Arizona started off 2026 with some fireworks in Salt Lake City. The Wildcats kicked off Big 12 play with a 97-78 win over the Utah Utes as their perfect start to the 2025-26 season continues. See what Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, as well as Tobe Awaka and Brayden Burries, had to say postgame following the win over Utah.
Tommy Lloyd:
Lloyd on whether the altitude had any impact on Arizona:
“I’ve been waiting for Bruce (Pascoe) to bring up the altitude question, and I felt it walking up here on the ramp. Bruce, did you feel that? My lungs were burning walking up on that ramp. Lungs and legs.”
Lloyd on getting off to a good start:
“We wanted to get off to a good start. And obviously, we’ve been really focusing on kind of this, it’s a new year. You’re starting a conference season 0-0. So let’s treat it as such. Let’s be excited to play. And I thought our guys did that. I thought we came out in the game. And we really had great early effort, early energy. And we were able to kind of build a little bit of a cushion and play off it. But what I will say is, I never felt comfortable. I mean, I played in this building too many times, and Utah, they kept coming. They kept coming. They kept coming. They’ve got some talented players. And I thought they had stretches of the game where they played really well tonight, so I want to give them credit as well.”
Lloyd on the importance of Arizona playing with two bigs:
“I mean, guys, I’ve been playing two bigs for a lot of years, and obviously that’s a comfort of mine. And I think there’s a lot of ways to look at the game of basketball, and I think if you look at successful college teams the one thing that they can do, they’re there for the fight. They’re there for the fight, for the physical battle, they’re there. And I think that’s been proven, and that’s allowed teams to be consistent, high-level performing, especially in the tournament. So of course, we want to look at that and, but I love skilled basketball. I love teaching basketball.
But I also understand at the end of the game, you can do all this cute stuff, but if you can’t rebound, if you can’t put your chest on people on defense, if you can’t protect the paint, if you can’t put foul pressure on the other team and rim pressure on the other team, man. You’re living and dying with a lot of jump shots. And for me, let’s not act like I’m some maestro. Sometimes it’s just how it comes together. And a big part of recruiting is you appreciate the ones you were able to get to say yes, and the ones we got to say yes are built to play a certain way, and we want to take advantage of that.”
Lloyd on if he encourages Tobe Awaka to shoot 3-pointers:
“Well, listen, I mean, Tobe’s worked really hard on his shot. And one of the aspects of player development that we really focus on is obviously, the number one objective for me is to win games at Arizona. But secondly, I want these guys to get better and have careers that go way past Arizona, and so these guys are working on things for the future. We’re not just doing everything for us. And these guys they do individual workouts every day with our coaches. And you can only shoot so many jump hooks. It’s hard to work on offensive rebounding 1 on 0. So they’re allowed to work on other stuff.
And I’ll give Tobe credit. I mean, Tobe has really changed his shot over the last year. And to change your shot is something that takes multiple years to kind of get there. And because you have to fine tune, fine tune, fine tune, then you have to get game confidence, there’s a lot of steps that go into it, so it’s a real long process. That’s why you don’t see many non-shooters develop into shooters because it’s hard to stick to it. And so I’ll give Tobe a ton of credit. Mo shoots the three really well from the top. Koa shot has really come along.
So are we going to live and die on that no, but is it nice to have in your back pocket once in a while? Yeah. Am I proud of those guys for having the confidence to call their own number once in a while? For sure, we want our players to play with that confidence and that freedom.”
Lloyd on Arizona’s balanced scoring allowing it to absorb runs from opponents:
“Well, it allows you to kind of settle in on a rotation, subbing wise. So you can get guys rest. Sometimes a team makes a run and you’re afraid to sub. And it’s happened to me a lot. You’re afraid to sub, so you might leave a guy out there for three or four minutes longer than he usually was, and then you kind of run their legs out of them. I just think when you when you have multiple guys who contribute, you’re a little more comfortable sticking closer to a subbing rotation, where guys have certainty and know where their opportunities are going to come.
And then the other thing is, it’s a luxury of having a lot of good players. It’s a lot of good players, and we don’t ever want to be a program that’s just relying on one guy. We want our good players to love playing with other good players. And we want to be a program that guys want to make each other better, and at the same token I want to help my brother, but, I also understand my brother helps me. And we want those things to be kind of a core part of our identity.”
Lloyd on the formula for success to build strong teams year after year:
“Well first off, I inherited an amazing legacy at the University of Arizona Men’s Basketball. They’ve had way more success and sustained success before I got there. So I inherited a program with really strong bones that had a brand and name recognition. So that’s obviously, I don’t want to discredit that like I got all these great answers and this pixie dust, because I don’t. No geniuses. We’re a day-to-day program. We literally try to make one good decision, that leads to the next good decision, that leads to the next good decision. If we make a bad decision, we assess it and try not to make it again and try to learn from it. We’re not complicated people. So that’s probably more my formula than anything. I don’t have an algorithm, okay? I don’t have an analytics guru that helps us with whatever. And listen and nothing against people that do. We’ve just chosen to do it our way, and we’re comfortable.
