Always most focused on the now, Tommy Lloyd had especially good reason to ignore the past this week.
He was preparing to face Oregon.
So while the first-year UA coach watched recent game video of the Ducks, he ignored Oregon’s seven straight wins over Wildcats, three of which arrived in overtime.
“Zero interest,” Lloyd said.
That meant Lloyd didn’t see those Shakur Juiston (2019-20) or Chris Duarte (2020-21) game-winners. Or the way Oregon gave UA coach Sean Miller one of his worst-ever losses (73-47) in Eugene in 2018-19.
Lloyd didn’t see the way the Ducks snuffed out those weird final moments of the Wildcats’ last season, winning a makeup game 80-69 in Eugene on March 1 to launch Miller into six weeks of limbo before UA fired him.
Lloyd also didn’t have to watch Christian Koloko get sent to the free-throw line late in the 2019-20 game at McKale Center as a freshman who was subbed in for defensive reasons but forced to take a pair of free throws with 1.4 seconds left in overtime … when he missed both.
And, in what may be notable with ESPN and its “College GameDay” crew coming to town Saturday, Lloyd also didn’t see video of that surreal February 2018 evening in Eugene, when Miller did not coach the Wildcats after ESPN reported a day earlier that he had discussed paying then-star center Deandre Ayton $100,000.
During what became the first of those seven straight Oregon wins over Arizona, fans booed Ayton every time he touched the ball, while waving cardboard “checks” and “100 Grand” candy bar signs at him. All that served to clearly steam Ayton, who responded with 28 points and 18 rebounds while playing an exhausting 44 minutes in the Ducks’ 98-93 overtime win.
History, all that.
Just history, the way Lloyd sees it.
It’s “win the next one,” Lloyd said when asked about the UA-Oregon series. “Win the next one against a really good team. That’s all. Winning. I mean, you could give me any team and that’s what I’d be saying: Win the next one.”
Despite all that history, things might actually favor the Wildcats this time. Arizona is 23-2, ranked third nationally and is in line for a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed while Oregon is … not well.
Having mined the transfer portal long before it was even a thing, Oregon coach Dana Altman has built a reputation for pulling together talented transfers of all experience levels, weaving their potentially different agendas into a cohesive team and complex, ever-switching defense.
But it’s not really happening so far this season. Picked to finish second in the Pac-12, the Ducks went 6-6 through their first 12 games and, after winning 9 of 10 Pac-12 games since New Year’s, lost to Cal and squeaked by Washington State at home before getting blown out Thursday at ASU, 81-57.
“Dana’s as good as anybody at taking players and fitting them into how he wants to play, adjusting his system,” ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg said Friday on a Zoom call to promote the “GameDay” appearance. “They struggled, and then all of a sudden they got it together. They’re not consistent defensively, they’re not consistent in their shot selection, not consistent in making plays for each other.
“I think it’s frustrating as a coach because your team is different each and every day. They haven’t faced adversity well. It seems like they get pushed back instead of coming together.”
On Thursday, Altman expressed plenty of frustration during a short postgame Zoom interview with Oregon media.
The Ducks had just allowed ASU to shoot 57.4% from the field, were outrebounded 40-29 and shot just 34.2% offensively (making 5 of 26 3-pointers). Richardson, a preseason candidate for Pac-12 Player of the Year, shot just 1 of 7 from 3-point range.
Asked after the game what the disconnect was, and why the Ducks didn’t appear to have any pride, Altman put it this way:
“I’m sure I’m gonna get a lot of calls and texts from former players tonight and tomorrow, asking the same question,” he said. “Our energy level was not what it should be. Our connection defensively is awful. And to get beat by 11 on the boards? That’s just effort. So there is a disconnect.
“I’m disappointed in myself that we haven’t been able to get more out of them. Because I know we’re a better team than what we just demonstrated.”
Arizona has lost seven straight games to Oregon, none more heart-breaking than a 73-72 overtime loss two years ago. Christian Koloko missed two free throws late as the Ducks held on in McKale Center.
That’s the scary part for the Wildcats, of course.
There isn’t always a correlation between a visiting Pac-12 team’s performance at ASU on a Thursday and how it plays on a bigger stage before a packed McKale Center on Saturday.
Plus, the Ducks still show flashes of championship ability. They won at UCLA and USC last month, although they were able to do so without fans in attendance due to Omicron-variant-induced restrictions at both L.A. schools.
Maybe they revert to that sort of team Saturday. Certainly, history suggests they will.
But maybe all that history really doesn’t mean anything. Maybe everyone should just look at the game the way Lloyd is.
Especially considering how the Wildcats have done so far in Lloyd’s first season.
“They’re Final Four good,” Greenberg said of Arizona. “Now, it’s hard to get to the Final Four. But they score easy baskets. They have a go-to player. They’ve got depth in their frontcourt. They’re competitive defensively. Their role players all really embrace what they do.
“You know, I think the speed of the game and the number of different ways that Arizona scores — and the unselfishness that they play with in relation to how Oregon’s playing right now — will be the difference in the game.”
