After frequent foul trouble capped Tobe Awaka’s dominant rebounding last season at Tennessee, including two foul-outs against Purdue and center Zach Edey, the rugged New Yorker arrived at Arizona to have a little chat with his new coach.
It boiled down to a simple concept, the way Tommy Lloyd described it following No. 10 UA’s 102-44 blowout win over Old Dominion on Saturday at McKale Center.
“Tobe is one of those guys that just plays incredibly hard, and sometimes if he doesn’t quite get the ball or it doesn’t work out his way, maybe in the past he’d just club a guy out of frustration,” Lloyd said.
“I’m like, ‘Well, you know, if you want to play more, you don’t club a guy.’”
Awaka pulled off that sort of restraint well enough Saturday that, while he tied his career high in scoring with 18 points and set a new rebounding high with 15, the most significant number in his box score line might have been this: One.
That is, one foul over 21 minutes, allowing Arizona to keep him on the floor as much as it wanted while center Motiejus Krivas continues to ease his way back from a foot injury.
Awaka’s full stats: 18 points, eight offensive rebounds, seven defensive rebounds, two blocks, six fouls drawn — and only one foul committed.
Arizona forward Tobe Awaka rises above the Old Dominion defense to score on Saturday.
“I think that’s incredible,” Lloyd said, then relaying that their talks were actually also somewhat technical. “He had those offensive rebounds, and instead of being in arm battles and all tied up with people, he’s getting two hands free above his shoulders — and if you’ve got two hands free, it’s hard to push, right?
“Those are the conversations we’ve been having, just teaching him some little different techniques. He’s been awesome.”
Awaka’s teammates have also benefited.
On one first-half sequence Saturday, Awaka pulled down the rebound after forward Henri Veesaar missed a 3-pointer, then drew a foul and, later in the same UA possession, picked up a miss from Jaden Bradley. That led to a layup attempt from Veesaar — and when Veesaar picked up his own miss, he finally put the ball in.
Arizona forward Henri Veesaar grinds with Old Dominion forward Caelum Swanton-Rodger for room to shoot at McKale Center on Nov. 9, 2024.
“He’s amazing,” Veesaar said of Awaka. “On defense, he’s like a Swiss army knife — he can guard one to five. His rebounding is amazing. He’s so strong. He might be one of the strongest guys I’ve ever played with. And he can move his feet. It’s incredible what he can do on defense.”
Sitting on the postgame interview podium next to Veesaar when he heard that, Awaka extended a fist bump to Veesaar.
“Thanks, man,” Awaka said.
While saying he was “a little more adamant about crashing the glass” Saturday, Awaka went out of his way to credit teammates such as Veesaar for making his work easier.
“They were putting pressure on those guys in all kind of different ways, which kind of freed me up,” Awaka said. “And collectively as a group, we did a great job on the glass, which also helped open up opportunities for me, too.”
Overall, the Wildcats outrebounded Old Dominion 59-28, while picking up eye-opening offensive (55.8) and defensive (79.5) rebounding percentages, the sort of advantage that could give UA shooters some peace of mind if the shot clock is forcing a sub-optimal shot.
“I got on Caleb (Love) and JB (Jaden Bradley) — on one of those possessions, I think they both shot faked themselves out of 3s, and we ended up almost at a shot clock violation,” Lloyd said after the ODU game. “I’m like ‘Guys, if we get under 10 (seconds), let it rip, and then let’s get six hands on the offensive glass.’ That’s what we want to do.”
Arizona’s dominance on the glass led to 23 second-chance points and kept ODU to just 10 on Saturday, while Awaka scored three times off his own offensive rebounds and drew a foul on another.
Things sometimes went the other way in UA’s season opener against Canisius on Nov. 4, when Awaka had four fouls along with his nine rebounds. But the real test of Awaka’s progress may come in the Wildcats’ stiffer games ahead: At Wisconsin on Friday, against Duke on Nov. 22 and in the three-game Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving week.
Awaka said technical work has been a big part of his preparation.
“It’s just being cognizant of where the refs are and what angle on the court the person is shooting the ball from,” Awaka said. “Obviously, if the shot’s from the corner, the ball’s coming off the weak side. So it’s having good body position even before the shot goes up.”
Arizona forward Tobe Awaka pulls down a rebound over Old Dominion guard Jaden Johnson in the first half on Nov. 9, 2024.
On Saturday, this sort of strategy may have helped Awaka draw six fouls from Old Dominion players while his teammates picked up another 17. Collectively, UA took 12 more free throws than Old Dominion did, though they didn’t quite finish that equation the way Lloyd would like.
Awaka made just 2 of 6 free throws against ODU and the Wildcats shot just 62.1% as a team from the line, after also shooting below average at 70.4% against Canisius.
“You win a game like this, and you do have to look at things like that,” Lloyd said. “We’re not going to make a big deal out of them. I think we’re going to be a really good free throw shooting team in time, and it’d be nice if that time was next Friday at Madison. I’d be happy with that.”
