TUCSON, Ariz. — Arizona’s last three home basketball games at 14,545-seat McKale Memorial Center were against three nationally ranked teams — No. 3 Iowa State, No. 13 Texas Tech and No. 6 Houston.
So Saturday’s visit from unranked BYU represents nothing more than a light exercise for the No. 19 Wildcats, right?
Hardly, fourth-year coach Tommy Lloyd said Friday afternoon, despite the fact that Arizona downed BYU 85-74 in Provo two and a half weeks ago.
“No. No. That’s easy (to answer),” Lloyd said after being asked if the Wildcats have to guard against a letdown in the 8 p.m. MST tipoff on ESPN.
“They are a good team to me that is coming in here that is capable of winning in McKale,” Lloyd said. “So we gotta treat that with respect.”
Arizona (18-8, 12-3) went 2-2 after dominating the last five minutes in Provo to break out of a tight game, sandwiching wins over Texas Tech and Baylor around losses to Kansas State and Houston, the loss to then-No. 6 Houston at home last Saturday.
“This time of year, every game is going to be competitive. And if you think you are going to just show up, and go through the motions, and be successful, you are delusional,” Lloyd said. “We need to make sure every time we take the court that we are serving the game the way it should be served, and that’s with effort, energy, intelligence, all that stuff.”
BYU (18-8, 9-6) is looking for a Q1A win that would almost certainly punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament, while Arizona is trying to catch Houston (22-4, 14-1) in the Big 12 standings.
BYU crushed No. 23 Kansas 91-57 on national television Tuesday night, a night after the Wildcats won in Waco, and Lloyd and company obviously noticed.
“Obviously they had a great game plan that their staff put together. Their players executed it almost to perfection. So that tells me you have a team that is playing with a lot of belief and a lot of confidence.”
— Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd on BYU's win over Kansas
“We haven’t really talked about that yet. I hope our guys are paying attention,” Lloyd said. “We know it is going to be an evenly matched game (Saturday), and I also know — I have played against BYU a lot — I know there is some character in that program. … They are going to come down here with the mindset of getting a win. So we are going to have to approach it the same way.”
As for owning an 11-point win over BYU on Feb. 4, Lloyd said the game was closer than the final score indicates and acknowledged that the Cougars have discovered some things since that late-game meltdown.
“The game at BYU is a little misleading. It was one of those games that was very even throughout,” he said. “With eight minutes to go, or something, we made a run at the right time. They tried to come back and missed some shots, and we were able to win at the end comfortably.
“But it wasn’t like it was domination from the (opening) tip.”
The former Gonzaga assistant, who faced BYU many times in that role in the WCC, said BYU’s performance against Kansas doesn’t mean much either. As BYU coach Kevin Young often preaches, every game is unique.
“Everything they did in the Kansas game worked. That’s what stuck out to me. Their defensive game plan worked. Their offensive execution worked,” Lloyd said. “It is not very often you go into a game, especially against a great opponent, where everything you do works.
“Obviously they had a great game plan that their staff put together. Their players executed it almost to perfection,” Lloyd continued. “So that tells me you have a team that is playing with a lot of belief and a lot of confidence.”
BYU coach Kevin Young said on his coach’s show Thursday night that the Cougars gave way too easily to Arizona’s physicality on offense in the first game, and will need to be able to perform better inside the paint to stay in Saturday’s game.
That means BYU needs a lot from its guards as well, most notably freshman phenom Egor Demin. The Russian teenager had 16 points on Feb. 4, but was just 7 of 20 from the field, and committed four turnovers.
“He’s a talented young player. Obviously he’s got a great future ahead of him. He is getting a great opportunity there to play with the ball in his hands a lot. And he’s having success,” Lloyd said. “We know he presents a lot of challenges, but those are challenges I think we are up for.”
The last time a highly regarded guard from BYU played in McKale, the Wildcats weren’t quite up for the challenge.
On Dec. 28, 2009, Jimmer Fredette scored 49 points in a 99-69 BYU win that was the Wildcats’ worst loss in the arena’s 37-year history at the time.
On March 19, 2011, Fredette scored 34 points in BYU’s 89-67 win over Gonzaga (with Lloyd on the bench) in an NCAA Tournament second-round game in Denver.
“I mean, he was a really good player,” Lloyd said Friday when asked about the BYU hero. “He lit us up, just like he lit Arizona up. So, heckuva player. Good 3-on-3 player now, too.”
