SEATTLE – It’s officially survive and advance season, also know simply as March. The Arizona Wildcats know that. And the Akron Zips know that too. See what Tommy Lloyd, Jaden Bradley, and Trey Townsend had to say pregame on Thursday as they preview the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats’ matchup against No. 13 Akron.
Tommy Lloyd
Tommy Lloyd pregame on returning to Washington and having friends and family at the game against Akron:
“Yeah, I mean I’m sure there will be some people from Kelso coming up. I have a great group of friends still from there.
Yeah, what’s really cool about it is they figured this thing out that when I give them tickets I get taxed on them, you know, so like that’s real, you know. Like there’s this other side of it. I kind of got that first couple years I didn’t realize it and I was getting these tax bills and I’m like, what? Like, what?
So I honestly I don’t have one friend request a ticket. A few of my family members did, but other than that nothing crazy. So I hope there’s a great contingent of them coming here because I’m proud to be from Kelso and I’m proud to have great friends and great family from there as well.”
Tommy Lloyd on coaching NBA-level talent and how it’s helped him develop as a coach:
“I think a lot of times my job is to help them manage that process and have them understand that is a process, it’s not an event. Everyone wants it to be an event. You do this, well that’s going to come. That’s not how it works. It’s a lot more complicated than that.
So I think for me it’s made me a better coach because I’ve had to step back and realize that, man, I got to help them manage not only the ups, but I really have to help them manage the downs and but at the same time I got to be the most maybe honest person in their life with basketball, like, no, that’s not good enough or maybe you’re not ready for that yet or maybe that’s not the right thing for this team. Then kind of walk ’em through that stuff.
So, yeah, it’s a complicated process, but at the end of the day I hope everyone steps back and I know we got NIL, thankfully, but these are still kids. Just because they’re 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, whatever it is in college now, they’re still young adults, they’re still developing and just because they make a few bucks doesn’t mean people should be throwing shade their way.”
Tommy Lloyd on translating his NCAA Tournament experiences from the past three years into this year:
“Well, I think that you have to understand each team’s journey is unique and it’s their first time as a team. So you have to acknowledge that. You can’t just say, hey, two years ago this happened and expect that lesson to be learned by everybody. I think that the coolest thing is about this tournament is it’s one and done. It’s the coolest thing and the worst thing about it all together.
So you have to have your team prepared to come out to play, come out and play consistent basketball. I think you really have to call on the things you’ve done all year. That’s the approach that I take. So thinking that I mean, I’m sure players that have been there, I mean obviously there’s probably a little bit of an advantage of having played in a few tournaments and stuff like that, but all in all I don’t think it matters because once that ball goes up, like I said the score’s 0-0.
I don’t think, you know, if one team hasn’t been to the Tournament as much as the other I don’t think the team that hasn’t been is going to say, well, you have been to the Tournament more than. We have we’re going to take it easy. That’s not how it goes. These games are knockdown, drag-out affairs and you got to be prepared to compete like that.”
Tommy Lloyd pregame on blocking out the noise between Selection Sunday and Friday’s game against Akron:
“Well, I think it’s important. I’ve really become disciplined and learned how to do that. All these things, if you don’t acknowledge them, this chatter and all this stuff, it’s just stuff that’s floating out there and it doesn’t stick to you. So I think it allows you to be maybe the most authentic version of yourself.
So we’ve talked about that with our guys and hey, I’m not putting limits on their phone, they have to have the discipline to do that themselves and I think it’s important. I think it’s important to just hunker in on your deal, pour yourself into your teammates. You worked all season for this and come out and try to give it your best effort, because we know you can play good tomorrow and lose. So there is not much room for error.”
Tommy Lloyd pregame on Akron head coach John Groce’s comments about studying Arizona’s offense when redesign the Zips’ offense for this year:
“I wish you would have told me that four days ago so I could change our offense.
I mean, no, listen, it’s flattering, like — hey, I mean, listen, every coach is a thief. You know, a lot of best ideas are things you get watching something on TV or decide to go study another team and yeah, I mean, that’s cool that people do it. I’m doing it all the time. I’m watching his team playing and I’m like oh, that’s interesting. I think that’s how the coaching mind works.
Nothing that I’m doing with basketball hasn’t probably been done before. I probably learned it from somewhere else, but I know this, I mean, I mean, I’ll say this and I’ve said it, you know, John was coaching at Illinois, they came up and played us when we were at Gonzaga and they beat us at a point where I mean we’re talking maybe two or three people had ever done that. And he was, you know, really innovative. He was doing things on the offensive end of the floor that we really hadn’t seen much of.
So yeah, so I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and for him to say something like that, I mean that’s cool, but at the end of the day like I said, our two teams are going to go on the floor tomorrow, and he and I aren’t playing against each other. It’s going to be the guys out there figuring it out.”
Jaden Bradley
Jaden Bradley on the team’s expectations heading into Friday’s matchup against Akron:
“Just everything’s focused on Akron right now. Getting our game plan together. We got a little bit of time trying to put our game plan and trying to do everything we can to execute and come up with that win tomorrow.”
Jaden Bradley on the balanced offensive attack from Arizona in the Big 12 Tournament, and how that can create matchup challenges in the NCAA Tournament:
“That’s what makes our offense so different. We got so many pieces that can come in and just give us different looks. Like you said, Trey can stretch it from the outside, he can go in, dominate smaller defender, K.J. brings that energy. C Love is going to be C Love. We got Delly, we got Carter, we got so many different pieces and at different moments, different times, not knowing whose night it’s going to be and I feel like that’s what makes our offense so dangerous.”
Trey Townsend
Trey Townsend on how Arizona can prepare for Akron’s lethal three-point shooting attack:
“Yeah I think it all just comes down to what Jaden was saying for the last question, really honing in on the game plan, to limit those threes, because obviously they can shoot it pretty well. But we played in a really tough conference this year against a lot of teams that could shoot it. So we’ve experienced it before.
But they’re another talented team, obviously everyone in this tournament’s super talented. So we’re going to try to execute the best we can and limit those threes.”
Trey Townsend on Arizona throwing out the seeds and preparing for Akron the same as any other opponent:
“I mean, yeah, no, it’s no surprise that upsets can happen. You see it every single year. Once the month of March started, I’m sure on everyone’s social media they were just seeing historic upsets.
It’s really something I don’t think that needs to be hammered too hard because this group of guys takes things very serious. Obviously we started the season kind of shaky and bounced back from that. So we’ve gone through adversity a lot this year and this group of guys isn’t one to take anybody lightly but it’s just sort of, if you might see a guy slacking off or just not taking some small things super serious, just hammering those home. But this group of guys is so determined and excited to be here, I’m sure we’re ready for it.”
Check out our preview of Arizona vs. Akron here.