No joke: Wildcat Pelle Larsson knew his shots would fall vs. Wisconsin

Just 76 seconds into No. 1-ranked Arizona’s 98-73 win over Wisconsin on Saturday, Pelle Larsson knew his shooting wouldn’t be a problem.

After Oumar Ballo pulled down a rebound from Caleb Love’s missed free throw, Ballo threw it to guard Kylan Boswell, who dished to Larsson on the left perimeter, where the senior wing spotted up just behind the 3-point line.

Good.

But that was the easy part, and Larsson already knew it by then.

“I actually made a joke to one of our managers that my shot felt good after one shot and I should stop and not even warm up,” Larsson said.

The really important moments arrived about a minute later, when Larsson picked up his first foul, and about six minutes after that, when he committed a second foul.

Larsson hit a second 3 between those two fouls but it wasn’t certain which way his shot, and his aggressiveness, might go from there.

After all, one reason Larsson signed off on a move out of the Wildcats’ starting lineup midway through last season was to avoid the chance of picking up two quick fouls, potentially affecting his aggressiveness and availability on a depth-challenged team the rest of a game.

The move was also made to benefit then-reserve Cedric Henderson by putting him in a starting role he had been more comfortable in as a three-year starter for low-major Campbell.

The lineup swap worked, with both Larsson’s and Henderson’s productivity improving in the second half of last season. But this season was different. Larsson is now a senior leader for the Wildcats, who need him to set the tone with his versatility, aggressiveness and selflessness.

Larsson has to be on the floor early, and stay on it most of the game.

But he still has to deal with fouls, maybe more than ever. UA coach Tommy Lloyd said an officiating emphasis this season is not making things any easier, citing how Larsson picked up two fouls as a secondary defender trying to take a charge against Michigan State on Nov. 23, when Larsson fouled out with 4:37 to go.

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“Pelle is a proficient charge-taker, and with the way they’re calling the block/charge now on secondary defenders, there’s just not going to be as many opportunities,” Lloyd said. “Pelle has got to adjust to the rules. Pelle is really smart, and he’s made those adjustments but he’s an aggressive player. He’s gonna foul some. He’s tough. He’s physical and it’s part of the deal.”

It helps, Lloyd said, that he can go deeper in his lineup this season if Larsson or others run into foul trouble. The Wildcats whittled down to just seven players toward the end of last season, but this year Lloyd has been running mostly an eight-man rotation that sometimes incorporates a ninth and 10th with freshman forward Paulius Murauskas and sophomore wing Filip Borovicanin.

So, on Saturday, Larsson kept going. He sat out for about four minutes after that second foul and then rejoined the Wildcats just in time to jump into their game-changing 20-2 run midway through the first half.

Larsson’s third 3 turned out to be one of four the Wildcats threw in during their run, turning a 23-23 tie into a 43-25 lead with 3:29 to go before halftime. The game was never the same from there, the Badgers’ defense having been permanently stretched too thin.

“When Larsson makes 3s, that changes what you can do defensively,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said, “because Ballo is such a load inside and it’s hard to keep help in the paint around him.”

Larsson hasn’t always been that guy so far this season — he’d only taken 11 3s over UA’s previous seven games, and hit five of them – but that didn’t mean he wasn’t doing any number of other things.

“Pelle is one of these guys who’s gonna give you what it takes to win, and he’s a really good player who’s coming into his own,” Lloyd said. “I know how talented he is. I think he’s one of the better wings in the country without dispute and I think people are going to start to see that now over the course of this season.”

So with Larsson, maybe it’s picking up charges and getting to the line, where he’s made 32 of 34 free throws so far this season. Maybe it’s other intangible defensive contributions or maybe, as it was Saturday, it was 4-for-4 3-point shooting and a career-high 21 points.

Same guy, same overall production, but in different ways.

“I don’t know,” Larsson said, referring to his pregame joke with a UA manager. “I felt the same as always. I just honestly got open catch and shoot. It was fun.”