What Tommy Lloyd said after Hunter Dickinson cooked Arizona
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Hunter Dickinson has had some huge games this season, but none as big as his performance Saturday against Arizona.
Dickinson, a fifth-year senior, scored a season-high 33 points — on a career-high 23 field goal attempts — and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead Kansas to an 83-76 victory over the Wildcats on Senior Night at Allen Fieldhouse. Dickinson finished 15-of-23 from the field and just 2-of-4 from the free throw line.
Kansas fed the 7-foot-2 Dickinson early and often, taking advantage of mismatches against smaller Arizona defenders Tobe Awaka and Carter Bryant. The win helped secure the No. 6 seed in the Big 12 Tournament for Kansas — and there's a good chance they'll play No. 3 Arizona again in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
"At some point with a guy like (Dickinson) you've got to pick and choose what you're living with," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after the game. "He did a great job. ... He had his touch going around the basket. It seems like this year he's had some games where those balls have just kind of rolled off the rim and it's hurt them, but today they all kind of went in."
Jaden Bradley led Arizona with 21 points and Caleb Love added 16. But the Wildcats struggled to generate any rhythm on offense, registering just 10 assists, compared to 22 for Kansas.
"I just thought we played selfish," Lloyd said. "You're not going to come to a place like Kansas and play selfish and be successful. We've got to play team basketball. We're a team and we should have learned that lesson. I'm proud our guys showed that we did in the second half, and we gave ourselves a chance."
Arizona is off until Thursday when they will likely face Kansas in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. Here are the highlights of Lloyd's postgame press conference:
Lloyd on trying to contain Dickinson
"There's some give and take there. Obviously we're playing back on some of those ball screens and they're doing a good job kind of shooting those floaters, and their soft misses and kind of creating small little number and size advantages on the glass. That's the give and take of basketball. I thought they did a good job with it. We tried making a few adjustments here and there and I thought we were having more success for a while. Down the stretch I think they got a couple big offensive rebounds that really kind of broke our back."
Lloyd on Allen Fieldhouse vs. McKale
"You have to make an adjustment to the atmosphere here. ... The last two places we played are electric. And I'm an Arizona guy, and I love Arizona. But this is not an indictment on our fans. But we've got work to do. There's a gap. There's a gap between Kansas and Iowa State and these game day atmospheres and their fan support."
"It was awesome today. And crazy impressive. I'm just out there listening to their senior speeches — I wasn't listening, I had to speak on the radio — but 90% of the fans are still there 20 minutes after listening to the senior speeches. It's pretty special."
"It's hard to communicate, but listen — it should be fun. I honestly had a lot of fun coaching the game. I mean down that stretch of that game, and coach Self and I even shared a wink, you know what I mean? It's fun. It's fun out there competing in an environment like that. I mean it's stuff you dream of as a competitor. So absolutely no fear, but nothing but respect for coach Self, his program and Kansas basketball."
Lloyd on Jaden Bradley's big game
"Jaden did a good job controlling the game, getting us to our actions. And then it was opportunistic, when we get down, when JB drives to 8, 10 feet and kind of stops and plays with poise, on balance. I mean, that's an easy shot for him and he's a good passer from there. So I just needed him to do more of that, and he looked like he was doing more of that in the second half."
Lloyd on earning the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 Tournament
"We've got a couple days to kind of recover and get our minds right and build. ... Build for this postseason. Obviously I've got really high standards for myself and for the program and I wish we were higher than third, but it's where we ended up and I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of being third in the Big 12. So now we've got to prepare for the conference tournament and let's see what we can do."
"I'm just proud of our guys because you have 16 other teams battling for that and only four get (the double-bye to the quarterfinals), and for us to take third. ... We didn't have the easiest of years, and obviously Houston's the best team in our conference. Texas Tech's been unbelievable. For us to be next on the ladder shows something. Obviously you see how good Kansas is today, and Kansas didn't get third. So I think that's a testament to our guys."
"I'm looking forward to seeing what the Big 12 Tournament feels like. Experiencing that. And then I'm looking forward to playing some teams from some other conferences when we get to the NCAA Tournament."
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.