What Tommy Lloyd and Arizona Wildcats players said after road win over Cincinnati

It was the first Big 12 road game for the men’s basketball team, and the Wildcats came away with a close win against Cincinnati 72-67. Arizona is now 2-0 in Big 12 play. The road trip continues Tuesday when it plays West Virginia.

Our game summary can be found here. Below is what Tommy Lloyd and forward Henri Veesaar and Carter Bryant had to say afterwards:

Lloyd on the differences in finishing between Cincinnati and UCLA: The biggest situation is we found a way and you know, our guys hung in there a little bit. We had a big lead and that has happened to us before. This year it happened to UCLA a few weeks ago. We are up 13 and the games are going to be tough, these other teams are good, they are talented. They increase the pressure. I thought our guys did a good job hanging with it. The turnover crushed us. The offensive rebound hurt us. Then KJ Lewis made two amazing kind of driving plays where he didn’t have much at the end, he got on two legs, turned, turned and just found a way to roll into two corners. That’s what we didn’t do against UCLA. We were never able to hold on to that lead for a bit longer and then the game was tied. I’m thinking, come on, we’ve got to find a way around this. These guys deserve it. They’re great and it’s going to be kind of a defining moment for our season.

On what happened in the final moments of the game: We kind of drew something out of the timeout that we had never really done before. That allowed Jaden Bradley to get downhill and make a layup. The piece wasn’t necessarily for it, but it was one of the possibilities, and he made a pitch. I think when the game was tied we got a two point lead and I think we had to make some stops and we were able to, a little bit of possession, find a way out of there.

On Carter Bryant’s performance: Carter is really making progress, and the one thing about Carter is, I’ve told him, he’s checking two boxes that are really hard to check. He is an elite talent and he has an elite character. The game comes to him, the sophistication comes, the experience comes. The progress he has made in the last month has been a game changer for us and I am really proud of him. When you’re someone of Carter’s stature and you come to a place outside of Arizona, the expectations can be a little unrealistic. Sometimes beginners succeed right away. A lot of times it doesn’t and you kind of hang with it and he hangs with it. He has continued to improve, he has a great attitude. He is five for five, three for three. He should have made the second free throw. He had a perfect night. Super proud of him, super proud of him and the person he is.

About Caleb Love’s recordings: They are good defenders. Cincinnati is a great defensive team and we knew that coming in. We knew they were going to pay close attention to Caleb and really make his touches more difficult. I thought he had a couple of good looks and a couple of drives that were 50/50 foul calls that maybe he could have gotten, but he didn’t. I know we ran an out of bounds play for him at the end, he got stripped at the top of the key, three that was a little cold in the game that ended. These are pictures I want him to take. He is a winner. Caleb is someone I love and I love being in the fight with him and I love that. Sometimes people might not root for him because you know what? We love the guy and we ride with him every day.

On trying to pull away when they were 19 points down: I hope you know, you never know, right. These games are tough and you hope. It’s obviously a great environment when you show up before tip-off and every seat is full, it’s going to be something special. I thought for 30 minutes we did an incredible job of keeping that group really quiet and then maybe we got a little tired. The sense of urgency got a little bigger, created some turnovers and they got out in transition and got back into the game. That’s something for us to keep looking at. It’s hard to get a 19-point lead in a place like Cincinnati, so we have to put it in our back pocket and know we can do it. The next thing is, how do you do it? I think we can grow there.

On how Trey Townsend and Anthony Dell’Orso have adjusted to the expectations in Arizona: Well, they’ve been good. I mean, they’re first-class individuals, first-class guys. One of the things we try to spend a lot of time on, some of these guys won’t be in Arizona for three or four or five years. We really do as good a job as we can in educating them about the history and legacy of Arizona basketball, the past players, the great teams, the tough moments. We spend a lot of time talking about it. There is a lot of conversation between former players and current players and they have been great and they help us so much. Everyone who came on the field today really contributed, which makes us a total team effort.

On Veesaar several minutes play: The only indication of this team is how the game goes. Henri is getting better and better, and Henri knows it. I stuck with him through thick and thin and I’ve always been a big Henry Veesaar fan. He and I have always had good conversations. And you know what? He finally gets his chance. He’s getting some confidence in the game and so is Carter. Game confidence is a huge issue to have confidence in games. You get better in practice, you get better in practice, but being able to do that in games kind of cements it. I think these guys are taking the next step as players and I’m looking forward to that. They know I’ll probably come up with three or four things on film tomorrow that they can do better, and that’s just how we operate.

About Tobe Awaka fighting in the game: He had a couple of hard fouls, you know, the intentional foul or the flagrant foul, and he had another play where he threw the guy in the lane. Henri gets in there, I think Henri was plus 20. That means something, you know. I don’t know the stats in the moment of the game, but you feel him as a coach and the guy who has a guy who is plus 20 and helps you move the ball and handle the pressure. You kind of roll with that guy. Other days it might be Tobe, but Tobe has gotten better and better and better. His feel for the game, his understanding of what we’re trying to do is also getting better every day.

On Love and Jaden Bradley playing more minutes: One thing I’m learning about the Big 12 that I guess we didn’t do very early on. Since our opening year, they have longer timeouts. Those timeouts are like three minutes against honestly, it’s like the NCAA tournament. Your guys get rested and you don’t have back to back games. You don’t have a game between games very often. I think you’re comfortable playing some of your guys more minutes.

Lloyd on the importance of equipment manager Brian Brigger: I’m just going to say it and I’m probably going to get a little emotional. Brian Brigger, that’s a great looking guy. This guy, he’s a Xavier guy, so he doesn’t love the Cincinnati people, but what he’s been to our program, and he came before I was there, that’s so special. What we told our guys, we need to dig deeper today. Think Brian Brigger. The passion he brings, and that’s our equipment manager, the passion he brings every day, the professionalism he brings to his job, the team player he is, It says something about our culture and our guys. I think, you know, the easiest guy to pick up. I think they picked him up after the game in the locker room. I thought maybe we were going to wheel him out, but they brought him in, and then hey, I mean, Brian Brigger, somebody we love. Our love for him helped us dig a little bit deeper today. I know coaches don’t usually start talking about an equipment manager in a press conference, but this guy is something else. He is special.

Veesaar on reacting to losing a 19-point lead: We just knew we had to pull away with this one. Obviously, we had the UCLA game, so we had experience already from the season. So this one, we just knew we had to win it like the balance of state and play by play.

Bryant reacted to losing the 19-point lead: Coach Lloyd said it was just one we had to have. We struggled with it. We started building. We trusted our game plan. We executed everything not necessarily to a tee, but as good as you can ask for with the environment and playing against a great defensive team like this.

Bryant on his role with the team right now: Just to be ready when my number is gone. I think me and everyone who played did a great job of contributing the way we needed to. We know that every night, it’s going to be someone’s night because we have such great players and we work on it every day. I see all these guys in the gym every day, so I don’t think it’s necessarily the position I’m in or the location. I think it’s just a game-to-game thing.