In the big picture that Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was talking about Saturday night, whatever minor injury Kerr Kriisa has probably doesn’t matter a whole lot.
What might have mattered more was the fact that the sophomore guard didn’t sit on UA’s bench during the game, as nearly all injured players do, instead being seen elsewhere inside McKale Center before the Wildcats beat Utah 82-64 on Saturday.
Lloyd said Kriisa was hurt while he and some teammates were “horsing around” at the team’s pregame meal, but wouldn’t say what was Kriisa’s actual injury was or whether there were any potential disciplinary issues to the involved players.
“We’ll handle all those issues internally,” Lloyd said. “I will say this and nothing with the situation specific to that: Having a great culture is tough. Winning and being consistent, winning and playing at a championship level is tough. And we’re not there yet. We’re not there yet.”
Using the word “culture” five times during his postgame media conference, Lloyd’s timing to deliver such a message might have been ideal.
Maybe imperative.
The win over Utah put the Wildcats at 14-1, off to their best 15-game start since their 2014-15 Elite Eight season. And, combined with losses to top-ranked teams around the country, the Wildcats could shoot into the top three of the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday, a prospect Lloyd called “rat poison” to a developing team.
Any resulting overconfidence could be particularly harmful this week, too, because the Wildcats are heading toward a three-game road trip to play at Stanford, Cal and UCLA that appears all but certain to tell them who they really are.
“I know a lot of people are trying to anoint us that we’re all this, we’re all that,” Lloyd said. “We’re not. We’re a young team that’s going through some growing pains. We’ve just happened to stack up some wins, and we’re gonna fight really hard to have a great culture here.”
One of those growing pains appeared to surface before Saturday’s game, and it happened to involve their swaggy, assist-leading point guard.
Wildcats guard Justin Kier (5) played well in place of Kerr Kriisa, but the UA offense didn't really click until a 21-0 run in the second half.
Without Kriisa, the effect on Arizona’s offense was immediately clear. While replacement Justin Kier posted eight assists to only one turnover, the Wildcats still struggled to find and make good shots early against the Utes.
In the first half, Kier shot 1 for 7 while Bennedict Mathurin was 1 for 6 and Pelle Larsson 1 for 3. Arizona had 10 turnovers in the first half that lead to 10 Utah points.
Clearly, it was not the usual Arizona offense.
UA finished with 16 turnovers, but six of them included three each from Tubelis and center Christian Koloko, and the Wildcats could hardly blame those guys. Not only did Tubelis score his 32 points on 14-for-24 shooting, while collecting eight rebounds, but Koloko added 16 points, five rebounds and four blocks.
“Obviously, turnovers are something we’ve got to address and when you play in that system, sometimes your bigs have a few turnovers here and there because you have multiple handlers of the ball,” Lloyd said. “You don’t just have one guy making decisions. But when they’re playing like that and moving like they were today and connecting on a few high-lows, it’s special.
“It’s a fun offense to coach, it’s a hopefully a fun offense to play in, and hopefully a fun offense to watch.”
So that part of the culture the Wildcats appear to have down pretty well.
Tubelis and Koloko found each other and, eventually, everyone else did, too. The Wildcats still finished with 24 assists for its 33 made baskets. Three players had at least five assists — Kier, Tubelis (five) and Dalen Terry (six) — while four other players had at least one each.
Not surprisingly, then, this was how Tubelis answered when asked what he was feeling on the court en route to his 32-point effort:
“It felt like I have the best teammates I’ve ever played with,” Tubelis said. “They’re unbelievable passers. I caught them and (made the basket). Nothing special.”
After the game, Lloyd complimented Tubelis and Koloko for constantly “fighting” to get the high-low actions going against Utah. He also praised backup center Oumar Ballo, who played a key role during Arizona’s game-changing 21-0 run in the second half, and Kier for taking over the point in Kriisa’s absence when he has played mostly off the ball throughout his long college career.
Now, Lloyd needs the rest of his guys to keep cementing things in a good way.
When he went back to speaking of what he is looking to build, especially with potentially tougher games ahead, Lloyd even sent a message to seldom-used but high-ceiling freshman guard Adama Bal, who managed to go against Lloyd’s screen-and-pass grain while playing just two minutes.
“Obviously our biggest concern is having a strong culture that can withstand some adversity — team adversity, individually adversity, and understand that we’ve got to play for the greater good,” Lloyd said. “That’s when we’re at our best. That’s why I was a little bit upset with Adama at the end of the game.
“He’s a young player I think’s gonna be really, really good. To see him call off a ball screen and call an iso (isolation play), I don’t know if that’s how we want to play. So when those moments happen and creep up, I want to make sure that we address them.”
Including the moments that happen sometimes before the game.
“I mean, Kerr is having an amazing season and obviously you guys see how important it is to our team,” Lloyd said of his missing point guard, whom he said will return this week. “Kerr is not the only guy involved in this situation. It’s just unfortunate he’s the one who had the injury. We’re gonna just handle it as a team and move forward from there.”
