Arizona Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd breaks down new options after Red-Blue Showcase

Along with all the shiny new options Arizona picked up during a whirlwind of springtime recruiting, the Wildcats found one of the old tricks still works pretty well.

That is, they just need to get the ball inside to Oumar Ballo.

Arizona’s first-team all-Pac-12 center collected 18 points and 10 rebounds over 23 minutes of the Red-Blue scrimmage on Friday, leading the Blue team to a 60-48 win over the Red.

But other new options also surfaced all around Ballo, too. From UA’s dive into the transfer portal came forward Keshad Johnson (13 points), Caleb Love (12 points) and Jaden Bradley (nine).

From the Wildcats’ international pipeline arrived Motiejus Krivas (seven points, four rebounds) and Paulius Murauskas (eight points, seven rebounds).

Then there was that product of some good, old-fashioned high school recruiting: Guard KJ Lewis won the dunk contest and impressed on both sides of the court in the scrimmage.

Those ne w guys helped produce a Red-Blue scrimmage that was reflective of the competition in practices, Ballo said.

“Trust me, our practices are aggressive,” Ballo said. “Guys get after each other and that’s how we got better.”

The Wildcats were balanced and deep enough Friday that UA coach Tommy Lloyd opted not to consolidate his best players on one team in the second half to give them some prep time together, as he did during the previous two Red-Blue scrimmages.

Lloyd said he could let Friday’s teams continue to compete as it was because UA now has so much more depth, though he noted that the Wildcats found things worked out best when they didn’t try “some superhero type play.”

Here’s how Lloyd broke down some of the new options:

On Lewis, who won the Red-Blue dunk contest, raced to block a shot from Love and scored nine points:

“He seems to have been on a steady upward trajectory, and that’s a credit to him. I’m sure some bumps in the road are gonna come as a freshman, but he’s an extremely high-character guy, and his care factor is really high. So I think he’s well-positioned to have a really good freshman year.

“One of the things I love about KJ is he solves problems with effort. That’s a great thing to have because you can bank on high effort. He plays with a relentlessness that I think is going to be infectious for our team.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

On Murauskas, who spent most of last season in Lithuania’s top pro league. The 6-8 forward debuted last month for Arizona by hitting 5 of 7 3s against Israel Select and hit another 2 of 5 3-pointers while pulling down seven rebounds in the Red-Blue scrimmage.

“He’s a really good player. He’s like a lot of European players. He’s kind of finding his way over here and we haven’t had too many moments where we’ve scrimmaged for that length of time this year. So it’s good for him to get in the flow of the game and feel it.

“I’m sure when we go back and look at the film, there’s going to be a bunch of things we can help him with but he’s never lacked confidence on the offensive end of the floor. He kind of has that scorer’s mentality where he forgets his misses pretty quick, and he’s able to keep on plugging away.”

On Krivas, the Lithuanian 7-foot freshman who took only two field goals but made it to the line eight times and hit five free throws.

“I thought a Krivas did a good job impacting the game. It felt like he got fouled a lot. I think he’s gonna learn this system and kind of understand where he can assert his will.

“I don’t know if it was him or his team but I think maybe he had some opportunities to carve out and establish position a little earlier in possessions. I don’t know if he got fatigued or (if there was) a little bit of game slippage — probably both things happened — but when he was around the action, he impacted the ball. He’s a big, strong guy with great hands and an incredibly high IQ. I’m excited about him.”

On Johnson, who was recruited because of his veteran and defensive presence … but also managed to hit 3 of 8 3-pointers. While playing primarily at power forward for San Diego State last season, Johnson took only 42 3-pointers over 38 games, hitting them at a 26.2% rate.

“It’s fun to watch him. I’m not sitting here saying our season hinges on how well he shoots 3s or doesn’t shoot 3s. I think we can win a lot of different ways. But to see him do that could be a little added dimension for us.”

On returners such as forward Henri Veesaar, Dyaln Anderson and Filip Borovicanin, who could also become new “options” in the Wildcats’ rotation after spending most of last season on the bench. Each hit only one field goal Friday, but Anderson pulled down three rebounds while Veesaar had two and Borovicanin won the pregame 3-point contest.

“Henri’s had a good camp. Obviously, he didn’t get to do much with us this summer with his ankle injury (from the U20 European Championships), so I’m excited where he’s going. I think he’s going to really build into a steady player. Dylan’s made solid progression, and I think he’s continuing that way.

“Filip’s a good player. I think he has an ability to be one of, if not our best, shooters but I think he’s got to kind of settle into that role a little bit. He also has a nice IQ, and he’s a creative passer. I think sometimes he gets stuck in between those things a little bit, which is OK.

“A lot of really good players do more than one thing. But I think with his size and his ability to shoot the ball, when he kind of understands the added dimension that gives us, that’ll really help him out. But I love where he’s at and I appreciate him. He was a freshman who last year kind of fought through a tough year. He’s back here and he’s had a positive attitude, and he’s a great kid. I really respect him as a person and a player.”