So I don’t know, I don’t want to tell other people what the formula is or how they should be successful, because I honestly don’t know. I don’t know if it’s cookie cutter. Everyone’s got to figure it out from their own. I think Alex and Wes are really smart guys. They’re basketball guys. They’re great people. I know this program has great resources, and it’s a great community. I saw a lot of people out there that I know really well, the McCarthy’s, Donnie Daniels, have a lot of long lasting relationships from people that are still around here. So yeah, so it’s a great place, and they’ll do a great job. I thought their team really battled today. And I would take some encouragement from that.”
Lloyd on keeping Arizona focused and defensively engaged with a big lead:
“Well I don’t know if we did tonight, you know? I mean two things, human nature is powerful and you’re always fighting that. And the other thing is, I think it’s really important in these games to not get caught up in all the ancillary stuff. It’s 0-0. 0-0, possession by possession. I’m trying to hold these guys to a certain standard. And I think they appreciate it, but it probably gets annoying at times, because I think this group is, all of our groups, I mean, I think they’re built to be successful, and I want to make sure I’m doing my part of holding them to a standard that’s going to allow us to consistently perform at a high level.
But I thought tonight, two things. I thought, we had maybe some let downs, whether it was just a shot decision, defensive being half a step behind, we kind of relaxed a little bit. And I thought Utah had some moments where they kind of ramped up their urgency and took advantage of that. So it goes both ways, and they get credit for pushing back. And we’ll take a look at the film and see if there’s things we can get better. But to be honest with you, to finish it off, it’s 0-0. That’s the approach I try to take.”
Tobe Awaka:
Awaka on Arizona’s balance:
“Yeah, I think we have a great group of guys, character wise. I think we do a great job of sharing the ball through and through. Guards do a great job of getting it to us bigs. If we get doubled, we kick it back out. They’ll drive and help create offense. So I think, yeah, this team is truly unselfish for sure.”
Awaka on his pair of 3-pointers and Burries’ 11-rebound effort:
“I guess me and him swapped roles today. But yeah I was just open, felt confident to take the shot. So, yeah, that’s really all that it was. And then Coach has been on the guards to rebound, and I think Brayden’s done a great job of taking that to heart throughouy practice, cutting out, and then also trying to get more active on the offensive boards as well.”
Awaka on Arizona jumping out to a big lead early:
“I think we just put a lot of pressure on the rim forcing them to foul early. I think that opened up a three point game as well. And, we just kept coming. I thought our game in transition was fluid. Ivan did a great job at the start of the game. I think he really set the tone, getting some early steals, getting us some quick, easy, fast break points. So kudos to him as well.”
Awaka on whether Arizona targets a certain number of deflections per game:
“Yeah, in terms of deflections, that’s something we harp on during practice all the time, being up to the touch, being up in the gaps, staring at the ball, recovering all that kind of stuff. So I think we’ve been really focusing on the principles and the process, and then the outcome shows itself out during the game.”
Awaka on if it being the Big 12 opener changed Arizona’s approach:
“We’ve been talking about coming out with a fresh, new mindset. What happened in the non-conference is just things of old. It’s a new season. We start off 0-0, so just come in with that beginner mindset and knowing that teams are going to sort of play to sort of resurrect their season and make the most of what they can do to help their chances in March. So we knew that Utah was a great team. They’re gonna come out and play hard, they have great guards, athletic bigs. So yeah, kudos to them, they played great today as well.”
Brayden Burries:
Burries on Arizona being able to withstand pushes from Utah after a dominant first half:
“I’d say just trusting one another. Coach told us it’s gonna be ups and downs. Most important part is like, it’s not always gonna go our way, so let’s just lean on each other, have each other’s backs. The crowd got loud, but we just stayed poised and have a great mindset.”
Burries on his rebounding and Awaka’s 3-point shooting:
“Just Coach getting on me about getting rebounds, and that’s what I’m supposed to do, get us extra possessions. And if I rebound, it makes the bigs’ job easier, and then I can just run down the floor. And then with shooting, (Awaka) works on his shot every day after practice, so I have, like, total confidence in him shooting that shot, especially when he’s wide open at the top of the key. So I actually like that shot from ‘To.'”
Burries on whether he’s notices defenses guarding him differently since the start of the season:
“I just felt like at the beginning of the year, I was like a little new to new to this. In high school I didn’t really guard guards. So when I got to college, I started learning a little techniques, and I’m still learning to this day. And Coach is just like, he’s on me. I just feel like I’m getting better and better by the game.”