Arizona throttled No. 20 Auburn 97-68 on Saturday night in front of a sold out McKale crowd. The Wildcats, which have now beaten four ranked teams in eight wins this season, look poised to check in as the No. 1 team in the country in next week’s AP Top 25 Poll. But before that, see what Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, along with players Koa Peat, Jaden Bradley, and Ivan Kharchenkov had to say postgame following the win over Auburn.
Tommy Lloyd:
Lloyd on Arizona’s defense against Auburn and the defensive performance from Ivan Kharchenkov:
“Yeah. I mean, great overall team effort defensively. And you know, we want to hang our hat on being a great defensive team, being a great rebounding team. Those are staples you could call on every night. And our guys, I thought, did a good job. Murph (Jack Murphy) had a great scout. Our guys did a great job coming out and executed it with some effort and some energy. And, we weren’t perfect, but, that wasn’t the expectation, but overall, really happy.
You know, I thought Ivan was great. I thought just our ball pressure was really good all night. I thought we were the passing lanes kind of disrupting their rhythm. We did a great job contesting shots in the paint. And the glass was pretty even all day. I mean, I don’t love them getting 16 offensive rebounds, but they’re a great offensive rebounding team, so that’s going to happen sometimes.”
Lloyd on Brayden Burries’ performance:
“I thought it was the best rhythm Brayden’s had in one of these games. We’ve been talking about rhythm and pace a lot with Braden. And he’s just, he’s a really good player, but he’s learning, and I think I’ve really been challenging him. It’s kind of getting out of his comfort zone, increasing his pace, you know. So I think once he gets more comfortable playing at a faster pace, he has great instincts, and they’ll take over. And so we just kind of got to up the RPMs a little bit, and I thought he did that on both ends of the floor tonight, so really happy.
Lloyd on Koa Peat’s ability to impact the game in the paint:
“Obviously Koa is a dynamic player. And he has 8-11 today, you know, I wish he would have rebounded a little bit more. I talked to him about that. We got to get him up. I think eventually he can rebound the ball like Tobe. I mean, that would be my expectation, but to have five assists and no turnovers, you just feel really comfortable when the ball is in his hands. And it’s something that we hope to take advantage of over the course of the season.”
Lloyd on letting Auburn close the first half on an 8-0 run:
“Obviously I didn’t love it, you know, you worked yourself to a 20-something point lead in the first half. You’d like to go in at half up like that, but that’s not how the game goes. And so I collected myself and looked I said, ‘Well, you know, we’re up 12. That’s better than being down 12, so let’s build on the positive things, and let’s see if we come out and land the first punch in the second half.’ No great strategy. And then at halftime there was no crazy adjustments. I thought we just kind of needed to stick with what got us the lead and and kind of just find our rhythm within the game again. And we came out at the start of the second half. Obviously, I don’t know what the run was, but it was a knockout punch.”
Lloyd on Arizona’s 20-3 run and 18-2 run in the first and second half and turning defense into offense:
“That’s a big deal. That’s a big deal for us. I think the game of basketball is so special because offense connects to defense so consistently, and defense to offense, and offense to defense, and rebounding, and you know, defensive rebounding to offensive transition, like all these little connection points in the game would make it really fun to coach. It’s pretty fascinating, just when you really get the flow of the game.
So I love that. And in order to go on runs, you got to stack a lot of good things together in all those areas of the game. That’s something we talk about a lot with our guys. We don’t take these runs for granted. And you don’t get these runs being reckless. You get the runs usually being really disciplined. And I thought our guys, they’re starting to gain an understanding of what makes those runs happen.”
Lloyd on this being Arizona’s most complete win of the season:
“I thought in stretches today we played as well as we’ve played all year, for sure. We wanted to come back home after those initial experiences. And being away from home a little bit, we wanted to kind of recalibrate and see if we can galvanize a little bit. And today for long stretches it looked like we’ve done that, but again, it’s something you don’t ever take for granted.”
Lloyd on Jaden Bradley continuing to show up in big games:
“Jaden, he’s consistent. I think, one of the greatest compliments you can give a high level basketball player is just being consistent. And he’s consistent in his approach for the game. He’s consistent in the way that he handles me coaching him and I feel great with him out there. I love having him out there. And I thought he, listen, he guarded a kid that was really good today in Pettiford, and Pettiford got it going a little bit. But JB also had some great stretches defensively, especially at the start of that second half on Pettiford where we got him to shoot some tougher shots, and he missed them, and it kind of helped us get on that extended run to start off the half.”
Lloyd on Ivan Kharchenkov impacting the game on both ends of the floor:
“It’s huge because it just gives you a lot of options when you have somebody who you can put on another team’s leading scorer or best player, who can give you multiple looks on defense, whether it’s he can give you a ball screen coverage, he can switch, he can get through screens, he can guard a post. I mean, those are really valuable things. And then offensively, if those guys just have some play making ability, which Ivan has and is really starting to show, it just really connects your offense and makes it so much easier, takes so much pressure off your your point guard’s hands.”
And you know, guys, we’ve had do that here over the years has been a Pelle Larsson, a Dalen Terry kind of played that role. So, that’s just a really valuable role for us. And Ivan is really growing into it. But I thought tonight was Dwayne’s best game he’s played for us, and so we started to finish on the break a little bit. And Dwayne is really just scratching the surface. So I’m excited to see how he continues to develop.”
Koa Peat:
Peat on Arizona’s 60 points in the paint and the Wildcats’ front court:
“I don’t think it’s just the front court. I think it’s everybody, honestly. Coach preaches paint points and that’s one of our values as a team. So we try to get out and get in the paint, if we don’t have nothing out there, kick out threes. You know, that’s the best type of threes we can get as a team. So just playing off drives and stuff like that, high lows, simple stuff, and just making sure we’re finishing, and it’s been a good formula for us.”
Jaden Bradley:
Bradley on the game coming to Arizona effortlessly right now:
“You know just trusting in each other. We play together and just trusting each other, the outcome will be what we wanted to be. Playing through our bigs, our guards, doing what they do, and just keep building chemistry and playing together.”
Bradley on freshman Brayden Burries:
“Just Brayden being Brayden. As the season goes on, he’ll get more comfortable. I feel like he’s one of the best freshman guards in the country, and so I’m happy for him doing what he did tonight, and excited to see his growth.”
Jaden Bradley on facing his former team in Alabama:
“Yeah, just one game at a time. Finish that one and whatever coach got the next scout, look at that, prepare, see what we can do to get ourselves the best advantage. Get that win and go in there and play team basketball.”
Bradley on playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa:
“No feeling, just another away game for us. We got to be great on the road. That’s where championships, and conference, and March Madness, that’s where championships are won, away from home. So we got to put our hard hats on and go win this game.”
Ivan Kharchenkov:
Kharchenkov on playing through an ankle injured suffered in the previous game:
Yeah, I mean, I tweaked my ankle a little bit, was banged up a little bit, but J Rock (Justin Kokoskie) took a really good care of me. Wasn’t that bad. We were just a little bit day-to-day. Took care of my foot, did a lot of exercise, and just got me ready for the game.”
Kharchenkov on being compared to players like Pelle Larsson and Dalen Terry who could impact the game on both ends of the floor:
“Yeah, when I got here, I was kind of finding my role a little bit, and he told me to look at guys, especially Pelle Larsson, and just guide my game up to them a little bit and find my spots where they found a couple years ago. And it makes it easy when you know what you’re doing.”