The night before playing at Washington State, Arizona typically stays in downtown Spokane.
Sometimes the Wildcats even hold a pregame shootaround at nearby Gonzaga before making the 90-minute bus ride to Pullman. Then the Wildcats beat up the Cougars, winning nine times in a row at Beasley Coliseum.
It’s a nice little, harmless routine. But maybe not this time.
Because Tommy Lloyd isn’t sure he’s ready to go back to Spokane. Even while just passing through.
“I don’t know yet,” the first-year Arizona coach said Monday, when asked after UA’s 91-79 win at ASU how the visit will feel. “A little bit weird, probably.”
That’s understandable, of course. Lloyd spent 22 years as a Gonzaga assistant and several of his Arizona staffers have roots there, too. Reserve center Oumar Ballo spent two years at Gonzaga before following Lloyd to Arizona last spring.
Arizona's Azuolas and Tautvilas Tubelis describe growing up together in Lithuania, how they've adjusted to life in America and what it's like to play for Tommy Lloyd.
The feelings are still so fresh that Lloyd and his former boss, Gonzaga coach Mark Few, even mutually agreed to indefinitely postpone Arizona’s previously scheduled early December game at Gonzaga.
But the way Lloyd and the Wildcats are going, they may not be able to avoid the Zags for much longer. The two teams are on a crash course to possibly meet deep into the NCAA Tournament considering their résumés to date.
Until the Wildcats beat UCLA, USC and ASU over the past week, Arizona was projected by both ESPN and CBS to be the West Region’s No. 2 seed, with Gonzaga the No. 1 seed — indicating they would meet in the Elite Eight in San Francisco if they each won their first three games.
Now, Arizona is projected by both major bracketologies as a No. 1 seed outside of the West, meaning the Wildcats and Zags could theoretically meet in the Final Four if they win their respective regions.
The spotlight on Lloyd and the Wildcats then would be maddening. But it’s already getting pretty crazy.
Their win at ASU on Monday pushed the Wildcats to 20-2 overall and 10-1 in the Pac-12, where they now have a full two-game lead over both UCLA and Oregon. Last week’s wins over UCLA and USC put the UA solidly in the the national title conversation.
“This juggernaut” was how WSU coach Kyle Smith referred to the Wildcats on Tuesday, noting how Lloyd’s new team resembles his old team the most in how uptempo it plays.
“They’ve got a lead guard (Kerr Kriisa) who’s a really good passer, distributor,” said Smith, who scouted Kriisa and several of the Wildcats’ international players as recruiting targets. “He can make all the passes and he really understands how to play uptempo. It’s a lot when you’ve got the speed they have on the perimeter and their bigs running. They’ve got (Dalen) Terry and (Bennedict) Mathurin run down the wings. They’re really elite athletes. They just really put a lot of pressure on the transition.”
That’s pretty much what happened again on Monday in Tempe, except those bigs also produced two double-doubles — one by Azuolas Tubelis (19 points, 11 rebounds) and another by Ballo (13 points, 10 rebounds).
After playing four lower-tempo games, including their Jan. 25 loss at UCLA, the Wildcats returned to their more standard pace on Monday. It just took a few minutes to flip things around.
Apparently still riding the emotional high of a triple-overtime upset of the Bruins on Saturday, the Sun Devils jumped on the Wildcats by taking a 14-1 lead before Arizona surged back.
Bennedict Mathurin tries to force a jump ball while Arizona State guard Marreon Jackson tries to keep possession during Monday's first half.
Mathurin personified that change, looking again like the dominant wing player he was consistently earlier in the season. He capped an 11-0 first-half run with a 3-pointer, helping UA eventually take a 40-36 lead at halftime. He finished with 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting.
“Benn had a good look tonight,” Lloyd said after the game. “Once he got going, he had a good look about him and when he has that look, he’s special. He found things in transition. He found things with effort and then hunted some 3s.”
So with their post anchors complementing Mathurin and the perimeter, Arizona turned the game into a near-blowout in the second half. Over the first four minutes of the second half, UA outrebounded ASU 9-1 and hit 7 of 12 shots while taking a 55-40 lead.
“It’s a great feeling,” Mathurin said. “Executing what we usually do is always a great feeling.”
Arizona led by up to 26 points before the lead shrank in the late minutes, in part because both teams were clearing their benches.
“I was happy with how they responded to the initial deal,” Lloyd said. “I reminded the guys of a few things. They came out and, at the start of the second half, looked like that team in early December, which is special.”
Maybe special enough to meet Gonzaga sometime within the next eight weeks. Whether Lloyd likes it or not.
