.”

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Already consistently trying to boost Kriisa’s confidence, Lloyd is also trying to make him a little less unselfish. He said Kriisa could have even further exploited Utah Tech’s defensive strategy of trying to push the UA offense to one side of the floor, so he told Kriisa to shoot more 3s in the second half .

“He’s such a good player and he can involve others so easily, sometimes I think he’s turning down open shots for himself,” Lloyd said. “I thought at the end of the first half he we had an extra pass straight to him right in front of their bench and he turned down the shot. I think we ended up turning the ball over.

“I just told him, ‘You’ve gotta shoot those shots. That’s the best team shot we’re gonna get.’”

Their defense is uneven

Arizona has posted the 34th defensive efficiency so far but, again considering the location and competition, that number may not mean much.

The Wildcats have kept their first three opponents to just 39.3% shooting from two-point range but have allowed a below-average 34.2% from 3-point range despite their competition level.

Moreover, after holding Utah Tech to just 18.9% shooting in the first half Thursday, the Wildcats allowed the Trailblazers to shoot 50% from the field over the first eight minutes of the second half.

Utah Tech even hit four of its first eight 3-pointers in the second half after hitting just 3 of 16 in the first half, keeping UA from expanding its 28-point halftime lead through the first 13 minutes after halftime.

While Lloyd said he’s seen growth in the Wildcats’ defense over their first three regular-season games, there’s no doubt the second half was a small step backward.

“It’s hard,” he said. “In some of these games you get these big leads and your second unit, or your last group, comes in there and gives up some 3s. It drives a coach crazy because you’re fighting hard to have good numbers. But I thought overall in the first half, we were really good. They’re a set-oriented team and an inside-oriented team, and I think we were able to take both of those things away. I thought that kind of got us ignited a little bit.”

There’s a big dropoff after the top six

With Henderson starting due to guard Courtney Ramey’s NCAA suspension, the Arizona bench collected just 10 points Friday.

Overall, the Wildcats didn’t score a single point off the bench until wing Adama Bal made two free throws with 5:44 left in the game, then collecting the other eight bench points as Lloyd went with reserves and walk-ons in the final minutes.

Inside, a calf bruise to Veesaar made things worse for UA — he went scoreless in only 10 minutes — while fellow freshman big man Dylan Anderson also went scoreless in five minutes.

“I’m not concerned,” Lloyd said. “There’s a law of averages that applies to the game of basketball. Sometimes they score and sometimes they don’t but usually it ends up balancing out. I’d have to go back and look but maybe our bigs were scoring so easy they didn’t need to score.”

They fumble sometimes

While Lloyd’s pass-happy offense demands everyone touch the ball, allowing more opportunities for turnovers, the Wildcats have struggled with turnovers more than Lloyd probably would like.

After posting 19 turnovers Friday, the Wildcats totaled 62 for their first three games to average 20.7. Putting that in context even with their uptempo ways, Arizona has the 33rd worst offensive turnover percentage (24.5) in Division I so far.

That poses something of a dilemma for Lloyd, who doesn’t want the Wildcats to slow down.

“Obviously we need to reel them in and get that number closer to 12” average turnovers per game, Lloyd said. “It seems like they’re happening in in a number of areas and from a number of individuals.

“But what I don’t want to do is be conservative and make our players tentative. We’re going to teach with an open throttle, and we’re going for it. Hopefully, we’ll start to see some results, the turnovers will reduce and the efficiency will go up even more.”