What Tommy Lloyd said after the Arizona Wildcats’ loss to Oklahoma at Battle4Atlantis

Due to a tough loss and another game less than 24 hours later, there was no traditional Thanksgiving celebration in Arizona on Thursday night. They probably lacked appetite after losing to Oklahoma in the Battle4Atlantis semifinals.

“Yes, it hurts, but unfortunately…fortunately or unfortunately we don’t have time to think about it,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd after the UA fell to 3-3 this season. “We have to come back tomorrow and play a good West Virginia team. Our entire focus has to be there so that no one has time to hang their heads.”

You can find our game summary here Here. Below is what Lloyd had to say afterwards:

On the early backlog: “I take my hat off to Oklahoma. They came out and put us in some tough situations and then they got the lead early and our offense took a while to get going tonight, which has been kind of a trend in some of these tougher games, and we did done Find out. If your offense can somehow keep you on the ball while you develop your defense, then don’t play from behind. And unfortunately today we played from the back and made a few rallies, but it seemed like they answered all of them. They scored some really big hits.”

On Oklahoma: “I thought (Jalon Moore) played great for them. Physically, his athleticism and his effort on the glass and he made a few shots, that really made a difference as a talker. And obviously (Jeremiah) Fears was great, he played a fantastic game.”

On the Sooners’ physicality: “I think they were probably a little more physical than our guys expected, which is disappointing. I mean, we’re a team that loves to push, grind and be physical, and we had some shots at the rim that we missed early. There weren’t many fouls called, which is fine. Then we made it a little more open and a little more offensive as we got a little more into desperation mode. I just wish we had played with that sense of plight a little earlier.”

On 3-point defense: “They put us in some tough situations with coverages and scored some big hits. Maybe some of these threesomes are shots that you’ll somehow live with if you do them. In others, they switched in and out of different line-ups. And they played pick-and-pop 5…it’s crazy, this kid hasn’t played much and the last few days he’s had some big hits. His stroke looks real and puts you in some tough situations. With the short preparation, we were a little bit up to speed on whether he took the shot or whether there was a scenario where the next guy took a shot or a duel where one guy had a bigger guy and could beat him advantage of that.”

For rebounding: “I just felt like on the glass, I thought they were more physical on the glass. We haven’t done a good job of blocking them out and that’s disappointing. We’re a great rebounding team, but to be a great rebounding team you have to keep going every night. And especially because our stats are good and you know the other team will really emphasize that. And I don’t know if our guys are heeding that message well enough. Today I thought that we were kind of overwhelmed by some of these big challenges. You play good defense, get a stop, they give up an offensive rebound, move and hit a three-pointer, it’s disappointing. We have to get better at that.”

About the march and the chance of an equalizer in the last minute: “We had a few, several shots in that possession and you just try to stay close. We gave ourselves a chance. We persevered, persevered, persevered and gave ourselves a chance. I commend the boys for that, but listen: our standards prevail.”

On KJ Lewis getting another technical foul: “Once again it is so disappointing. KJ needs to get better. He has to get better. Now I love him. I will stay with him. He’s an emotional guy, but you just don’t do that to your team. You just don’t put your team in that position again and again. For me, if we celebrate, we should celebrate together. You don’t celebrate against the other team. That’s not a win. Winning means celebrating together. We’ve talked about it, we’ve talked about it, but unfortunately some of these old habits die hard. We will continue to have discussions about this. And if it gets to the point where I need to start disciplining, I will.”

On whether Lewis was frustrated by recent issues: “I cannot comment on the details of the incident. Just don’t do it. That’s the most important thing: don’t do it. I think we can cut the game down to two, about two if he takes that shot and let’s get a stop, we’ve got a run. Now it starts, there are four of them, and then the momentum stops. They get kind of a reset, they can call a set now, they don’t have to crack down on the press, all that stuff, it’s just so disappointing.”

On the strangeness of playing Big 12 opponent West Virginia in Game 3^approx Place game: “I’ve never been in the same conference with them, so we’ll just approach it like any other game in the tournament. Maybe if we have to play them three times this year it will feel different like the third time, but the first time there is no difference.”

About the mountaineers: “They have a great guard, a great man and it looks like they have role players that know what they’re doing. Your coach is doing an excellent job controlling the game. It will be an incredible challenge. They lost two games in overtime and beat the third-ranked team in the country. I mean, we have our hands full.”