Greg Hansen: Tommy Lloyd, Wildcats' staff put on coaching clinic in Pac-12 semifinal win

LAS VEGAS — Timeout, 3:46 remaining. Arizona led Colorado 71-65. As Tommy Lloyd prepared to give instructions for the most important 3:46 of the season, he turned to assistant coach Jack Murphy and showed him some X’s and O’s on a clipboard.

Lloyd waited patiently as Murphy gave his input. Lloyd nodded, then calmly turned to assistant coach Steve Robinson. It was as if he asked, “does this look good?” The clock was ticking on the timeout session, but Lloyd turned to assistant Riccardo Fois and got a third opinion.

Only then did Lloyd duck into the UA huddle and deliver a plan he thought would finish Colorado and put Arizona in the Pac-12 championship game.

It worked, not just because Dalen Terry — of all players — stuck a 3-pointer to clinch victory with 2:46 remaining, but because Lloyd and his staff collaborated on one of the most effective and daring game plans of this season, or any season at Arizona.

Lloyd didn’t go by the book — his book — as much as he went with the wisdom of those he hired, three men the UA pays more than $700,000 to help Lloyd coach Arizona back to prominence.

After Friday’s 82-72 victory, Lloyd took a seat the media room, pulled out a pair of glasses — sort of an ol’ professor look we haven’t seen before — and almost cried. Obviously, we haven’t seen that before, either.

“We made some adjustments from the last time we played those guys and I want to give my staff a lot of credit,” said Lloyd, his voice cracking with emotion. “They had some great ideas and we hung with it. I appreciate those guys for talking me into what they did today.”

What those guys talked their coach into was to put a wall around the basket — around the paint — and take away Colorado’s inside game.

It was a pick-your-poison move, one that opened up the perimeter. As such, Colorado’s Jabari Walker made five consecutive 3-pointers to open the game. Colorado led 18-11. The thousands of Arizona fans sitting anxiously in T-Mobile Arena wondered what in the world was going on.

“Hey, Tommy, guard that guy! He’s killing us.”

But there was a method to what appeared to be madness.

In Arizona’s worst loss of the season, a 79-63, court-rushing setback at CU’s Events Center two weeks ago, Colorado stormed the fort, so to speak. The Buffaloes made 27 of 49 baskets inside the paint, running downhill, a game plan that seemed to expose an Arizona weakness not previously known.

This time, Colorado couldn’t see the rim, eliminated by Arizona’s decision to defend the basket. The Buffaloes went just 9 for 22 on 2-point shots. That’s a stunning change — one that Murphy, Fois and Robinson told Lloyd must be done for Arizona to beat the Buffaloes.

Let ‘em shoot 3s. It was like a boxer giving Mike Tyson five free punches to your face. It hurt, but in the end it hurt for the right reasons.

“It took some courage to stick with it,” said Lloyd. “When they made four 3s before the first media timeout, it was like, ‘Here we go again.’ But we hung with it and believed in the plan. It ended up working.”

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Now we know why Lloyd was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

“Colorado scored over 50 points in the paint and we lost our defensive principles (in Boulder),” Lloyd, the ol’ professor. “We’re a great paint-protection team, but sometimes I get greedy and want both, to not give up 3s, either. But sometimes you’ve got to pick your poison. We wanted ball pressure.”

As a result, Arizona closed off entrances to the paint. Lloyd refers to as “being sticky in the gaps.”

“They made just eight 2-pointers in 40 minutes,” he said. “You’ve got to make a lot of 3s to overcome that.”

It wasn’t long until Arizona wiped the blood off of its collective face and punched back. Mostly it was Azuolas Tubelis — the Lithuanian Locomotive — who was like a runaway train. He actually outscored Walker in the first half, 18-17, and the Buffaloes had no defense for that.

To combat Tubelis and his teammates, the Buffaloes fouled excessively. That never works.

Colorado coach Tad Boyle is one of the most capable X’s and O’s coaches in the league, but his team was forced to shift from its strengths and play offense on the perimeter

“In the first half we made nine 3s and we were still down nine,” Boyle said, shaking his head. “That’s all defense. We don’t normally take 32 3s.”

Lloyd made Arizona’s size and length the game’s determining factor. Colorado couldn’t get to the rim against 7-footers Oumar Ballo and Christian Koloko. More importantly, the Buffaloes couldn’t get Ballo or Koloko in foul trouble.

That was Lloyd’s Plan B. Make them foul us to stop us. Arizona made 24 of 25 free throws; Colorado 8 of 10.

“When those two guys are in the middle of the lane and posting up with a forearm (extended) you can’t guard ’em down there,” said Boyle. “We didn’t lose because of the officiating, but when they set up camp down there, they are very, very good and very physical. They are very well-coached in that regard.”

Whatever happens in the Pac-12 championship game Saturday night, Arizona now has enough in the bank not to worry about getting a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. If there is anything to worry about, it’s running into a team as willful and talented as Colorado in a Round of 32 game next weekend.

Colorado won’t get an NCAA Tournament berth because its strength of schedule isn’t good enough and it took the Buffaloes until mid-February to hit their stride. But Arizona knows it beat a quality team Friday. What makes it more valuable is that senior point guard Justin Kier clearly established himself as a capable replacement for injured Kerr Kriisa, and that Terry and Ballo responded productively on a night Bennedict Mathurin wasn’t at his best.

Arizona benefited from playing a tight game against a worthy Colorado team rather than to blow someone out.

“Arizona is terrific,” said Boyle. “They played like a No. 1 seed and a top-five team in the country.”

And they were coached like one, too.