Reggie Theus has seen the likes of Arizona before. Of course, he has, having been an assistant coach at Louisville under Rick Pitino and as a head coach at New Mexico State and Cal-Northridge.
He knows good when he sees it. And, well, Arizona is better than good.
“The one thing I really like about them is that they play the game inside-out,” said Theus, Bethune-Cookman’s basketball coach and the victim of Arizona’s 12th win, 107-71 in McKale Center. “When you have the ability to play inside out, you’re going to have a chance to win a lot of games.
“They have the size. They have the shooting and the depth. They are a very good basketball team. I thought our guys battled, but ultimately the size was too much.”
Then, he said, “They have all the equipment, all the tools to go far … I’ve seen it all.”
He say plenty on Monday night as UA played with its food early in the game and then ate it up in the last third.
Arizona, once again, proved it’s a second half team, outscoring BCU 58-36 in the second half. It’s the seventh consecutive game Arizona has won by more than 20 points.
It was also the fourth time freshman Brayden Burries hit 20 points in the last few games.
In the last seven games, he’s averaging 18.4 points a game and hitting better than 57 percent of his shots.
He looks confident, like the player many thought he would be coming into the season.
“I think he figured it out,” said fellow freshman Dwayne Aristode. “As a freshman obviously, it’s not easy coming to college with new system and got these veteran guys who are so good. But I think everybody helped him and supported him. He just figured out his role, and what he’s good at, and how to play in the system and get his own.”
Said UA coach Tommy Lloyd: “Brayden is in a good way right now. I think he’s getting more confidence. And you can see today kind of once we got in the game, and they got a little bit heated and competitive you can see him rise to that moment. He’s a competitor, he’s a good player. So, it takes a certain amount of confidence to do that, and he showed that. So continued progress from him, for sure.”
He wasn’t alone in a good performance. Seven players scored in double figures with Ivan Kharchenkov and Mo Krivas each getting 14; Aristode and Tobe Awaka had 12; and Koa Peat and Jayden Bradley each had 11.
Again, the inside game worked, as did the outside game.
“That’s a good thing,” Lloyd said of the balance. “I’m happy when that happens, but it’s not like something we game plan for. We don’t tell guys, okay, you score 12 points, start letting your teammates score. It’s just kind of how the game ends up sometimes. And we have lots of good players and we’ve kind of really settled in on that eight-man rotation. I think those guys are getting comfortable finding their spots and so if we can have six or seven guys in double figures on any given night, that’s a good thing.”
It’s added up to 12 wins, besting his 11-0 start from his first year as UA’s head coach. Lloyd said he hasn’t had time to reflect on the dozen wins, nor compare it to his 11-0 straight to begin the year in his first year here.
“That was four years ago,” he said. “I’m a grandpa now, I wasn’t then. So, lots have changed. Life keeps moving. I really don’t draw any comparisons. I’m not really good at that stuff. I like this team. I like where we’re at, and I like where I think we can go, but we’re gonna have to continue to get better and stay the course to get there.”
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