PALO ALTO, Calif. — Given an extra day to hang out in the Bay Area, the Arizona Wildcats found the perfect place to feel at home.
Two places, actually.
Before facing Cal on Sunday at Haas Pavilion, a game in which forward Azuolas Tubelis is questionable with a sprained ankle, the Wildcats first bused to Oakland to practice in the Golden State Warriors’ former practice facility.
Then they scooted over the Bay Bridge to take in the Warriors’ win over the Houston Rockets in San Francisco on Friday night.
That meant they swam all day in Arizona Wildcat blood, with a Steph Curry buzzer-beater as the topper.
UA coach Tommy Lloyd said his players not only had a chance to meet with Warriors coach Steve Kerr, but also the whole string of former Wildcats hanging around the Chase Center these days: Assistant coach Bruce Fraser, analyst Tom Tolbert and Warriors forward Andre Iguodala, all of whom played for UA in the Lute Olson era.
With the Warriors between games on Saturday, Iguodala was also scheduled to take in the Wildcats’ practice on Saturday afternoon at Cal, too.
Former Wildcat Andre Iguodala was scheduled to visit the UA's Saturday practice in the Bay Area.
“We had time and a great opportunity to go see the Warriors play and obviously the Warriors have a real Wildcat tradition within their program,” Lloyd said. “The guys got to visit with Steve Kerr and his staff, (with) Bruce Fraser, and then Tom Tolbert came and hung out. Andre came and saw the guys before the game and is going to come to our practice (Saturday).
“It was cool stuff.”
Lloyd had said before the Wildcats beat Stanford 85-57 on Thursday that they’d have more “options” for the weekend if they beat the Cardinal, but he said Saturday it was actually more about just taking advantage of the opportunity to get the guys out of the hotel to do something fun.
“You have time to kill and they’re young guys,” Lloyd said. “They don’t need to be sitting in their hotel room 24 hours a day. And for a lot of the guys it was the first NBA game they’ve ever been to, so I think that they really enjoyed the experience.”
The Wildcats liked it so much, in fact, that one of them decided to stay behind. Sort of.
Personality-filled point guard Kerr Kriisa, who was named after the Warriors coach, posted a “farewell” message on his Instagram story. He did so with a picture of him in UA sweats standing outside the 3-point line of the Warriors’ practice court, with murals of Warriors greats Wilt Chamberlain, Alvin Attles and Chris Mullin behind him, that accompanied the following message:
“@warriors: Thankful for believing in me and happy to sign a 10-day contract!” Kriisa posted.
The Arizona basketball managers’ Twitter account played along with it, reposting Kerr’s story while noting that they were “happy to see a good kid accomplish his dreams.”
Asked Saturday if he saw Kriisa’s post about the 10-day NBA contract, Lloyd smiled.
“I don’t know,” Lloyd said. “Based on him missing that last game, I don’t know.”
Lloyd was joking as much as Kriisa, but clearly he wasn’t wild about Kriisa having to sit out the UA-Utah game on Jan. 15, when Lloyd said Kerr sat out because of an injury he sustained during horseplay with teammates.
Kerr returned Thursday at Stanford, scoring seven points and logging seven assists in 31 minutes. The Wildcats lost Tubelis at the same time; it remains unclear whether Tubelis will return Sunday at Cal.
Lloyd said Tubelis remains “day-to-day” but said he hadn’t been told Tubelis suffered a high ankle sprain or anything that would keep him out an extended period of time. That leaves open the possibility that Tubelis could at least be available on Tuesday when the Wildcats play at UCLA.
“We’’ll see how he progresses,” Lloyd said Saturday as the Wildcats packed up their team bus for the move to an East Bay hotel. “He’s up and moving and he’s feeling better but I don’t know what that means for tomorrow yet.”
Meanwhile, Tubelis’ brother Tautvilas is not on the Wildcats’ trip after suffering a blow to the head in practice, Lloyd said.
But the Wildcats are expected to have everyone else available for Cal except reserve forward Kim Aiken, who has been missing since Dec. 8, while backup center Oumar Ballo proved himself capable of big backup minutes at Stanford.
The Wildcats will be playing a Cal team that is 9-9 so far but has lost four straight, having been limited with injuries and COVID-19 issues.
But the Golden Bears will have an edge in rest. Because their game this weekend with ASU was already moved up to Jan. 2, Cal had the entire week off to prepare for Arizona.
That’s “probably not good, when you have team sitting at home, rested and we’re out on the road for an extended period of time,” Lloyd said. “But it is what it is. I don’t think there’s any ill intent there. It’s just how things happen.”
Besides, the Wildcats figured a good way to spend some of that extra time on the road. They spent it with family.
