Selection Sunday is still more than 13 weeks away and, unlike in college football, a handful of early losses can’t squash the highest hopes of college basketball teams.
Still, on just the 14th of December, the Arizona Wildcats might be playing something of a must-win game against No. 24 UCLA in Phoenix.
A win would be the Wildcats’ first over a power-conference team this season, sending them on a course to finish the nonconference season at 7-4 and possibly return them into Top 25 consideration.
A loss moves the Wildcats (4-4) back under .500 and, even with wins over Samford and Central Michigan in their final nonconference games, means they’re just 6-5 heading into the potentially brutal Big 12 schedule. Then, even with a respectable 12 or 13 wins between Big 12 regular-season and tournament play, the Wildcats could still land below the 20-win mark and likely in NCAA Tournament bubble territory.
Actually, ESPN’s Bracketology has already put them there, listing UA earlier this week as the “first team out” in its first forecast of NCAA Tournament selections.
It’s not hard to do the math. But, in one sense, the Wildcats don’t need to.
They already consider their house on fire.
“When you’re 4-4 at Arizona, you need every win,” longtime UA associate head coach Jack Murphy said. “I mean, c’mon. We’re 4-4 at Arizona. That’s not where we want to be. No one in the program. We’re looking at every game.”
During his weekly media gathering Thursday, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he still would consider Saturday’s game just as important if the Wildcats were 8-0 or 7-1, and that there will be plenty of opportunities ahead to redeem themselves.
But he also described a sense of urgency.
“We’re at where we’re at. We’re at where we’re at,” Lloyd said. “The only way to improve our situation is to try to come out and play good on Saturday. We just can’t get any further ahead than that because that’s all that matters.
“I wish I could sit here and guarantee how it’s going to go, but that’s sports. I can’t. Hopefully our guys have a grit, a toughness, about them to try to find a way to play well in this game because I know it’s not going to be easy.”
Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd expresses disbelief over a referee call in the second half during a game at McKale Center on Nov. 22, 2024. Duke won 69-55.
Revived with four new starters out of the transfer portal, UCLA has reverted to the sort of high-level defensive team under coach Mick Cronin that will test how tough they are. The Bruins have the nation’s fourth-most efficient defense and force more turnovers than anybody in college basketball.
They have ball-denying wing veterans in Kobe Johnson and Skyy Clark, a versatile skilled big man in Tyler Bilodeau and Cronin’s constant defensive focus lit under all of them.
“They’ve got some new pieces but they didn’t just clean house either,” Lloyd said. “A lot of their guys are back and established in their program. They continue to get better and have a conviction to what they do.”
Lloyd said the Bruins “didn’t have a UCLA type of year” last season, when they went just 16-17 and exited the Pac-12 Tournament in the quarterfinals, while Cronin drew a slight comparison from that team to what the Wildcats are going through now.
“Obviously they’ve had a changing of the guard, so to speak,” Cronin said. Lloyd had Oumar
“Ballo and (Pelle) Larsson, two guys who were unbelievable, especially Larsson. So they’ve had a lot of change in their personnel… (and) I just think they played a really hard schedule for a team (that has to) incorporate so many new pieces.”
Among other possible cures, Lloyd said Thursday he wanted point guard Jaden Bradley to keep pushing a faster pace – “I don’t think I’ve ever had a one-guard that I’ve coached that I’ve said he’s pushed it too much,” Lloyd said – and that wing Caleb Love needed to give a more consistent effort.
Arizona guard Jaden Bradley, left, bounces off UCLA guard Lazar Stefanovic in a January 2024 game at McKale Center. The Wildcats and Bruins will meet in three nonconference games in upcoming years, in part to help raise money for NIL for both schools.
“Will you run hard when you don’t think you’re going to get the ball? Are you in the moment playing hard or are you relaxing because you don’t think you’re part of the play when you’re on the weak side glass?” Lloyd said. “Does it matter to you? Are you engaged enough to understand that … you’re vital in our team’s rebounding?
“Those are the areas I’m focusing on with Caleb, because I think once we can establish that — and he has done it in times in this program — I think it’s going to bleed over into the other areas of the game.”
But at the same time, Lloyd said it wasn’t about challenging any one player, as it has been sometimes in the past, but about challenging everyone.
The Wildcats are 4-4, after all.
That’s a message all of them should have heard pretty clearly by now.
“I think if you just start focusing on one guy, you might be missing the bigger picture,” Lloyd said.
“I think everybody needs to give more. I think everybody needs to play with a little more awareness. I think everybody needs to play with a little more swag and confidence.
“So I don’t have a one guy for you. The message right now is, it’s everybody. It needs to be a total team effort.”
Love, for one, said he’s in.
Arizona guard Caleb Love (1) attempts to charge through Thunderbirds center Malik Lamin (32) during the game against Southern Utah at McKale Center on Dec. 7, 2024.
“This is another opportunity that we have in front of us,” he said. “We’ve been preparing all week and my teammates, the coaches, managers – everybody – we’ve all been locked in.”
