The second half of Saturday's Red-Blue Game offered a preview of Arizona’s probable starters and key rotation players, since coach Tommy Lloyd moved them all over to the Blue team.
Except one piece was missing: A starter late last season at Utah, sophomore guard Pelle Larsson is expected to become the starting shooting guard or at least play a key reserve backcourt role when his broken foot fully heals. Larsson had surgery in August so he could return sometime this month and be available for UA’s Nov. 9 season opener.
“You know, one of our best players didn't play today,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Pelle Larsson is somebody who we were counting on to be a main guy. I'm excited to throw him to the mix.
“It’s been real fun talking to him, just watching, observing and I'm on him. I'm telling him `Hey the month of October, you're getting close to coming back – how good can you become mentally? How much can you learn by watching so when you get out there you're maybe not as rusty as you otherwise wouldn't be?”
For the second half, the Blue team started Kerr Kriisa at point guard, Dalen Terry and Benn Mathurin on the wings, Azuolas Tubelis at power forward and Christian Koloko at center. Off the bench, the Blue used Aiken, Justin Kier, and Oumar Ballo.
As it turned out, putting all the Wildcats’ best players on one team also taught them an early lesson: The Red team, which received all its second-half scoring from freshman Adama Bal and walkon junior Jordan Mains, took a quick 5-2 lead in the second half over the Wildcats' primary players.
"I thought they came out a little bit flat," Lloyd said of the Blue team. "I thought they (were like) 'We practice against these guys every day and whatever.’ It’s a good lesson. You can't come out and start halves like that because even if a opponent is perceived lesser, you've got to respect them and you've got to give them your best shot.”
As much as Lloyd said it was good to get the players out in front of the fans, it was also just good to have them out on the floor, period, during what is still just the first week of full practices.
“It’s a great learning experience,” Lloyd said. “We have film. These are live bullets, and even though it's us against us, you're in front of a crowd. Are our guys trying to do too much? Is there a game slippage in certain areas? Now, we’ll be able to watch the film and the great thing about film is you can reinforce a lot of the positives and build on them and then you can find some mistakes and some weaknesses and try to address there.
“Guys, this is literally practice number four so obviously we have a long ways to go. And we're still in a heavy install part of phase of the season. We’re gonna be putting a lot of things in and preparing for different stuff but overall I feel pretty good where we're at.”
Lloyd returned praise to UA fans who cheered throughout the Red Blue celebration.
“It's just fun for our guys to get in front of the people,” Lloyd said. “One of the things that makes this program so great is the fan base, and to get out there in front of them, to show them these guys -- and I think it's a team they're really gonna like -- hopefully they came away with a good first impression.”
At the same time, Lloyd said he was looking mostly ahead when he ran out of the tunnel during introductions.
It was “let’s do this,” Lloyd said. “I've never I've never been a really nervous person or anything like that. I mean, I’m excited. I'm staying in the moment … honestly I wanted to get through it and get through the dunk contest and so we can focus on jump stops and playing real basketball.”
Tubelis crammed in 14 points on 7-for-7 shooting in the first 10-minute half, then added three rebounds and two assists in a five-minute appearance in the second half, when he did not take a shot.
Tubelis was Arizona’s leading rebounder last season (7.1) and second-leading scorer (12.1) and there’s no doubt Lloyd will be pushing him to do more this season.
“The first thing with Zu is he's really talented, and he's really productive,” Lloyd said. “I just think for him to take the next steps as a player, he's got to increase his physicality, he's got to increase his concentration on defense. And shooting for a big man kind of comes naturally -- if you have a ball movement offense, your bigs are gonna find shots. You don't have to necessarily run plays.
“So I honestly haven't been talking to him about shooting at all. I've been talking to him about dominating the paint, running the floor, rebounding with two hands, and I keep saying `You're talented, you're good, you're productive. Now how do you become a beast, where there's no gimmicks, it's just toe to toe, combat, and you're just better than the other guy and kicking butt?’ Those are the conversations I've been having with him.”
Aiken credited some of his 4-for-4 3-point production Saturday to workouts last spring with former Gonzaga star Corey Kispert, before transferring from Eastern Washington to Washington State and then to Arizona. Gonzaga and EWU are only 19 miles apart.
“We just put a lot of hours into the gym when he was in Spokane,” Aiken said. “I think that 3-point shooting is gonna be huge for the team this year and it’s something I can keep building on.”
Even though Lloyd was a 20-year assistant coach at Gonzaga before he left for Arizona, he said he had nothing to do with getting Kispert and Aiken together (Lloyd actually landed Aiken only after WSU did not let him into its graduate school).
“There's a lot of open gyms and stuff and my son would play at the open gyms at camp so that's kind of how I met Kim,” Lloyd said. “I didn't even really know him until he got here but he's a he's a great person and I think he's a really good player who’s really going to help us. We're thankful to have him.”
