What Tommy Lloyd Had to Say After Arizona's Dominating Win Over Oklahoma State
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After a two game road trip that took the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats from Provo, UT to Tempe, AZ, they return home this Saturday and routed the Oklahoma State Cowboys 84-47 in front of 2000 fans. In the one sided victory, the Wildcats saw five players score in double digits and outrebounded the Cowboys 56-35 while forcing 12 turnovers and stole the ball nine times.
It is safe to say that Arizona's confidence and maturation as a team continues to grow as the season gets later. After the tremendous win, Arizona will now have to go through a gauntlet of tough matchups before the season comes to a close. Of the final eight games, six of them will be against ranked opponents.
As the Wildcats will now prepare to face No. 11 Kansas on Monday, followed by a home matchup with No. 9 Texas Tech the following Saturday, head coach Tommy Lloyd knows the stakes of a brutal back end of the season. See what he had to say about the remainder of the season and his thoughts on Arizona's impressive win.
Lloyd on limiting the Cowboys to 47 points
"They have sometalented offensive players and we wanted to apply pressure and then make them play against size and tight windows consistently over and over and over again. And I thought today it just kind of felt like over time our size kind of swallowed them up a little bit and that happens. Obviously I wasn't expecting that outcome today. They had a big, big win on Wednesday and Coach Le has done a great job. Every once in a while, I think that kind of happens in basketball."
Lloyd on how his freshmen have performed throughout the season
"I don't know if I want to really compare them to the other freshman. I think all the accolades and the attention they are getting is deserved. Having being able to see a lot of them play and coach some of them up close. it's a special group and our guys fit right into that. The thing I would say about our guys is our guys are part of a team where even though they're great freshman, the program's bigger than them and the program is bigger than all of us. It's bigger than me, bigger than the players and they've come in and they've openly accepted that and I think that's a really powerful thing. You know, we have four freshman in our top eight and and they all seem to be hitting their stride and improving over the course of the season."
On facing Kansas this Monday
"We're going in there with nothing but respect for Kansas and coach Self. We played there last year and I'll be honest, I played in a lot of places. I came away there thinking, 'Alright, it is different.' Nothing but positive thoughts for them as a program and it's going to be an honor to compete against them. We know they're going to give us incredible game and it's going to be an awesome atmosphere and I just have a feeling those Jayhawk fans are going to be out for blood. We're here for it."
On the final eight games of the season
"'We know this is a gauntlet, but there's reasons we're doing this because the University of Arizona and the men's basketball program brings a ton of value to our conference. We want you guys to be a marquee piece of this conference, basketball-wise.' We know we got to earn our keep. We know we're the new kids on the block. So, we're not walking in with hubris or thinking we're deserving of everything. We know we got to earn it. So, we got a great schedule, but I'm sure BYU is saying the same thing. I'm sure Houston's saying the same thing. I'm sure Texas Tech's saying the same thing."
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.