Arizona coach on foul that decided BYU game: 'It was a bad call'
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Arizona Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd was quick to point out that his team's defensive effort was subpar in Saturday night's 96-95 Big 12 loss to BYU.
But he did not mince words when he was asked about the last-second foul call on Trey Townsend that ended up deciding the game.
"It's a bad call. I mean like, whatever. What am i going to say. You hate for a game to be decided by that," Lloyd said. "Trey (Townsend), I feel horrible for him. The guy didn't play in the second half. I tightened the rotation. He played good defense. The guy's pivoting, pivoting, pivoting, throws his shoulder into him, throws up a shot and falls down. It's a foul with two seconds to go. I mean listen, it's the Big 12. That's what I'm told. And the guy who called it is one of the best refs. So we've got to live with it."
Trailing 95-94 with under 10 seconds left in the game, BYU forward Richie Saunders drove down the right side of the key on Townsend, got cut off and picked up his dribble. After pivoting twice, he leaned into Townsed and put up a desperation, off-balance four-foot airball in the lane that fell into the hands of Arizona forward Tobe Awaka as the buzzer sounded.
What couldn't be heard over the din of the Arizona crowd was the whistle from lead official Tony Padilla. Standing near halfcourt, Padilla called Townsend for a foul with 3.2 seconds to play, giving Saunders two free throws. He nailed them both to give BYU the 96-95 win.
Here's the play:
Refs in the Arizona BYU game just made the worst foul call in college basketball to end the game pic.twitter.com/t5R74TtrdK
— TorresOnArizona (@TorresOnArizona) February 23, 2025
What's most revealing is the official on the baseline, who was staring right at the play, did not blow his whistle — and it was his call to make. But Lloyd refused to focus on the bad call. Instead he focused on how his team gave up 96 points.
"They scored 94 points up to that point on our home court. That's the problem. That's the problem," Lloyd said. "Me and my staff and our players — that's the problem. Not the officials. It would have been great to steal a victory if they don't call that, but still don't put yourself in that position. That's the problem."
"It was tough. But you know what? Let's make it a good thing. Play better. Play better. That's the best Arizona solution. Not complaining about one call. Play better. There's 39 minutes and 58 seconds before that call to play better. Play better."
Both teams are off until Wednesday when Arizona (18-9, 12-4) hosts Utah and BYU (19-8, 10-6) visits Arizona State.
Here are the highlights of Lloyd's postgame press conference.
Lloyd on Arizona's defensive effort
"Our guys just didn't have the sense of urgency we needed on some of our closeouts, but they do a great job of when you do close out, attacking it real quick. ... We knew that going in, our guys just didn't do a good enough job defensively executing and that's disappointing."
"I know overall we didn't defend well enough and it was all the stuff we had talked about. ... I don't know if our guys are getting a little complacent and think they're better than they are. We just made a run at the right time (in the first game at BYU), and I told him that over and over and over again. I told them I played against BYU for years. They have older dudes. They're going to respond. They're going to come in with a maturity to this game, so we have to have that. And we didn't and they did and there's the result."
Lloyd on BYU's stellar shooting
(The Cougars shot 14-of-31 from the 3-point line.)
"I thought they did a great job hitting timely shots. I thought some of our closeouts could have been better, but what they do if you close out, they drive it real quick and they put it in the ref's hands. They do a great job of that. That's a great tactic by them, and we just didn't do a good job today. ... Their role players made some really big shots over the course of that game, so they get a lot of credit for that."
Lloyd: 'We've got to step it up Monday'
"Our guys were casual. ... A little casual at shoot around. A little casual showing up on time. And that stuff don't work. It don't work. So we've got to step it up Monday. I better see the most focused group I've seen all year Monday."
More Arizona & Big 12 Analysis
-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.