Arizona men’s basketball defeated Colorado 99-79 in Boulder on Saturday night to sweep the Mountain road trip. Our recap of the game can be found here.
After the game, Tommy Lloyd, Caleb Love and Jaden Bradley spoke to the media. Here’s what they said:
Lloyd on Arizona not making excuses after the triple overtime win at Utah : “I knew our guys would respond. Our guys are competitors and they’re winners and we knew that everyone was trying to make excuses for us and we don’t make any excuses. We knew full well that we could come here and lose to a good Colorado team today and it had nothing to do with three overtimes on Thursday.”
On the benefit of having veteran leadership on the team: “For sure. You have veterans, they’re winners. Three of those guys literally played on teams in national championship games. There’s something to be said for that. And the fourth guy is Pelle Larsson who has been through the battle. I’m really proud of those guys but our young guys are getting good. Jaden, he played his best game at Arizona today, he was awesome. Kylan might have played one of his best games at Arizona today. To have your two point guards do that and you throw in the mix a little Conrad Martinez, a little salsa, pretty special.”
On the difference in the second half: “We stayed the course. We felt really good about how the first half went. We felt like we should have been up more. Maybe a call or two we didn’t think went our way at the end. But that’s how it goes on the road. You gotta hang with it. Earlier in the year we were struggling to make that first run in the second half for whatever reason. We couldn’t quite pinpoint it. But today we made that first run in the second half. We hit a couple threes right out of the bat and then played some good defense. I think we won that first segment by nine points which that’s what championship teams try to do.”
On what was the key to Arizona’s start to the second half: “Nothing different. It was just like, hey, we know what we’re playing for. Competing for the league championship is important to us. We knew playing well at Colorado it’s not make or break but it goes a long way to helping you. So we knew we had to play good. Our guys respect Colorado and we knew that they’re a dangerous team, especially at home, so they came out and responded.”
On whether Arizona’s blowout win at home against Colorado played into this game: “We literally didn’t address that game. I mean two of their three best players didn’t play. When you put Cody Williams and da Silva in, we knew that it was going to be a lot harder game. Listen, we got the best of them tonight. Today’s game could have gone a lot of different directions. For some reason we kind of got the best of them. I’m not going to overthink it. I’ve got a ton of respect for them. I’m thankful our guys were rock solid in our approach.”
On Oumar Ballo giving Arizona an advantage on the glass: “I don’t know how many games in a row it is but O is a dominant big. We know Zach Edey is in a class of his own but I think when O is playing at his highest level, he wants to be one of those next guys. We’re not trying to say this or that or somebody’s better than Zach Edey. We got all the respect in the world for him. But when he plays like he did tonight we’re a special team.”
On Arizona’s success offensive rebounding: “We’re a great rebounding team. I felt like offensively our guys understood if we’re patient in our possessions and put the ball on the floor that we get the defense to break down. If we trust our fundamentals we can get great shots.”
On what it means to have players who’ve developed under Arizona’s program: “With my team, this is college basketball. Two of those guys this is the first time I’ve ever coached them – Caleb and Keshad. And Oumar has been with me for a long time because he was with me at Gonzaga at Gonzaga. And Pelle has been with me three years now. College basketball is different these days. But having veterans is important. But I’ll tell you what, our young guys are making a huge difference right now. Our young guys are veterans. To see them take that step is really exciting for our team.”
Love on whether he knew Arizona hadn’t won at Colorado since 2015: “No I didn’t know that. We just come set on winning the game. We came in with our hard hats on, no excuses, came in, knew the game plan, and we executed it.”
Love on what Arizona’s game plan was: “Really just come out here with a lot of energy. Not to make any excuses about us playing in three overtimes. Just kind of punch them in the mouth. That’s what we did. We got whatever we wanted on the offensive end. Really controlled the game and on the defensive end we punched them in the mouth as well.”
Bradley on whether Arizona felt the altitude: “The biggest thing we was harping on was just no excuses. We came in with a lot of energy. Our bench players, our coaches brought a lot of energy and it showed when everybody was on the court.”
Love on whether the triple OT win at Utah gave the team momentum: “After we won the Utah game, we went straight to recovery mode and putting our mindsets on watching the film and getting ready for this game tonight.”
Bradley on Arizona limiting Colorado’s second chance points: “Colorado did a great job at offensive rebounding and getting second chance points and made a little run at the end. At halftime we were just harping in on defensive stops and rebounding and Big O and our bigs did a great job and our guards kind of helped as well on the glass.”
Love on Arizona scoring on transition and second chance opportunities: “Coach he preaches that every practice, every day. Day in and day out on us giving maximum effort on both ends of the floor. What makes us great is us getting on the offensive glass and getting second chance points, that helps us and it’s going to help us in the long run.”
Bradley on the significance of sweeping the Mountain road trip: “It’s big for us. That’s something we’ve been harping on. Going on the road and playing is not easy and a lot people doubted us. They doubted us and it just put a bigger chip on our shoulder and we came out and executed.”
Love on whether he feels Arizona is gelling as a team: “Yeah for sure. We just want to get better and better each and every game, each and every practice. Coaches just harping on continuing to put confidence in us and just believing in ourself I feel like. Every game we just want to get better and better and better.”
Love on the importance of this road trip for Arizona’s Pac-12 title chances: “Yeah for sure. We gotta our thing going on in our locker room so obviously that’s one of our goals winning the Pac-12 regular season and we had to get this sweep to put ourselves in a great position to do that.”
Love on keeping his confidence up: “I don’t ever lose my confidence whether I’m 0 for 5 or I’m 5 for 5. I put so much work in. My coaches and my teammates believe in me to make each and every shot so I keep my head high, take good ones and trusting my teammates.”
Bradley on his offensive production against Colorado: “Yeah my job is come in and provide that spark and energy off the bench and I feel like my teammates gave me that confidence and how I played tonight. It was a great win.”
Love on Connor Martinez’s play: “We had ultimate confidence in him when he went in. There wasn’t no doubt that he was going to come in and impact the game in every way. You see he got the steal, he got the layup. He just impacts the game. He works his tail off. We believe in him. He puts the work in and he deserves it. Just telling him when the number is called just be ready.”
