Arizona Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd pondering changes after fourth loss in eight games

PULLMAN, Wash. — Having at least temporarily lost the dominant, balanced and efficient team that raced to an 8-0 record and No. 1 ranking earlier this season, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was raising questions Saturday.

About himself, his staff, his players, about what’s next for all of them. About whether to change his lineup, and how to develop aggressive scorers other than Caleb Love.

“Everything’s on the table,” he said.

Lloyd may have even started answering one of those questions. Before saying after No. 8 Arizona’s 73-70 loss at Washington State that “shaking up the lineup” was a possibility, Lloyd played combo guard Jaden Bradley for 16 minutes off the bench and starter Kylan Boswell played just 11.

Bradley, the McDonald’s High School All-American who transferred from Alabama after his role declined last season, wound up with a season-high 26 minutes against the Cougars.

He had eight points on 2-for-5 shooting from the field but hit all four free throws he took, two that helped the Wildcats pull within a point midway through the second half and another two that cut WSU’s lead to just two points with 53 seconds left.

Bradley also had three assists to just one turnover in the second half.

“It’s just the trust my teammates have, that starting group, of believing in me so when I come in … and I’m just doing what the team needs me to do,” Bradley said. “Just next man up.”

Boswell, who appeared to find his rhythm in two games at McKale Center last weekend against Colorado and Utah after a rough Bay Area trip, went scoreless and without a rebound or assist in both halves.

Boswell sat for longer than he has all season in a close game.

“Jaden has been playing well, and he got us in a flow of the game,” Lloyd said. “His plus-minus has been great, not that I use that as a major criteria.

“But Kylan just didn’t have that look tonight and he’s got to figure that out. Kylan is a heck of a player. I don’t care how old he is. He’s good enough to play well on the road, and he hasn’t. So he needs to figure that out.”

Asked if Boswell lacked anything physically or mentally Saturday, Lloyd pivoted.

“I don’t know,” Lloyd said. “I’m the coach. I’m responsible. So I gotta help these guys. Me and my staff gotta get together. We’ve got to play better on the road and Washington State gets a ton of credit. They beat us straight up today.”

Whatever Bradley’s role is ahead, he’s proven to be a pretty adaptable sort with whatever minutes — and shots — he gets. While UA has lost four of eight games since routing Wisconsin on Dec. 9, Bradley has shot 45.7% in those eight games, and he’s played more than 20 minutes off the bench in the past three games.

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“You never know,” Bradley said. “Game by game, it might vary. I might play a lot. Might not. Just gotta be ready when my number is called.”

Whose numbers get called in Arizona’s home game Wednesday against USC figures to be an active conversation within Lloyd’s staff.

Stuggles at both USC and UCLA, which will visit McKale on Saturday — plus a hand injury that has sidelined decorated Trojans freshman guard Isaiah Collier — suggest the Wildcats might be able to get up big enough to comfortably experiment with their lineup against those teams this week.

But Lloyd just might do some experimenting no matter what the scores are, not happy with a team that never took more than a three-point lead in a game that featured seven lead changes Saturday.

“What I see is an average basketball team that has these really high moments, and then they relax. That’s what I see,” Lloyd said. “We’ve got to figure that out as a coaching staff, whether that’s shaking up the lineup. These are all things I’ve got to think about, changing what we do.”

So far, Lloyd has started the same five players in every game this season, and he’s mostly stuck with an eight-player rotation when the going is rough. While Lloyd said he wanted to play sophomore wing Filip Borovicanin and freshman forward Paulius Murauskas more often at Cal and Stanford two weeks ago, and did so, neither played Saturday.

Whatever size the rotation, Lloyd is also looking for another alpha-type scorer within. The Wildcats have been balanced and offensive efficient for most of the season but were thrown off Saturday when Washington State deployed a mix of zone and man-to-man defense.

Arizona shot a season-worst 34.7% from the field, with center Oumar Ballo grabbing eight offensive rebounds to partly make up for it – while going 4 for 11 himself. Even Love fretted about his own inefficiency, shooting 10 for 25 from the field en route to his 28 points.

“We’re a fast-paced team and their game plan was to slow it down with that zone that, and it worked in their favor and messed up our rhythm,” Love said. “We couldn’t get the open looks and shots that we usually are able to take and make. We obviously were missing a lot of bunnies at the rim and a lot of open shots and that’s just on us.”

Love said WSU’s defense took away options on the Wildcats’ final possession, with 11 seconds left, leaving him trying to hit a long 3-pointer to tie the game in the final seconds.

Love missed it, saying he should have at least found a better rhythm before throwing it up, but Lloyd credited him for showing fearlessness.

Then wondered if he could find anybody else like that.

“Caleb’s a competitive guy, and when we get to those moments. He’s not afraid to shoulder the burden,” Lloyd said. “We need some other guys to step up and help him shoulder that burden, and then maybe he’ll feel less inclined to be so aggressive.

“His teammates have to make him feel that. Now, he has to let them. It’s a two-way street. But I’m not putting anything on Caleb. He gave us an opportunity to win that game on some of the things he did on offense. We just didn’t capitalize on them.”