LAS VEGAS — By the time the Wildcats hopped on a charter flight home late Sunday night, wrapped in a Main Event championship belt, Arizona’s basketball season had already taken a sharp turn into the limelight.
National college basketball analysts were vocal on social media during Arizona’s 80-62 destruction of then-fourth-ranked Michigan before an ESPN audience and T-Mobile Arena crowd, praising new coach Tommy Lloyd, the Wildcats’ free-flowing style of play, their defense and the talent core that Sean Miller left behind.
Afterward, votes were taken for the weekly Associated Press Top 25, where the Wildcats vaulted straight to No. 17 in what was their first appearance in the media poll since Feb. 17, 2020.
And the one scholarship player left from that 2019-20 team, center Christian Koloko, morphed into the Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday. He had already earned the Main Event MVP for averaging 17.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game in the Wildcats’ wins over Wichita State and Michigan.
It was a coming-out party, in Las Vegas of all places, whether the Wildcats wanted to view it that way or not.
“I don’t know,” Lloyd said, when asked if the “secret” is out. “Here’s the deal: You guys know I’ve been pretty low-key since I got this job and I’ve been trying to build this family from the inside out. I wasn’t going to beg fans to come to games. I wasn’t going to make proclamations that we’re going to do this or that.
“But in my heart, I know what success looks like. I know what good teams look like and I knew we could be good. We just had to hang with it and deal with a little bit of adversity.”
Lloyd may have seen it coming but few outside of the Wildcats’ largely closed workouts at the Richard Jefferson Gym and McKale Center did. Arizona spent most of last season under the national radar, thanks to the school’s self-imposed NCAA Tournament ban — even though they played well enough to otherwise qualify for the tourney field and had many of the same young talents that rolled over Michigan on Sunday.
They had guys such as Koloko, now a 7-foot junior who set the tone Sunday by blocking a layup early from Michigan preseason all-American Hunter Dickinson, then finishing with 22 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. They had sophomore NBA prospect Benn Mathurin, who added 16 points on 7-for-13 shooting.
They also had point guard Kerr Kriisa show some signs of promise over eight games last season, after his NCAA clearinghouse suspension ended, and the Estonian sophomore dished seven assists to no turnovers along with four steals against the Wolverines.
Last season the Wildcats also had a couple of promising then-freshmen in forward Azuolas Tubelis, who added 13 points and eight rebounds against Michigan, and guard Dalen Terry, who had 13 points and five assists.
That sort of collective production helped the Wildcats take a 37-29 lead at halftime and go ahead by up to 20 points before settling on an 18-point win, dispiriting an initially noisy core of Michigan fans who grew quiet early in the second half when it became clear the Wolverines probably weren’t coming back.
The Wildcats darted up and around their way through what was the third-most efficient defense in the country by working the ball inside via ball screens and opportunistically taking what was there. At times, it was a cut by somebody (often Koloko, of course) down the left baseline who would wind up converting a layup or some sort of crowd-igniting dunk.
“Listen, we run some plays, but we play,” Lloyd said. “We have concepts we play out of and these guys have bought into the concepts. We drill them, we coach them and they’re embracing them. You know, if you turn your head against us, we’re probably gonna cut and that’s a really fun way to play.”
The Wildcats set the tone early, and Koloko used that left baseline to help get things going. Arizona rattled off eight straight points to take a 27-19 lead 12 minutes into the game, capping the run when Koloko cut down the baseline to slam in a short loft from Mathurin, who had penetrated well into the lane.
Arizona wound up with 54 points in the paint, a number that did not sit well with Michigan coach Juwan Howard.
“That’s not the Michigan defense that we’re accustomed to,” Howard said.
Kriisa shot only 3 for 12 from the field but his grittiness was everywhere, despite spending the weekend getting treatment for bumps and bruises he suffered in the Wildcats’ overtime defeat of Wichita State on Friday.
He picked up a charge by allowing himself to get bowled over in the lane by Michigan’s Frankie Collins, and in the second half turned two steals into assists for UA baskets that kept Michigan further away.
“Kerr is feisty. He’s got swag,” Lloyd said. “He’s competitive and he’s got heart. He believes. Those are all amazing traits and I love how he’s developing as a guard.”
All these seeds were there last season, while Lloyd’s system and personality quietly gained praise during the offseason, but the Wildcats still landed in almost nobody’s preseason Top 25.
Now they’re No. 17 in the AP poll, with a chance to move up considerably over the next month in December road games against Oregon State, Illinois and Tennessee.
“Preseason rankings don’t mean anything. It’s just a guess,” Lloyd said. And now we’re starting to see teams play and we’ll see what happens in the next month, where teams are ranked.
“But if the secret’s out, it’s out. We’re just gonna keep approaching it (the same). We’ve got a great week to get better and make a push of having a great December.”
