Breaking Down Arizona Exhibition Win Over Saint Mary's
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Welcome! To another edition of the Arizona Wildcats Insiders Podcast featuring your host Troy Hutchison, who will be delivering a daily podcast discussing everything happening surrounding Arizona athletics giving you an inside look at all the programs on campus.
Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years with his coverage spanning all-across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their prospective sports there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats excelling outside of Tucson.
Since taking over Arizona, head coach Tommy Lloyd has been one of the most successful up-and-coming coaches in college basketball going 112-33 over the course of the last four seasons making the NCAA Tournament each season and leading the program to three Sweet Sixteen appearances.
This past season, Lloyd and his program entered a new era of Arizona basketball with the Wildcats leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big 12 Conference. In UA’s first season in a new conference, the team went 24-13 while finishing third in the conference standings.
In the Big 12 Tournament, the Wildcats made it to the conference title game and fell 72-64 to Houston, which would go on to play for the National Title.
Following the end to the season, Arizona lost star guard Caleb Love to graduation and forward Carter Bryant to the NBA Draft where he went No. 14 overall to the San Antonio Spurs.
Plus, Arizona saw two key players in KJ Lewis and Henri Veesaar leave the program and transfer to Power 4 programs.
Despite that, Arizona will be fully loaded again with four key returners in Jaden Badley, Tobe Awaka, Anthony Dell’Orso and Motiejus Krivas. Plus, Lloyd and his staff signed the No. 2 recruiting class according to 24/7 Sports.
We are inching closer to the start of the college basketball season with Arizona tipping off its schedule against defending national champions in the Florida Gators in Las Vegas 14 days from now.
However, before the Wildcats take on Florida in Vegas, Arizona has opened things up in its first exhibition game ahead of the season against Saint Mary’s.
In the past, division one teams were not allowed to play each other in exhibitions and had to face off against D3 schools. Now, that rule is no longer a thing, which allowed the Wildcats to schedule this game against a solid basketball program in Saint Mary’s.
Although the game didn’t count, the Wildcats were able to put together two solid halves of basketball and got production from the whole team, which led to the 81-68 win over the Gaels.
Arizona forward Tobe Awaka didn’t play as Lloyd and his staff made the decision to take precaution with him being a little banged up and the game not counting towards the season.
Leading the way for the offense was senior point guard Jaden Bradley, who scored a team-high 23 points while going 7 of 11 from the field and 2-for-2 at the 3-point line.
On the glass, center Motiejus Krivas led the way with his 17 rebounds and recorded a double-double with 11 points on 4 of 9 shooting from the field.
Arizona will have one more exhibition game againstEmbry-Riddle on Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. (MST) with the game being streamed on ESPN+.
Please be sure to share your thoughts on the Wildcats’ win over Saint Mary’s in the first exhibition game of the season. To do so, follow us on our X account by clicking on the link.
Troy Hutchison grew up attending Arizona athletic events, which gave him a unique perspective and knowledge of the athletic department's rich history. He attended UA and began covering the Wildcats in 2018. As the Arizona Wildcats Beat Writer on SI, he is set to deliver wall-to-wall coverage to give fans an in-depth perspective.
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