What Tommy Lloyd said after Arizona's loss to Texas Tech

"Caleb's a good player. He's got to start playing better."
Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd looks to the bench in the first half during the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at United Supermarkets Arena.
Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd looks to the bench in the first half during the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at United Supermarkets Arena. / Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

The Arizona Wildcats did not expect to go undefeated in the Big 12.

Still, the Wildcats had every opportunity to win Saturday's road game at Texas Tech. Trailing 57-54 with 5 minutes to play, Arizona went ice cold, missing several good looks from downtown. The Red Raiders ended up outscoring them 13-0 over that stretch to close out a 70-54 victory.

"Hey, we're right there. I mean with five minutes to go it's a five-point game," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after the game. "I think even right before that we had a couple of looks to tie it from three. I think Caleb [Love] had one I think Delli [Anthony Dell'Orso] had one. You make one of those and maybe it changes, but we didn't."

Arizona struggled from the 3-point line, shooting just 3-of-18 from downtown. Love was 0-of-5 from the 3-point line and 3-of-13 from the field. Since scoring 33 points in Arizona's Big 12-opening win over TCU, Love has largely struggled to score. In Arizona's last five games he is averaging 10.8 points and is 8-of-31 from downtown (25.8%).

The loss dropped Arizona into second place in the Big 12 at 5-1, with two winnable games coming up — at Oklahoma State and back home vs. Colorado.

Here's what Lloyd had to say after the game.

Lloyd On Quickly Bouncing Back

"Congrats to Texas Tech. Obviously they're a really good program and they played their tails off today. It was a great environment. It's my first time to Lubbock ... I'm sure I'll be back here a few more times. We're going to bounce back from this. We're not going to hang our heads.

"Playing in a tough conference, you play on the road, you're going to have some days like this. And we're not going to dwell on it. We'll evaluate it and find ways we think we can improve, but it's onward and upward."

Lloyd On Going Cold Down The Stretch

"Sometimes it just kind of gets away from you. It goes from five to eight real quick and then once you're looking at a couple of minutes in an eight-point game it gets tough. You miss another shot, they control the possession, they get free throws. It's kind of how you can extend a lead sometimes at the end of a game."

"I have to go back and watch it, but they made a couple of good shots. ... We tried pressing, they called a quick touch foul which they really hadn't called all game. That's tough because we weren't trying to foul. You want to see if your press can work for you."

Lloyd: 'We Gave Ourselves A Chance'

'They're playing at home, where we're playing on the road, and I thought our guys did a great job. We're not playing well and we'll give our opponent some credit for that. A lot of credit for that. But we hung in there. ... We gave ourselves a chance and that's what we're hoping to do. And it just kind of got away from us at the end there a little bit. Hopefully we can learn from it, and I'm sure we're going to be in this situation again."

"I give our guys a lot of credit. It's a lot better to be in the situation we were and kind of have the last few minutes not go your way then — whether that happens in the first half or early in the second half — and you're playing from 14 back with a lot of time left. So I was proud of our guys for hanging with it. I thought that showed something, especially when we weren't shooting well. Playing Texas Tech, I knew it was going to be a physical game and I assumed it probably wasn't going to be a high-scoring game."

Lloyd On Arizona Being Outrebounded

"They do a good job spacing the floor and they play with great effort in those situations You're forcing them to shoot some tough twos, and they missed a lot of them. I mean the plan worked. But at the end of the day you've got to get the rebound."

"But they also know they're going to shoot those shots and they have two guys on the backside. You maybe have a big coming over to help a little bit so you end up with two vs. one-and-a-half on some of those rebounds because if you probably look out on the backside on film they've probably got a great shooter that one of your guys is a little tentative to leave."

"It's a good scheme by them and the way you combat it is you've just got to get a little bit tougher."

Lloyd On Caleb Love's Struggles

"Caleb's a good player. He's got to start playing better. A couple of games ago he had 33 points, eight assists, five rebounds ... lone of the only guys ever to do it in college basketball. So he's just got to play better. He'll find his way. We're going to hang with him, and I know it's not coming easy sometimes for him, but he's a good player and he'll play better. He'll play better for sure."

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