BERKELEY, Calif. — If there was ever a time for the Arizona Wildcats to step off coach Tommy Lloyd’s dizzying, dazzling treadmill, Sunday afternoon was one of them.
In the middle of a week-long road trip through California, between a big win at Stanford on Thursday and a Top-10 showdown on Tuesday at UCLA, the Wildcats stopped over at Haas Pavilion to play a Cal team coming off four straight losses.
The classic “sandwich” game, as it’s often called.
Still, during Arizona’s 96-71 win over the Bears, nothing much changed. Just the faces a little bit.
Without forward Azuolas Tubelis, who remains listed as “day to day” with a sprained ankle but could return against the Bruins, Lloyd started a small lineup with guard Pelle Larsson in Tubelis’ place.
Later, when Cal’s offensive rebounding became a concern, he even used 7-footers Christian Koloko and Oumar Ballo at the same time.
Arizona’s Oumar Ballo, right, reacts as he is fouled by Kuany Kuany in the first half. Ballo had 14 points a game after scoring 21 against Stanford.
“We were like `Hey, let’s give this a look,’ “ Lloyd said. “It was functioning at both ends of the floor.”
As it turned out, Koloko led the Wildcats with 19 points and 13 rebounds while Ballo added 14 points after dropping a career-high 21 at Stanford on Thursday. Then there was the usual supplemental help scattered all over the place, with Bennedict Mathurin collecting 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists while Larsson had nine points in his first start of the season.
Together, they helped third-ranked, 16-1 Arizona romp just as they have so many times before this season.
Arizona led 17-3 early, watched Cal coach Mark Fox get ejected for two technical fouls in the first half, then went up by 21 at halftime. And, after Cal pulled within 16 four minutes into the second half, ripped off the next 11 in a row to put the game out of reach.
If the Wildcats lost their focus at all, it was barely noticeable.
“I think you always have worries, right?” Lloyd said, when asked if he was concerned the Wildcats might be looking behind or ahead of Cal. “But as Tom Petty said, most things I worry about never happen anyhow.
“We knew it was an important game for us. When you’re playing a 20-game conference season, win four or five means as much as win 12 or 13. So we take ’em seriously.”
The Wildcats had really only one scary moment, when guard Justin Kier hit the floor and banged up his wrist, prompting trainer Justin Kokoskie to pull him in the corner of the floor for an examination.
Arizona guard Justin Kier drives to the basket against California guard Jordan Shepherd during the first half. UA led by 21 at halftime and won by 25.
While Kier wore a wrist guard after the game, Lloyd said the wrist didn’t appear to be significant or need X-rays.
But it could have been worse. So Lloyd still wasn’t wild about the risk-reward calculation that Kier made.
“I don’t think it was a very smart play on his part,” Lloyd said. “He kind of jumped without a plan. You gotta protect your body and when you jump, you should have a plan for when you land. I don’t think he did on that one.”
Except, the way Kier described it, he wasn’t planning to fall at all.
“I didn’t think I was going to get undercut,” Kier said. “It went numb a little bit but it’ll be fine.”
The risk-reward calculation is something the Wildcats have to increasingly be aware of these days, too.
Heading into a four-game stretch in which they will face UCLA twice and USC once, the Wildcats have lost Tubelis (ankle) and Koloko (fouls and turnovers) for most of the Stanford game, received the Kier scare on Saturday and, of course, are still missing backup forward Kim Aiken for an unspecified reason.
Their margin of error in personnel is small. But they have also shown an increasing ability to make do with whatever they have on the floor.
Kier managed to play 31 total minutes, collecting 10 points, six rebounds and three assists, while even freshman guards Adama Bal and Shane Nowell logged five minutes each. Nowell scored five points while Bal added two rebounds.
Larsson also helped play a key defensive role for the Wildcats, who limited Cal to just 35.2% shooting, despite the matchups he was thrown into.
“Pelle is so physical and his skills at decision-making are improving,” Lloyd said. “He’s really a guard but he’s big and physical. I don’t think there’s many bigs around that he couldn’t guard.”
Meanwhile, Koloko made sure he stuck around this time to help as much as possible, showing the sort of dominance inside that he hasn’t been able to largely since Jan. 3 against Washington because of foul trouble.
“Coming into this game for me, it was just being smart,” Koloko said. “We weren’t going to have Zu, so I had to be smarter with fouls. When I stayed out of foul trouble my rhythm just came. I think I did a pretty good job offensively and defensively.”
Arizona Oumar Ballo dunks in the first half. UA led 17-3 early and cruised to their 16th win of the year.
Koloko had 10 total fouls over his previous three games, playing just nine minutes against Stanford when he had four of them. He said he reviewed game video, realizing he didn’t need to risk getting called for an over-the-back call by lunging for rebounds he probably wasn’t going to get anyway.
Lloyd drove that point home.
“Some of those fouls are a little bit unlucky, or him maybe being a little bit out of position,” Lloyd said of Koloko. “Or sometimes it’s a guy on the perimeter making a mistake that leads to hard penetration and a collision at the rim. A lot of times those are 50-50 cals.
“But he can’t be sloppy and get a lazy over-the-back (call). He can’t be frustrated when he misses a shot and tries to reach for a rebound. He’s getting better because he’s too valuable. We need him on the floor.”
Especially Tuesday, when the Wildcats will probably need both Koloko and Tubelis healthy and out of foul trouble.
But if not, the Wildcats just might figure something out anyway.
They usually do.
“We just gotta stick together,” Koloko said. “I hope Zu is going to be back for UCLA but if he’s not back, we have other guys who are going to have to step up. I think they’re just waiting to have a chance.”
