Arizona did not lose consecutive games under Tommy Lloyd during his first three seasons as head coach, a testament to his teams’ ability to bounce back quickly from a setback. That changed in November when the Wildcats lost at Wisconsin and then at home to Duke on back-to-back Fridays, and a week later they dropped games to Oklahoma and West Virginia in a 24-hour span at the Battle4Atlantis.
Both of those skids ended with lopsided victories in nonconference play, but it’s a different story this time around. The UA bring a 2-game losing streak on the road to Baylor on Monday night.
“I can’t wait to see how we go play at Baylor,” Lloyd said Saturday afternoon, after his team lost by four at home to No. 6 Houston. “You guys all think we’re going to go get our ass kicked at Baylor. Let’s see. Let’s see what team shows up.”
Arizona (17-8, 11-3) has gone from a tie for first with Houston to a tie for third with Texas Tech over the past week. A third straight loss, which last happened in Feb. 2020, would put it tied in the loss column with fourth-place Iowa State.
The Wildcats beat Baylor 81-70 at McKale Center on Jan. 14 and can complete their first season sweep of a Big 12 opponent but will be doing so on short rest. Here’s what to watch for when the UA faces the Bears at Foster Pavilion in Waco:
Fatigue factor
When in the Pac-12, playing twice in three days was par for the course during conference play and a few of those road trips required a flight between games. This season the only previous twice-in-three-days scenario saw the UA host Colorado on a Saturday afternoon and Iowa State on Monday night and it won both.
The Wildcats got in a practice Sunday before flying to Waco and will go through a shootaround Monday afternoon, but otherwise the time between games will be devoted to physical recovery and film study.
“I got to worry about having a team that has energy Monday night,” Lloyd said. “This time of year, you don’t have to, like, run up and down to practice. You can actually go on the floor. You can watch film, and you can learn that way. You can walk through stuff. You can do that. We have a lot of bullets that we’ve shot, so we have a lot of reps and hopefully we can go figure out how to put in a game plan to help our games out.”
Arizona was back to an 8-man rotation against Houston with Trey Townsend returning from a 2-game absence while in concussion protocol, but even with him the minutes have been piling up for some players. Guards Jaden Bradley and Caleb Love played 37 and 38 minutes, respectively, on Saturday, and in Big 12 play are averaging 37.3 and 36.4 minutes.
Bradley had only four points against Houston, his fewest in a Big 12 game, and is averaging 3.2 turnovers the past six games compared to 1.6 before that.
“I know JB is going to be right when this team needs him to be right, and I don’t think he’s far off right now,” Lloyd said. “Maybe he’s getting tired the last few games, I don’t know. He’s my guy and I’m rolling with him.
“We’re putting the players out there we think gives us the best chance to be successful to win the game. Maybe they’re a little bit tired, but I know this: if you want something bad enough, there’s always something left in the tank. I know that.”
Shooting woes
Arizona is ranked 22nd in offensive efficiency, per KenPom, the 119.9 rating only a shade behind last season’s 120.2 which was the best of the Lloyd era. But the last two games have seen the Wildcats struggle mightily with the ball, both with taking care of it and putting it in the basket.
The turnover issues weren’t as bad against Houston as they were in the 3-point loss at Kansas State, but what was the same was the performance from the 3-point line. After going 2 of 22 at K-State the UA was 5 of 23 against Houston.
For the season, Arizona is shooting 31.3 percent, which ranks 312th nationally, and the 31.9 percent clip in Big 12 play is 11th out of 16 teams.
“It’s no secret, I’m not telling anything crazy: we’re not the best 3-point shooting team you’ve ever seen,” Lloyd said. “This is not the, whatever, 2017 Golden State Warriors.”
Asked how Arizona can fix the outside shooting, Lloyd said it’s not complicated.
“Shoot good shots. You gotta live with the make or miss. I’m not a guy that’s gonna sit here and say we’ve got to make 10 threes to win the game. No, we just got to score more points than the other team.”
Arizona was 7 of 14 from 3 in the previous matchup with Baylor, tied for its best efficiency this season, and five different players hit a triple. The Bears are 315th nationally in 3-point defense, at 35.8 percent, and 11th in the Big 12 at 34.3 percent.
Baylor update
Since losing in Tucson five weeks ago, Baylor has gone 5-4 including a home loss to TCU immediately after the UA game. Two of the other losses have been at Houston and Texas Tech but it also beat Kansas at home after trailing by 19 at halftime.
Health continues to be an issue for the Bears, who only used seven players in the first meeting with Arizona as guards Jalen Celestine and Langston Love were injured. They’ve since returned but Baylor has lost 6-foot-10 junior forward Josh Ojianwuna to a season-ending injury it has also had guards VJ Edgecombe and Jeremy Roach miss games.
Baylor used its seventh different starting lineup in Saturday’s overtime home win over West Virginia and all five starters played at least 32 minutes with Edgecombe and Love playing more than 40, so both teams are worn down.
The big threats continue to be senior forward Nochad Omier, the Big 12’s top rebounder and active NCAA leader on the boards and freshmen guards Edgecombe and Robert Wright. Arizona managed to keep Omier in check last time, holding him to nine points and a career-low four rebounds.
