What did Tommy Lloyd, Caleb Love, Tobe Awaka, and Anthony Dell’Orso say postgame after the Arizona Wildcats’ 2nd Round win over Oregon

SEATTLE – Tommy Lloyd and Caleb Love knew it was going to be a physical game when they met with media on Saturday. And as fate would have it, it was. 4-seed Arizona started slow and let Oregon come back in the second half, but prevailed to advance to its third Sweet Sixteen in the last four years. See what Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, as well as Caleb Love, Tobe Awaka, and Anthony Dell’Orso had to say postgame following the 87-83 win over the 5-seed Oregon Ducks.

Tommy Lloyd

Tommy Lloyd postgame on his immediate thoughts after the Arizona Wildcats’ win over Oregon:

“Well, obviously, it was a great game and tons of respect for Oregon and Coach Altman. If you could take the outcome, the negative part of the outcome, away from either team, it’s fun competing against them. That was fun tonight. We had a lot of fun.

Giving credit to a lot of these guys here. We’ve really been talking about just kind of developing — I don’t want to say unemotional, but a real steady approach, zero-zero score, so-what-now-what-type mentality. These guys executed it to perfection today. To go down 14 or whatever we did early and then not panic and just realize how much time was left in the game and just to literally take a lead by halftime, that says something about this group.

Just tremendously proud of these guys and all three of ’em individually. Tobe, you know, he’s a beast, a double double in the first half. Henri’s in foul trouble and those two become quite a duo. So Tobe had to carry a heavy load. Delly hit a big three, had a nice little shake. Was that a dunk on that baseline drive or not? Are we going to give you a dunk on that one?”

Tommy Lloyd postgame on Anthony Dell’Orso’s clutch free throws down the stretch and Caleb Love’s 29-point performance for Arizona against Oregon:

“But those free throws were huge. You step into a game where you haven’t been playing much down the stretch and then do that. And then Caleb was sensational. We’ve had a lot of conversations, and Caleb has so much potential and he’s so good already. What’s cool is how much better he can get. And his approach today, just staying steady and staying unemotional. I think there was a couple ball-handling errors I probably would have taken back. But I’m picky.

I was just really proud of how he came out and played in that moment. It just says so much to me about his development as a player and a person, and he was obviously the best player on the floor today, and he was able to carry us to victory. So thanks to C-Love for that.”

Tommy Lloyd on Caleb Love’s leadership:

“Yeah, Caleb’s really grown in his leadership role. I think that as a young player, the spotlight was on him in such a way that — the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I think for a long portion of his career Caleb kind of had to just take care of himself, which I totally get, I totally understand.

But this year I’ve really seen him kind of grow into that leader role and be more mature about it. He’s unbelievable with his teammates. I get asked a lot what it’s like to coach Caleb, and I just tell them it’s really simple. I’ve never had one bad experience. Never had one bad experience. I’ve never had one talk-back, never had one bad body language with me, never had anything like that.

So he’s been a great gentleman for me to coach. And I don’t know if people — people that have this perception of him otherwise just don’t know him. I’m really proud of the leader he’s become. I told Caleb coming into this tournament, even this tournament’s not going to define his career or make his life better. He’s been through so much already. He’s so ready for the next step.

I think when this college thing ends for him, I’ll be sad because I’m going to lose a great player, but I’m also going to be happy for him, and I think he’s going to have a sense of relief and he’s going to kind of — a burden is going to be lifted from him in his life and he’s going to be able to move forward into his next phase of his life and his basketball career and I don’t see any way he’s going to be denied from reaching his dreams.”

Tommy Lloyd trying to get some questions for Tobe Awaka postgame after the Arizona win over Oregon:

“Hey, guys, how about some questions for Tobe? This dude, I’m telling you, he’s a badass, and I love him to death. You’ve never met a bigger gentleman in your life. I mean, he’s a 4.0 student — I mean, I think, right?

Yeah, it’s close. Anything that is associated with his name is done with quality and class. And you might not know that by the way he plays because he’s rugged and he kicks ass out there, but this is one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. So I think you guys need to get to know him a little bit.”

Tommy Lloyd postgame on rallying the team in the huddle when Arizona was down 15 against Oregon:

“No, no, I don’t think so. I’m obviously — you kind of blank out in some of those moments. I just think we wanted to stay steady. I knew there was so much time in the game and so many possessions, you just didn’t want to dig a deeper hole. And I felt like if we cut it to nine then seven — I mean, I’ve been in so many of those games where I’ve been on the other end of ’em. You almost feel like it’s inevitable that a good team’s going to come back on you.

So I wanted them to feel that and I wanted our guys just to hang with it. I think we kind of tried some things with the game plan, maybe a little bit too much, too much scheme, early, but I think it was the right plan and when our guys got settled into executing it, I think it was pretty effective.

And maybe you saw that after kind of that — those first two media timeouts. We kind of settled into executing our plan and we really didn’t make any adjustments from the plan A that we had coming in the game. So Jack Murphy and TJ Benson and Rem did a great job kind of giving our guys a winning plan tonight.”

