Tommy Lloyd on attacking Long Beach State’s zone defense from beyond the arc:
“I knew they were going to play a zone a lot. That’s been a trend against us lately, and I think our guys are settling in and getting better against it. The funny thing about zones is they’re all a little different, so you have to figure out where the little pockets and openings are. When you look analytically, look at them, I mean, their opponents shoot a high percentage of their total shots are three point attempts, so I knew they were going to pack it in and we were going to have to shoot some threes.
We really focus on always jamming the ball inside and pounding it in there, and getting to the paint, but I knew we were going to have to take a lot of threes. I think 35 three-point attempts is a lot for us, but that’s what the game called for today. Our guys did a great job of knocking them down.”
Lloyd trying to encourage the press pool to ask Oumar Ballo a question:
“You don’t have one for Big O up here? Come on now. You gotta – how about this guy. Big O has been kicking ass and I’m super proud of him and the way he’s been playing!”
Lloyd on how Arizona was able to dominate the start of the second half:
“I think our guys had actually just settled into the game and we got a little more comfortable with some things we could we could run against that zone. A lot of times against the zone, you can have these great little ‘X and O’ diagrams, but it comes down to your players making plays and making good decisions and creating opportunities for themselves and others. Our guys really settled in that way, and then I thought defensively, we were able to make a couple plays, O [Oumar] blocked a couple shots, and we were able to get out in transition.
We feed off that stuff. You guys talking about celebrations, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but that’s something we practice. You have to play with joy. We practice celebrations all the time and we want we want to do things on the court that should be celebrated. We want to celebrate our teammate successes because I think that energy builds, so I’m happy you noticed our guys having fun. That means a lot to me.”
Lloyd on putting aside his friendship with Long Beach State’s Dan Monson in today’s game:
“Hey, make no bones about it, I wanted to kick ‘Mon’s’ ass. Don’t make any bones about it. We’re competitors, so it’s like playing against your, you know, I’m the little brother, and I’ve always been the little brother to all those guys, so sometimes little brother’s got to fight back. That doesn’t mean I don’t love ‘Mon’s’. I felt, I mean I almost do now, tears starting to well up when I hugged him at the end of the game. It’s a lot, and people don’t know what we go through with our families.
Think, that guy gave 17 years to Long Beach State and they fired him without another year in his contract. He’s walking out of this deal in 30 days with no benefits, no severance pay, nothing. When you sit in my position, and what we put our families through, I don’t think that’s right, and that guy does not deserve that, because he’s a great man. He deserves another job and another opportunity. That’s where my heart goes out to him and his family.”
Lloyd on the pressure of playing in the NCAA Tournament and his thoughts on Arizona handling that pressure:
“The tournament pressure deal is real and anybody that says it’s not is lying to you. It’s a real thing and that’s one of things that makes it such a fun tournament to watch, and it makes it really hard to play in. But fortunately, I think this is my 25th time in the NCAA Tournament, so I’ve been around a little bit, and some of our guys have been around it a little bit. To be quite honest, I think we’re built for it.”
Kylan Boswell on Tommy Lloyd’s message at halftime before Arizona broke away in the second half:
“The main thing we’ve been talking about a lot is taking one task at a time. Coming out of the second half, that first four minutes with out first group has been the main focus of making sure if our lead is still there, maintain that, or try to put a push. All of us did a great job coming out in the second half and staying strong.”
Oumar Ballo on Arizona playing fun basketball in the second half:
“Yeah, we were, because in the second half, we were playing really good defense, and I feel like our defense always dictate our offense. We get stops, then we run fast breaks, and if you get stop like that and then score, you got to celebrate. That’s how we be having fun every game.”