Tom Izzo wary of big, physical, athletic Wildcats

Even though Arizona has averaged 99.6 points over its first five games of the season, there’s something notably different about Tommy Lloyd’s fast-paced Wildcats this time.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has noticed, too.

After the Spartans beat Alcorn State on Sunday in their last game before a Thursday afternoon showdown with Arizona in the Palm Springs area, Izzo warned that his guys needed to toughen up to face the Wildcats.

“We’ve got to get a lot better by Thursday,” Izzo said. “They are the most physical and big team that we’ll play all year. They have guys the size of Purdue’s guys and more physical. It’ll be an interesting game.”

Izzo’s remarks are just one indication that Lloyd is working toward a goal to improve toughness he set after the 2022 NCAA Tournament, when Arizona was pushed around by TCU in a second-round overtime game and then shoved out of the Sweet 16 by Houston.

Lloyd said then that he would address the situation in both recruiting and coaching, and this season he’s welcomed 7-2 Motiejus Krivas and ferocious 6-4 guard KJ Lewis, among others.

Krivas averaged 14 points and six rebounds off the bench in three games last week, earning Arizona’s nomination for Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, though USC’s Isaiah Collier picked that award up after combining for 47 points in USC’s loss to UC Irvine and a win over Brown.

Despite being just 6-4, Lewis ranks third on the Wildcats in blocked shots (four) while he also has six total steals and is averaging 4.4 rebounds a game. In UA’s 101-56 win over Texas-Arlington on Sunday, Lewis had nine rebounds, three assists and three blocks.

Lewis “really impacts the game, even with loose balls,” Lloyd said. “With KJ, it’s 75-25, he’s getting them. I always joke in practice, `Who’s gonna get a loose ball besides KJ?’ Because he gets all of them and he does it in games. Those start runs and create easy transition offensive opportunities. So I’m really happy with him.”

Overall, UA is outrebounding its five opponents by an average of 21.8 and defending the two-point shot at a 41.7% rate, allowing the Wildcats to pair what is so far the nation’s seventh-most efficient offense with the nation’s seventh-most efficient defense.

Wildcats stay at No. 3

Arizona and Michigan State will still have a Top-25 matchup on Thursday, even though the Spartans are 2-2 after losing to James Madison and Duke already this season.

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Arizona remained No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday, and MSU dropped from 18th to 21st. The Spartans were ranked No. 4 in the preseason poll but dropped precipitously after losing to James Madison in their Nov. 6 season opener. Then they lost to Duke in Chicago last week.

Of the Wildcats’ other nonconference opponents this season, Purdue stayed at No. 2 behind No. 1 Kansas, while Duke stayed at No. 9 and Alabama moved from 22nd to 17th.

Among Pac-12 teams, Colorado jumped from 25th to 18th, while USC fell from 16th to 23rd. UCLA picked up the 30th-most points in voting.

Utah’s Carlson wins Pac-12 honor

Collier beat out Krivas for Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors, and Utah center Branden Carlson was named Pac-12 Player of the Week over UA’s Kylan Boswell and nine other nominees.

Carlson averaged 23.3 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 45.8% in three games against high-major teams — Utah beat Wake Forest but lost to Houston and St. John’s — while also blocking five shots against Wake Forest.

Boswell averaged 13.0 points and 4.7 assists in UA’s wins over Southern, Belmont and Texas-Arlington last week while shooting 60.0% from the field.

On their feet

After asking UA season-ticket holders on Friday to make sure others sit in their seats if they don’t attend a game in order to keep creating a significant homecourt advantage, Lloyd found those who showed up Sunday at McKale Center were active.

That was at least in part because the Wildcats went on a 33-2 run between the end of the first half and into the second half, forcing UA fans to keep standing all the way through the first media timeout. A long McKale tradition has fans standing until an opponent scores at the beginning of each half, but the Mavericks didn’t score until a minute after the media timeout at 15:50 in the second half.

“It felt good,” Lloyd said after the game. “I told our guys,`Hey, I don’t know what to expect. It’s Sunday afternoon. I don’t know if people are going to be sleepy after lunch or church or if they’re going to come out breathing fire. But we need to be the spark. Our effort and energy needs to be the spark for the crowd. We don’t need to wait for the crowd to get us going.’

“So I think there was a good kind of back and forth with some of our guys making some energy and effort plays, and then the crowd responding and building a little bit of momentum for us.”