Arizona eager to show it's not 'average' as slumping USC visits McKale

Keshad Johnson said he spent Sunday reading the Bible. The Arizona Wildcats’ two Lithuanian freshmen absorbed other teammates for hours in a Russian card game. And assistant coach Steve Robinson worked on a USC scouting report just like he normally would.

“Same thing I would have done at home,” Robinson said. “The difference was I didn’t get a chance to sleep in my own bed.”

Stuck in Pullman, Washington, for an extra 24 hours because of mechanical issues with their charter flight home after losing 73-70 at Washington State on Saturday, the Wildcats issued a collective shrug.

Even UA coach Tommy Lloyd, who was notably upset after the game, didn’t grouse too much about how he spent the following day in a Pullman chain hotel.

“Probably licked my wounds and just tried to figure out coaching,” Lloyd said. “The one thing I’ve learned about coaching is a day after that (loss), no one wants to be around you.

“I’m joking, of course. Obviously, you spend some time with the staff. We had some boosters there, so hung out with them and tried to put the pieces back together.

Basically, Lloyd said, the Wildcats did what they could with the circumstances.

“We can’t control the mechanics of airplanes, and we can’t control cold weather and both of those things happened,” he said. “The one thing we could have controlled better was our effort on the court, so that’s where I’m putting my focus.

“We all got an extra 24 hours in the Courtyard Marriott in Pullman and we enjoyed our time together.”

The Wildcats’ Sun Country airplane was eventually swapped for another, allowing them to finally return home Sunday night to start working on controlling their effort and execution.

After two days of practice in which Johnson said the Wildcats’ energy “picked up,” they’ll have a chance to test things against a presumably angry and disappointed USC team that is just 8-9 after losing standout freshman Isaiah Collier to a broken hand last week.

Lloyd is hoping that the Wildcats’ effort can even be seen in the intricate areas of ball screen defense, where they have struggled occasionally in part because of a lack of effort in breaking through screens — and sometimes because of schemes that need adjustments.

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“It’s always a combination of those two things,” Lloyd said. “The No. 1 thing you always start with is effort. Sometimes, you need to take a step back and focus on doing the things you’re supposed to do better and harder.

“And then No. 2 is, `Are there adjustments we need to make or anything that would help us gain advantages in other areas?’ You look at a combination of the two things.”

While Johnson said he thought the Wildcats overall played better defense against WSU than in their 100-82 loss at Stanford two weeks earlier, UA also struggled notably on the offensive end against the Cougars. It shot just 34.7% from the field while missing 17 of 28 layups and all three dunks it tried.

If the missed shots weren’t tough enough for Lloyd to watch as they happened, the game video only reinforced it.

“There were some missed opportunities at the rim and a missed defensive assignment here and there,” Lloyd said. “Then there were some good things as well. All in all, we’ve just got to play a little bit better and at some point you tip your cap to your to your competitor, and they got the better of us that day.”

In the heat-of-the-moment comments during his postgame interview on Saturday in Pullman, Lloyd expressed notably more disappointment. He said then that “everything was on the table” with his players and staff, saying shaking up the lineup was among the possibilities.

He also called the Wildcats an “average team,” something Johnson had no problem with.

“We need to play like we’re still trying to prove something,” Johnson said. “As an average team, you don’t want to hear that. You want to prove that. So that’s just coach telling us that we’ve got to get better. And we have played average throughout some of the season, just making mistakes and stuff like that.

“So when he said that he means there’s just a lot of room for growth. That’s all he means and I 100%. agree with that.”

Lloyd already tweaked things a little in the second half Saturday at WSU, playing guard Jaden Bradley more than starter Kylan Boswell in the second half at WSU. But if there are similar changes ahead Wednesday, Lloyd wasn’t about to tip his hand when asked if Bradley might start or other changes would be made.

“Two things,” Lloyd said. “For one, I haven’t made any final decisions. And two, I wouldn’t tell you. We’re gonna figure that out tomorrow, like everything we’re going to do so. But no drastic changes need to be made. We just need to play a little bit better.”