Arizona guard Pelle Larsson (3) grabs the rebound over Nicholls forward Manny Littles (22) during the first half of Monday night's season-opening romp.

 Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

A big reason why analytics site Kenpom.com is popular among college basketball coaches and geeks alike is that an opposing team’s desired pace is adjusted out of most statistics, so you can get an accurate measure of production even in a low-scoring game.

It also helps when things go the other way, like they did Monday in Arizona’s 117-75 season opening blowout of Nicholls at McKale Center.

Under second-year coach Tommy Lloyd, the Wildcats have shown they love to go fast. And the Colonels do, too, trying to wreak havoc by gambling for steals with their smaller lineup.

Which meant, basically, Nicholls spread lighter fluid all over McKale Center on Monday. The Wildcats wound up scoring their most points yet under Lloyd while shooting a school-record 71.7% from the field. The Wildcats also turned the ball over 24 times.

β€œI just watched (former coach) Paul Westhead’s Loyola Marymount deal and we’re gonna score 130 a game,” Lloyd said jokingly, before adding: β€œNot at all. I think our opponent had a lot to do with that today. They wanted to get up and down.”

The wild pace of Monday’s game actually made a lot of numbers look pretty extreme. Here’s some of them:

117: Arizona’s total pointsThe Wildcats scored their most since Lloyd was hired before last season and the most overall since beating ASU 127-99 on Jan. 5, 1998, in a game that still stands as UA’s McKale Center scoring record. UA’s overall scoring record came in a 133-78 win over Duquesne in the 1987-88 Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage.

But it was clear this sort of thing was coming. In Lloyd’s first season as a head coach in 2021-22, the Wildcats scored 90 or more 12 times, including three games in triple digits. Arizona scored 105 on Sacramento State, 104 on Texas-Rio Grande Valley and 101 on Northern Colorado.

In Kenpom.com terms, the Wildcats ran at the ninth-highest adjusted tempo last season while Nicholls ranked No. 51.

β€œHonestly, I didn’t expect that,” UA center Oumar Ballo said after Monday’s game. Defensively, the Colonels β€œgo crazy and we give a lot of credit for them. They have a unique style of defense but if you play small against us, you just gonna pay the price for that.”

71.7: Arizona’s shooting percentage

The Wildcats barely beat their old shooting percentage record of 71.4 set on Feb. 24, 1985 against Oregon State. But Arizona took only 35 shots in that game, hitting 25, while the Wildcats hit 38 of 53 on Monday against Nicholls.

The Wildcats also hit 30 of 40 from the free throw line.

β€œAwesome,” Lloyd said. β€œBut let’s not couple that with 24 turnovers. We work on finishing every single day. To shoot 71% and also attempt 40 free throws, I think that also means we’re for the most part executing our game plan because we wanted to attack more.”

Last season, Arizona averaged 49.6% from the field, surpassing the 60% mark only twice, both at home: Against Texas-Rio Grande Valley (60.7) and against California (62.5).

24: Arizona’s turnovers

While Lloyd’s fretting over this was understandable β€” the Wildcats never gave up more than 22 turnovers last season and averaged 13.4 β€” that, too, was pace-dependent.

Arizona’s 24 turnovers Monday actually meant the Wildcats turned the ball over on 27.6% of their possessions, which is comparable to the 27.2% the Wildcats averaged last season. That number ranked only 224th nationally in Kenpom.com’s calculations, but is also a function of UA’s style of play.

Still, Lloyd argued, it’s a style of play that can use a little cleaning up.

β€œFor me, (scoring 117 points) is really going to reinforce that when we play with fundamentals and do things the right way, we can be really, really good,” Lloyd said. β€œBut when we get a little bit loose and aren’t quite tough enough with the ball, we are susceptible.”

30: Arizona’s assists

The Wildcats also set a Lloyd-era high by recording 30 assists, a number that still stands out even when the number of possessions isn’t considered. Those 30 assists came on 38 made baskets Monday for a ratio of 78.1-1 that is well above the 65.0 ratio of assists to made field goals the Wildcats recorded last season.

But while the assist equation wasn’t pace-dependent, it was style-dependent.

β€œWhen you play a team like that, you literally just have to get to kind of break through the pane of glass that’s out there on the perimeter, the pressure,” Lloyd said. β€œOnce you break through you’re gonna have number of advantages β€” three on two, two on ones.

β€œIt’s not maybe how you normally see us move the ball. Normally we’ll move it side to side and connect passes. In a game like that, it’s hard because you throw one pass and the next one’s denied. So eventually you’ve got to go north-south.

β€œObviously, we love attacking high-low and playing inside. I think some of our turnovers tonight were in our high-low actions, and we could probably get a little more patient β€” look at that, figure out where the help’s coming from and skip to the open guy.”

23-7-6: Azuolas Tubelis’ points, rebounds and assists

The Wildcats’ junior forward became the first Arizona player to have as many as 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists in a game since Ivan Radenovic had 37 points, nine rebounds and seven assist against Stanford on March 3, 2007.

Meanwhile, 7-footer Oumar Ballo added 18 points and nine rebounds against the smaller Colonels.

β€œZu was β€˜Zu,” junior guard Pelle Larsson said. β€œThat’s the type of player is he. Whenever a team plays smaller, (Ballo) and β€˜Zu are going to punish that. I think (Tubelis) didn’t get out and run as much as he’s used to with the fast-break dunks and everything but I think he played very mature.”

Guard Adama Bal finished Monday's opener with 14 points while hitting 3 of his 4 3-point attempts.

14: Adama Bal’s points

The sophomore wing from France spent much of last season quietly on the bench, breaking out mostly in the Pac-12 Tournament after Kerr Kriisa sprained an ankle. But he has been expected to play a bigger role this season as he did Monday, hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers while converting one of them into a four-point play. His stats came despite Bal missing several minutes after hurting his shoulder.

Prodded by Lloyd to alter his shot during the offseason, Bal also had 15 points and six rebounds in UA’s Nov. 1 exhibition against Western Oregon. Lloyd said Bal also played well late in the Wildcats’ closed scrimmage against Saint Mary’s on Oct. 23.

β€œHe’s really coming on,” Lloyd said. β€œI’ve got to give that kid credit.”

10: Larsson’s rebounds

Combined with 16 points, Larsson posted his first career double-double. While the high number of possessions helped him get there, the fact is that Larsson sat down on the bench for good with 9:03 remaining in the game, playing 28 minutes total.

β€œPelle’s been great all fall,” Lloyd said. β€œHe’s relentless.”

23: Kylan Boswell’s minutes

Guard Courtney Ramey was the only other of Arizona’s 19 players not to play Monday since he was serving the first game of a three-game NCAA suspension for playing in a non-NCAA-certified event last spring. Because of Ramey’s absence, and because Kriisa ran into foul trouble in the first half Monday, Lloyd wound up giving starter’s minutes to Boswell, his 17-year-old freshman point guard.

Boswell responded with eight points, one rebound, five assists and four turnovers. He hit 2 of 3 field goals and all three free throws he took.

β€œHe knows how to hoop,” Larsson said of Boswell. β€œEspecially him coming a year early, it’s really impressive how well he’s adapting.”

17: Total players used by Arizona

The Wildcats have seven walk-ons this season. Every one of them hit the floor Monday except Luke Champion, a Division II transfer who is sitting out the season as a second-time transfer.

No. 17 Arizona thumped Nicholls 117-75 Monday night for the Wildcats' season opener at McKale Center. Pelle Larsson recorded his first-career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Azuolas Tubelis led the Wildcats with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter: @brucepascoe