Lloyd says Arizona Wildcats are ‘built for’ pressure of NCAA Tournament
The Arizona Wildcats likely won’t celebrate their win over Long Beach State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday very long.
Head coach Tommy Lloyd of the Arizona Wildcats looks on before the Desert Classic against the Florida Atlantic Owls at T-Mobile Arena on December 23, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The Arizona Wildcats likely won’t be celebrating their 20-point win over Long Beach State in the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on Thursday for too long.
Another pressure-packed game awaits on Saturday vs. Dayton.
“The tournament pressure deal is real,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said after Thursday’s 85-65 win. “Anybody that says it’s not is lying to you. I mean, it’s a real thing. That’s one of the things that makes it such a fun tournament to watch. It makes it really hard to play in.”
All eyes were on Arizona on Thursday after its first-round exit from last year’s tournament as a No. 2 seed thanks to a loss to Princeton, a No. 15 seed.
Lloyd said the Wildcats, again a No. 2 seed, learned some lessons from the humbling defeat and it showed vs. Long Beach State.
“For our guys to overcome that day, we got off to a decent start, they made a run at us, we settled in, took control,” Lloyd said. “So (I’m) really proud … I thought our guys did a great job of not letting the tournament pressure get in. We turned it up, really focused one task at a time, made a few plays, flipped the script.”
Arizona led Long Beach State 41-35 at halftime and took control in the second half.
Dayton will enter Saturday’s game against Arizona after mounting a huge comeback win over Nevada in the first round.
The bulk of the pressure will be on Arizona. Again. And that’s OK with Lloyd.
“Fortunately I think this is my 25th time in the NCAA tournament, so I’ve been around it a little bit,” Lloyd said. “Some of our guys have been around it a little bit. To be quite honest, I think we’re built for it.”
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