The Arizona Wildcats have kicked away several big leads already this season, and Tommy Lloyd was in no mood to see it happen again Saturday.
So even though Lloyd's Wildcats rode a balanced offensive attack to an 88-80 win over UCF on Saturday at McKale Center that put them at 4-0 in Big 12 play, Lloyd complained afterward that they made poor decisions, didn’t rebound well and generally failed to put the Knights away in a game they led by 14 points in the first half and by up to 17 in the second half.
“There are so many positives today, and I'm trying to hone in on those, because obviously I'm upset with how dumb we played,” Lloyd said. “There's no other way to put it. We were dumb, our fundamentals were poor, our late-game execution was poor, and it's just not acceptable.”
Even guard Caleb Love, who led the Wildcats with 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists, was not spared. Lloyd said Love and all his players who were playing heavy minutes had to improve.
“I could try to put them in better positions, and maybe the best position might be off the court in some of those situations,” Lloyd said. “So those are conversations we're going to have. Because winning is important. We need to value those opportunities, and we just didn't today.”
That the Wildcats are actually now 4-0 in Big 12 play, and 10-5 overall, appeared to be of only some consolation to Lloyd, whose team has little margin for error in earning a decent NCAA Tournament seed because of its mediocre 6-5 nonconference season.
So even though the Wildcats beat both Cincinnati and West Virginia on the road over the past week, then took a 14-point lead less than 11 minutes into Saturday’s game, they took a breath at their own risk.
“They need to be mature competitors,” Lloyd said. They need to “understand you’re in a really tough conference. It’s a 20-game grind. Every game matters. Every win matters.”
Center Tobe Awaka, who had 11 points and five rebounds in just 16 minutes, said he didn’t think the Wildcats had a lack of effort as much as they suffered “some mental lapses here and there.”
Whatever the analysis, the fact is that, on a schedule that is notably backloaded, the Wildcats face their toughest Big 12 test yet Tuesday against Baylor.
Arizona had a chance to move smoothly into the matchup with the Bears (11-4, 3-1), who beat ASU 72-66 in overtime earlier Saturday night. The Wildcats took a 10-point lead, 24-14, while holding UCF to just 33.3% shooting over the first eight minutes, then went ahead by 14 on three different occasions in the first half.
But UCF went on a 10-3 run to pull within 36-29 with 5:13 to go after Rokas Jocias converted a three-point play and Keyshawn Hall hit two free throws. The Knights kept going from there and the game was tied at 42 when UCF center Moustapha Thiam with 38 seconds left in the half.
A three-point play from Trey Townsend with 14 seconds left in the half gave the Wildcats a 45-42 halftime lead but even that could have been bigger: UCF turned the ball over on its final possession of the second half, but Townsend missed a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.
Already, there were disturbing signs for Lloyd. Arizona shot an even 50% for the half while holding UCF to 36.8% but the Knights outrebounded the Wildcats 24-17, scoring 11 second-chance points off 12 offensive rebounds. UCF also scored 12 points off seven UA turnovers.
That trend continued in the second half. UCF wound up outrebounding UA 42-41 while the Knights partially made up for their 38.5% field goal shooting by scoring 23 points off their 20 offensive turnovers, the most second-chance scoring an opponent had dropped on UA all season.
UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said he was pleased to see his players respond after challenging them to rebound offensively during recent practices.
“It was good to see that carry over into the game,” Dawkins said.
You can imagine how Lloyd described the same thing.
“They kicked our ass on the glass. I mean, kicked our ass,” Lloyd said. “Kick ass. Relentless. I've got to go back and watch the film. I heard there were some good block outs, but when the assistant coach is telling you there's some good block outs, that means there's a lot of really bad block outs and a few good ones stuck out.”
All those second-chance points helped the Knights hang around until the final seconds. UCF tied the game at 45 after Darius Johnson hit a 3-pointer 23 seconds after halftime, and while UA went on to build leads of up to 17 in the second half, the Knights never really went away.
Arizona last held a 17-point lead with 5:56 left, after Jaden Bradley drove inside for a layup, but UCF rattled off six straight points from there. With 1:17, UCF cut it to 87-78 while Keyshawn Hall hit a layup for the final score with a second left.
The final difference of eight points essentially meant the Knights outscored UA by six over the final 29 minutes of the game.
But the final score also meant Arizona stayed undefeated in the Big 12.
That counts for something, too.
“Not that I expect a 14-point lead to turn to 28 to turn to 56 -- I don't expect that,” Lloyd said. “I expect that to be better. We weren't better, but we responded. We found a way. We want a tough conference game at home against a formidable opponent, for sure.”
