Wildcats' sweep through Washington made ideal homecoming for coach Tommy Lloyd

SEATTLE — Because he prefers not to focus on hypotheticals or the big picture during the season, Tommy Lloyd would be the last person to tell you that his homecoming weekend couldn’t possibly have gone any better for both personal and professional reasons.

His body language said enough.

“I saw in his face that he is feeling good,” Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis said after the Wildcats completed a weekend sweep in the state where Lloyd lived nearly all of his life before becoming UA’s head coach last spring. “He came back home and I saw his smile was different a little bit.”

That wouldn’t be a surprise. Lloyd is human, after all, and he was returning home with a team that has far exceeded expectations so far.

The evening before Thursday night’s 72-60 win over Washington State, Lloyd had a chance to visit with his Gonzaga family, folks he had worked with and befriended over a 22-year stint in Spokane.

Then, during No. 4 Arizona’s 92-68 blowout of Washington on Saturday, Lloyd entertained a gang that included his parents, his brother and his aunt who made the two-hour drive up Interstate 5 from his hometown of Kelso.

“It was great to see a bunch of family and friends,” Lloyd said Saturday. “They’ve done an amazing job supporting me throughout my entire basketball career and everything I’ve done. So it’s just great to have them around. I’m a lucky guy.”

The basketball side of things went pretty well, too.

The Wildcats beat two ascendant Pac-12 teams on their home floors to improve to 22-2 overall and 12-1 in the Pac-12. And, thanks to USC’s defeat of UCLA on Saturday, the Wildcats are now a full three games ahead in the loss column over anyone else — including the Trojans (10-4), Bruins (9-4) and Oregon (9-4).

With seven games left to play in the conference season, the Wildcats are now on a path to earn the most preferential seeding route of all Pac-12 teams in the NCAA Tournament regardless of how they do at the Pac-12 Tournament: A first-weekend trip to San Diego and, with two early NCAA Tournament wins there, a second-weekend date in either San Francisco or San Antonio.

All that, of course, assumes that the Wildcats won’t fall apart during home games with Oregon State or Oregon this weekend, or during ensuing road games at Utah, Colorado and USC.

Arizona has done little this season to suggest such a thing is possible. The Wildcats have an average scoring margin of plus-19.9 points so far, including plus-16.0 points against Pac-12 teams.

And UA’s two losses both came against ranked teams on the road with issues worth noting.

At Tennessee on Dec. 22, Arizona lost by four points in a rabid environment on a night when its big men were plagued with foul trouble and all five of its starters picked up four or more fouls.

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Then, on Jan. 25, Arizona lost by 16 at UCLA at the tail end of a three-game, six day road trip through California. Tubelis was limited after suffering a high ankle sprain just five days earlier.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats have also shown the ability to win in many different ways. While they prefer to run and score in the 90s, they beat ASU, UCLA and USC at McKale Center in games that ran at a slower tempo.

Then they shot 49.1% Thursday against the Pac-12’s most efficient defense, at Washington State, while simultaneously holding the Cougars to just 34.2%.

And after some initial sputtering that put them behind by 14 in the first half Saturday at Washington, the Wildcats figured ways to poke holes in the Huskies’ 2-3 zone defense.

“For us, it’s really important to get ready for every game,” center Oumar Ballo said. “We don’t take any game for granted. We played two really good teams, Washington State and Washington. We scouted them really good and then we did it perfectly.”

While Bennedict Mathurin brought his multi-level shooting game back to a high level, collecting 45 points in two games over the weekend to become UA’s nomination for Pac-12 Player of the Week, the Wildcats also turned especially to their inside players on Saturday at Washington.

Tubelis collected 21 points and 10 rebounds, while centers Christian Koloko (eight points and six rebounds) and Ballo (10 and 5) combined for 18 points and 11 rebounds.

For a team that loves to go fast, patience was key this time.

“We’re a young team, we’re growing and I really feel like our fundamentals are coming along — our pass fakes and footwork,” Lloyd said. “We had a couple turnovers against the press that I’m not happy about late in the second half.

“But other than that, there were some real special plays that stick out in my mind — guys getting their feet on the ground, being patient, using a fake, letting the late roll or a duck develop, finding a late cutter and playing with poise at the end of a shot clock.

“I mean, that’s championship stuff right there.”

Championship stuff, but not a championship team. Yet.

Not in Lloyd’s mind, anyway. He won’t go there, either.

“We got Oregon State coming in on Thursday, Oregon on Saturday,” Lloyd said. “I’m taking it day by day, game by game — and I can’t live outside of that box.”