Wildcats seeking payback in long-lost rivalry against Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. — While teaching Arizona Wildcats history and culture to his players in recent months, coach Tommy Lloyd has dived into the chapter on rivalries.

There, in the Pac-10/12 era that will be ending after this season, Stanford is unavoidable. This was a team that, between 1995-96 and 2003-04, when coached by Mike Montgomery, was actually 10-8 against the Wildcats.

Things were so tense and competitive in those years that, for three straight seasons between 2000-01 and 2002-03, the Cardinal beat the Wildcats every time at McKale Center — but lost to Arizona every time at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford also beat Arizona in both venues during the 2003-04 season, doing so at Maples when Nick Robinson sank a 28-foot buzzer-beater not far from Tiger Woods’ courtside seat.

They were heady times. But not lately. Not for two decades, really.

Arizona beat Stanford 20 straight times, 19 of which came during the Sean Miller era, until the Cardinal finally pulled one out in the Golden State Warriors’ G League facility in Santa Cruz, back when Santa Clara county COVID rules kept the Cardinal from playing at Maples during the 2020-21 season.

It’s a long-lost history. So after Arizona’s 100-81 win at Cal, Lloyd’s response was understandable when asked if he discussed any of the big Arizona-Stanford games with his guys.

“We talked about a lot of things in our culture and a lot and reminded guys about our history and our legacy,” Lloyd said. “I can’t give you a specific, but we definitely talked about the history of our rivalries and stuff like that.”

Both UA center Oumar Ballo and wing Filip Borovicanin, the two players UA made available for comment after its win at Cal on Friday, shook their heads quietly when asked if they had seen or heard about old UA-Stanford games.

Nah. More important to the No. 4 Wildcats on Saturday is the fact that Stanford beat Arizona 88-79 last season for its first win at Maples over the Wildcats since the 2008-09 season.

In that game, Stanford used its size to bottle up Ballo and power forward Azuolas Tubelis, forcing the Wildcats to take an uncharacteristic 35 3-pointers. Guard Courtney Ramey made 8 of 16 long-range shots, while Kerr Kriisa hit 3 of 10, yet that wasn’t nearly enough for a team that received only two shots from a foul-plagued Tubelis and just eight points on 3-for-5 shooting from Ballo.

“I just don’t know if that’s a winning formula for us,” Lloyd said of those 35 3-point attempts after that game.

The Wildcats, even more of an inside-powered team last season than they are this season, had been turned inside out.

Lloyd said Friday he remembered it as a “neck and neck” game, when the Wildcats led 44-41 at halftime but were outscored by 12 in the second half.

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“They played well last year and they’re not afraid to try different things against us,” Lloyd said. “So we have to kind of be prepared for everything when we play them. I’m sure they’re licking their chops, excited to have another shot.”

But so are the Wildcats, at least Ballo.

“I do remember that game,” Ballo said. “Stanford is a good team. Give credit to them. They know how to run their plays and they are very disciplined. Last year they got us but every year is different. We have a chip on our shoulder to come out and just play our asses off.”

Arizona has momentum to do just that. The Wildcats are coming off a decisive win at Cal in which they quickly left no doubt. Arizona went on a 20-2 run early, limiting Cal to just 26.5% first-half shooting, and coasted into halftime with a 54-26 lead.

“We knew Cal was a team that always gets up big in the first four to 10 minutes,” Ballo said. “We had to come out and try to outscore them and make some stops to make them uncomfortable on the offensive end.”

As Lloyd put it, they played the way the past suggests they should.

“We have high standards, and we wanted our guys to respond from our last game,” Lloyd said. “We wanted to establish the standard of how we play, and I thought we did that in the first half.

“I think we always want to be aggressive. Our guys came out and played with spirit and energy and and kind of really took it to them right away.”

Maybe they can again Sunday. Because for the Wildcats, that’s the real story.

This one isn’t about the past. It’s about the now.

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Photos: No. 4 Arizona Wildcats blast Cal to open Pac-12 play, 100-81