In each of Tommy Lloyd’s first two seasons at Arizona, the Wildcats warmed up with three lower-level home games before facing stiffer competition over Thanksgiving week.
Last season, they had to play at then-No. 2 Duke in their second game, but UA had a veteran lineup to do it with, and wound up beating the Blue Devils 78-73.
Now, just as Lloyd is still sorting through a bigger set of options, figuring out how to best replace four starters after just two home games, the Wildcats have to get on an airplane to face Top 25 contender Wisconsin on Friday.
There’s no perfect way to do it.
“I just think it’s how the scheduling kind of breaks sometimes,” Lloyd said after UA beat Old Dominion by 58 on Saturday. “It seems like there’s a lot of gaps this year in our schedule.”
Lloyd is trying to take special advantage of this gap. The Wildcats had a full 11 days to play Old Dominion and prepare for the Badgers, and they’ll have another week between Wisconsin and a Nov. 22 return game with No. 6 Duke at McKale Center.
“It allows you to kind of go back and clean things up,” Lloyd said. “It allows you to revisit things you installed earlier in the fall, and it gives you time to still game plan for your opponent. It gives you time to get better.”
That won’t be the case much longer. Three days after hosting Duke, the Wildcats will leave on a flight to the Bahamas, then settle in and prepare for three games in three straight days between Nov. 27-29 in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
That’s the highly regarded event on Paradise Island in which they are expected to face either No. 16 Indiana and former UA center Oumar Ballo — or Lloyd’s old team, No. 4 Gonzaga, in their final game.
“Obviously, we have a couple really big single games coming up with Wisconsin and Duke. Both are going to be incredibly challenging,” Lloyd said. “But what I’ve got to have my eyes on, too, is having three games in three days that are going to be really hard in the Bahamas.
“So now you have all this practice time. You’ve got to make sure you’re preparing your team to play three games, maybe against three very different styles of play, in three consecutive days. So the next two weeks are critical.”
Wildcats rise to No. 9
Arizona rose one spot to No. 9 in the Associated Press’ first weekly in-season poll Monday after beating Canisius and Old Dominion in the opening week of the season.
The Wildcats leapfrogged North Carolina, which fell from No. 9 to No. 10 after losing 92-89 to No. 1 Kansas. The Jayhawks remained atop the poll as they were in the preseason, while No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 UConn stayed put.
One of Arizona’s new Big 12 rivals, Baylor, dropped from No. 8 to No. 12 after losing 101-63 to Gonzaga, which moved up from No. 6 to No. 4.
Iowa State dropped two spots to No. 7, while Gonzaga and No. 5 Auburn jumped over the Cyclones. Auburn moved up six spots after knocking off Houston, which fell from No. 4 to No. 8.
Cincinnati, which will host Arizona for its first Big 12 away game on Jan. 4, moved from No. 20 to No. 17. Indiana rose one spot to No. 16 after beating two low-major opponents, against which Ballo averaged 16.0 points and 7.5 rebounds.
Wisconsin adjusting
Wisconsin already packed in three warmup games to improve to 3-0 heading into Friday’s game with Arizona, beating Appalachian State 87-56 on Sunday. The Badgers have also beaten Holy Cross 85-61 and Montana State 79-67.
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard told reporters after the Appalachian State game that he was proud of how much improvement his team had made over the past week. The Badgers lost seven players, including two starters, to the transfer portal last spring.
“Friday night will be a tremendous test for us,” Gard said. “But I think this group has also understood and embraced the importance of having really good practices.”
Dickinson named Big 12 Player of Week
Preseason all-American Hunter Dickinson was named the Big 12 Player of the Week on Monday after collecting 20 points and 10 rebounds in Kansas’ win over North Carolina. He hit a go-ahead layup with 1:17 seconds left, then hit 1 of 2 free throws with 12 seconds remaining before UNC failed to score on its final possession.
Meanwhile, Kansas’ Zeke Mayo and BYU’s Egor Demin were named co-Big 12 Newcomers of the Week. Mayo, a transfer from South Dakota State who is from Lawrence, Kansas, had 21 points, five rebounds and four assists against the Tar Heels.
Demin, a freshman guard from Russia, averaged 19.0 points and 9.0 assists in BYU’s wins over Central Arkansas and UC Riverside.
