All the ingredients for a little holiday weekend snooze were lined up perfectly: Two big wins in Las Vegas, a new national ranking, two off days and even a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
The Arizona Wildcats had no such interest. In a 105-59 win over Sacramento State on Saturday at McKale Center, they were the same Wildcats theyβve quickly become under new coach Tommy Lloyd en route to a perfect November.
That is, fast, selfless, physical and dominant inside, even on an evening when center Christian Koloko received a minor scare when he went down with a sprained ankle in the second half.
Before he left after just four minutes of the second half, Koloko had 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting plus seven rebounds and one block while forward Azuolas Tubelis went for 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting. Lloyd said he believed Kolokoβs injury was not serious and Koloko is expected to play in UAβs Pac-12 opener on Thursday against Washington.
The Wildcats (6-0) also had three other players in double-figure scoring, with Pelle Larsson scoring 17 on 6-for-7 shooting off the bench in his best game of the season.
Along the way, UA also dished a typically generous 31 assists for their 38 made field goals. It was the first time Arizona had 30 assists in a game in over two decades, since the Wildcats had 30 against Washington State on Feb. 10, 2001.
βItβs just the way we play and the chemistry that we have,β Larsson said. βWe just like playing with each other. We like passing it to each other and if a guy has an open shot, we don't mind giving up a good one to get a great one.β
All that made it clear the Wildcats were not fat and happy, even if they might have been for a moment or two earlier in the week during practices that followed their Main Event championship win over Michigan and two ensuing days off.
βWe got after it in practice for a few days and I was on the guys hard,β Lloyd said. βWe addressed things I felt needed addressing and if I thought they were casual, I let them know. That's coaching and that's how the seasons roll.
βI think one of the biggest things youβve got to compete against is human nature and our guys did a great job with that tonight.β
As a result, there was no suspense. The Wildcats led 47-22 at halftime and then started the half on a 15-0 run, keeping fans standing through the first media timeout because the Hornets couldnβt even score for the first four minutes of the second half.
Only then, briefly, did the Wildcats let up, with Sacramento State going on a 9-0 run thanks in part to turnovers from Tubelis and Bennedict Mathurin.
βThat probably had to do with getting stagnant a little bit on offense and bad offense led to bad defense,β Lloyd said.
He didnβt need to worry much about any other segments. Shortly after the Hornetsβ run, two 3-pointers within 81 seconds from Kim Aiken helped put the Wildcats back ahead 70-35 entering the final 12 minutes.
UA was up 88-42 with 6:42 left when Lloyd took Mathurin, Tubelis and Dalen Terry out for good. And, by the time the Wildcats had a lineup of all reserves and walk-ons with 3:30 left, Arizona had outscored Sacramento State 50-18 in the paint and outrebounded them 43-19.
The Wildcats not only held the Hornets to just 35.8% shooting to that point but also kept them from putting back all but one of their 32 first missed shots.
Thatβs right: Just one Sac State offensive rebound for over 37 minutes.
βI'd have to go back and watch the film, but I thought we were able to kind of break them out of their offense a little bit,β Lloyd said. βThey were trying to make some tough individual plays. I think our guys are pretty good individual defenders and I noticed a lot of those rebounds, especially in the first half, we had like three or four guys around the ball and none of theirs.β
The Wildcats used that dominance on the glass to their advantage on the other end of the court, too. On one possession in the first half, this gave guard Kerr Kriisa the luxury of taking three shots from 3-point range -- making the third after offensive rebounds from Dalen Terry and Aiken helped get the ball back to him.
βI think we have a team rule: If you get three 3s in one possession and you miss the third, you're done for the day,β Lloyd said, smiling. βSo he had a lot of pressure on that shot.β
But even with a third miss, it would have been hard for Lloyd to take Kriisa off the floor.
On a night when the UA-ASU football game and low-profile opponent appeared to mellow out the roughly 10,000 fans at McKale Center, the ever-caffeinated point guard wasnβt about to allow the Wildcats to coast: He dished nine assists to only two turnovers, pumping up teammates and gesturing to the crowd to make noise.
βI think it was really cool to see his effort and energy,β Lloyd said. βHe really broke that game open in the first half. He got us going up and down and he's trying to get the crowd in the game -- then you look at the end of the day, I think he made one basket.β
That was his βthirdβ 3, giving the Wildcats what was already a 16 point lead, 26-10 after just under 10 minutes had passed. Arizona led comfortably throughout the first half, then headed into halftime with a 25-point lead after Justin Kier hit a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in the first half.
Without Koloko around for much of it, Wildcats went more often outside in the second half. They hit six of their nine three-pointers after halftime, with Larsson and Aiken hitting two 3s each and Kier and Tubelis adding others.
Together, the Wildcats made the second half as much of a blur as the first half, just as they aimed to.
βThe test of a good team is when you have a big week and come back home and everything feels really good and relaxed,β Kier said. βYouβve got to come out and play with even more energy because more teams are going to want to beat you, and we want to be a great team. We don't want to just be satisfied with what we've done. We've got a long way to go.β