Tommy Lloyd on Caleb Love being a closer for Arizona:

“For sure. He’s our closer, but he’s not our only one. I’m a big believer — and obviously, you want to have a guy that’s comfortable with the ball in his hands and not afraid in those moments. But I’ve also just thought the best way to close games is make the right basketball play. Speaking of closing, I guess we had a three on one fast-break where two guys went for the alley-oop and it didn’t go in, and my good friend, Steve Kerr, texted me. Like, What was the hell was up with that three on one? And I said, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, Coach. And he was like, Well, just so you feel better, Draymond would have did the same thing and Stef would have pulled up and shot a three.

So I mean, I’ve always felt like at Arizona, my four years, we’ve lived on the edge of excitement and maybe there’s times I wish we had a little bit more conservative approach to things, but I also think that let-it-rip mentality is kind of who we are, and I think it’s provided way more positives and way more benefits than negatives for us.

So, yeah, just really, really proud of the guys tonight. That was awesome and I’m so happy we get to stay together and keep competing.”

Tommy Lloyd on Jaden Bradley’s maturity and calming presence for Arizona:

“He’s been awesome. He had 12 tonight, 12 and just steady, four assists and three steals. I mean, he impacts winning and he has a real maturity to him and a steadiness. What did he have, like, 19 or 20 last game? I mean, like, he’s just really grown into a great player. He really is calm. He really is calm. I even had a ref come up to me last game and he said, I’m having problems with 0 and I’m like, What? Him?

I’m not used to guys saying that, he’s usually so calm and really doesn’t interact with the officials, so Jaden’s the consummate point guard, and he’s, he’s, he’s a great point guard, we’re lucky to have him, and I’m really proud of how he’s developed as a player and how he competes, and for him to kind of be kind of the silent leader of our team.”

Caleb Love

Caleb Love postgame on him and his Arizona teammates not panicking down 15 early against Oregon:

“Super satisfying. Just knowing that this group, what we went through, the adversity, it’s built us for these moments. Us going down early, we never panicked, we never altered anything. I just think we were so poised throughout that whole game, and nobody was worried about anything but finishing out the game and winning the game.

So I give credit to my teammates, my coaches. They had a great game plan coming into the game and it was shaky early, but that’s what these games are about. You’re going to face adversity but how do you bounce back. And like Coach said, we got a so-what-now-what mentality and that’s what came out tonight.”

Caleb Love on his history with Duke ahead of the Sweet Sixteen:

“It’s a big matchup because it’s the next game. It’s the only game that matters. Obviously, our mind was focused on Oregon and we got it done and now we’re going to get in the film room and lock in on Duke and what they do. Obviously, they’re a great team, they’re well coached, and we’ll be ready for ’em when the time comes.”

Tobe Awaka

Tobe Awaka postgame on how Arizona was able to keep Oregon big Nate Bittle under control:

“I mean, just a credit to the coaching staff. They did a great job in terms of scout, knowing what he likes to do. I think on our part, me and Henri did a good job of sort of chesting him up, making his catches difficult. PK earlier today did a great job of just sort of giving me the rundown of what he likes to do in the post, what his go-to move is, what his counter is, and things like that. So we had a great preparation during shoot-around and I think all that really helped in game.”

Anthony Dell’Orso

Anthony Dell’Orso on the experience of March Madness after not growing up a college basketball fan:

“Yeah, this experience has been great. Obviously, the wins help. But, yeah, growing up didn’t really know much about it, didn’t know much about college in general. But as I kind of got older and started my freshman year and stuff, I realized how big of a deal it was. You go throughout a long season, you play two games every week just to get to this moment.

So it’s been great, the energy from the crowd is there. We have a great fan base that’s with us, so it feels like we’re at a home game pretty much every time. This experience has been great. There’s no one else I would rather do it with apart from these guys, but it’s so great to get that win and get to the Sweet 16.”

Anthony Dell’Orso on Caleb Love’s leadership and his relationship with Caleb:

“Coming in, you hear all these preconceived notions about UNC and Caleb and that whole deal, but for me, I never judged him, never had any thoughts of my own until I want to meet him myself and get the real deal. And I think people don’t have that because they don’t ever get the chance to meet him and get to really know him.

On the court throughout this year, we’ve been super connected in the fact that we play a similar position, we are getting cross-matched and doing different represents, and we workout every day together, every morning. Like, I’m probably the closest with him.

He’s an unbelievably leader, whether it’s his voice or his actions or him leading the way or as simple as him being in a timeout and telling everyone to calm down and relax because we got this. Like you said, in that 14- or 15-point deficit, how are we so poised? We’re so poised because guys like Caleb that have the stage like that are able to stay calm, makes everyone else calm.

So that’s a credit to Caleb, that’s a credit to how he’s kind of been brought up and stuff like that, but if you want to describe him as a leader, that’s how I’ll describe him. He steadies the ship for everyone.”