All Tommy Lloyd is asking his team to do is play for 40 minutes.
F-O-R-T-Y minutes.
That doesn’t seem like much, but we all know it’s easier said than done. Even for the Arizona Wildcats, who have a history – recent and otherwise – of not giving 40 solid minutes.
On Saturday night, Lloyd sent a message – in the locker room and through the media – that he wanted more; needed more from his guys. It was a speech Lloyd had never really delivered. It worked.
“They responded, and they played really well,” Lloyd said. “It was a big game that we needed to play well. We needed this one.”
Arizona moved with poise and assurance … then didn’t.
Deep into Tuesday night, Arizona lollygagged to the finish in an 81-70 win over tough Baylor, who made it easy in the first half and not so easy in the second half. That was after a 42-19 halftime lead.
“We didn’t quite get it. It’s a little bit of a cliche, let’s put 40 minutes together,” Lloyd said in his postgame comments. “It’s hard in high-level basketball, and the other team is good, too, and they have a good coach, and they have good players, they have pride. They’re going to respond.”
Still, he asks. Arizona got off to a great start – probably it’s best of the season – then continued for another 30 or so “then we kind of started trading baskets and we could kind of sustain the lead, and then they kind of were able to cut into it.”
Then it got to nine with about three minutes left, Tommy knew “we were in a game. It’s hard to put away a game. You gotta win a game multiple times. And we just didn’t do a good enough job during that stretch.”
You’ve seen it before. Probably too often.
Lloyd said “it’s something we have to focus on; I’ve got to figure it out why it’s happening. Is it human nature? Is it fatigue. Is it a little bit of selfishness. These are the things I have to figure out.”
He has time – maybe, kind of? – but actually doesn’t given there’s two months left in the season.
Two months have come and gone with about two months left before the NCAA tournament and just when some prognosticators didn’t have UA in the tournament, the Wildcats are projected safely in – after it’s seven-game winning streak.
Is Arizona where he wants them to be or where he projected his team to be?
“I don’t live in hypotheticals, so I didn’t know early,” he said. “I thought we had a good team. I knew we had a good team. We got off to a little bit of a rough start. So, you know that might skew things a little bit, but we really wanted to build. We wanted to get off to a good start in conference (play), that was important for us. And I think we’ve done that.”
Arizona is now 11-5 overall and 5-0 in the Big 12 with it facing Texas Tech on the road Saturday.
“It’s a mile,” Lloyd said of the Big 12. “We just finished a lap, so we got three more hard laps to go. Let’s not act like we’ve arrived, or all is well. We got to keep fighting.”
One fighter – among a few – was backup center Henri Veesaar, who had 19 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. He was all over the court, hitting shots and getting dunks – active and aggressive.
“Henri’s amazing, off the court as well,” said Jaden Bradley, who was one of three players in double figures scoring with 13 points. “For a five-man (center), he’s a matchup problem. We can do a lot of different things with Henri out there. It’s making our team better right now.”
Baylor coach Scott Drew said Veesaar is “a pro. The first time I saw him on film (he thought) he’s a pro.”
In person nothing changed. Veesaar, who has been trending up for the past few weeks, finished hitting nine of 11 shots.
“I have definitely not heard that from (another) coach,” Veesaar said. “I appreciate that a lot. I thought I always had the confidence, because I remember how I played when I was younger. I know I’ve had tough two years here, but I always had the confidence I could play this way.”
