'I'm really thankful for those guys': Tommy Lloyd praises work of transfers

He usually doesn’t do that, publicly at least.

Ask big-picture questions of the Wildcats’ second-year coach during the season and you are usually given the standard “one-game-at-a-time” type of answer, a thought about what’s immediately ahead, then maybe a joke to help divert the attention to something else.

“Paycheck-to-paycheck, bottleneck-to-bottleneck,” Lloyd said after Arizona won the Maui Invitational title in November, when asked about the Wildcats’ early-season ascendancy. “We ain’t getting more complicated than that.”

But Saturday was a little different. Before beating UCLA 58-52, the Wildcats had played below expectations in three of four previous games, struggling to beat Washington at home, losing to Washington State two days later and getting blown out at Oregon.

Because of all that, and because of UCLA’s 8-0 run to begin Pac-12 play, the Wildcats were on the verge of early elimination from the conference race, too.

That’s a normal sort of trouble for many teams. At Arizona, it can be more of a crisis.

So Lloyd spent two weeks answering questions about what was wrong.

And maybe he even asked himself some of those same questions.

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where we’re at as a program, me being in my second year and obviously, expectations and standards are really high, which is great,” Lloyd said. “I always welcome that.”

Then he thought about how Arizona dipped into trouble, and how the Wildcats took a step out of it Saturday.

His mind floated back to April and May last spring. Coming off a 33-4 season that led to a Pac-12 title and multiple national coach of the year honors for Lloyd, the Wildcats knew they would lose leading scorer Bennedict Mathurin to the NBA draft. They had planned for that.

And, as the season went on, it was clear that rapidly improved rim-protector Christian Koloko probably wasn’t coming back, either. In fact, Koloko didn’t even test the draft before the Toronto Raptors picked him up early in the second round.

But Lloyd had all-conference power forward Azuolas Tubelis coming back and had seen the steady improvement center Oumar Ballo was making behind Koloko. Plus, he had locked down promising Estonian big man Henri Veesaar by last spring. The Wildcats could survive up front.

Then wing Dalen Terry, who had given off early indications he was just testing the NBA draft, blew up at the NBA Combine and team workouts, in part because of eye-popping physical measurements that include a 7-foot-1 wingspan.

So, a day before the June 1 deadline to withdraw from the NBA draft and return to college, Terry announced he was staying in the draft.

At that point, Lloyd had signed Serbian freshman wing Filip Borovicanin to join junior Pelle Larsson and Adama Bal on the wings, but Borovicanin was not expected to be ready for an immediate impact, and Bal was still a question mark who has proven to be only a limited factor so far this season.

Lloyd needed experience and proven production on the wings.

“When Dalen left us — and he 100% should have, so don’t take that the wrong way — at the end of May, we were kind of stuck in a bind recruiting-wise,” Lloyd said. “Things weren’t coming easy.”

But within two weeks, Lloyd landed two grad transfers who were expected to immediately help fill that hole: Guard Courtney Ramey of Texas and forward Cedric Henderson of Campbell.

Losing Terry actually helped in that sense, of course: Both Ramey and Henderson could see opportunity in what Terry and Mathurin left behind.

But they still could have found another place to go.

That’s why Lloyd was grateful Saturday. Ramey not only shot a combined 8 for 15 from 3-point range against USC and UCLA but also helped hold USC’s Boogie Ellis (2 for 11 overall from the field) and UCLA’s Tyger Campbell (5 of 18) to off shooting games.

Lloyd described Ramey’s efforts in somewhat more delicate, but just as appreciative, language.

“His impact on the game was significant,” Lloyd said. “He had some dagger 3s, and his defense was outstanding in both games.”

Henderson, meanwhile, accelerated after Lloyd put him in the starting lineup over Larsson on Thursday against USC, with 11 points and seven rebounds. Henderson struggled against UCLA, going scoreless with four turnovers, but pulled down four rebounds and had a plus-six plus-minus rating.

Henderson helped. Ramey helped.

With them, the Wildcats won a game that, on paper at least, they almost certainly wouldn’t have won in May.

“To be able to pull Courtney Ramey and Cedric Henderson out of the transfer portal, I’m really thankful for those guys,” Lloyd said Saturday. “I’m super proud of those guys. Our program’s going in the right direction.”

Also expressing thanks for freshman guard Kylan Boswell, who reclassified over the summer to join the Wildcats this season, Lloyd went on.

“Hey, I’m all about winning the next game, and you guys know that. But I just want to make sure I put that out there — that I’m thankful for Courtney and Cedric for believing in us and giving Arizona a chance because they’ve really, really helped us.”

For Lloyd, they have helped turn the day-to-day into another season that might end up meeting the Arizona Wildcats’ standards after all.

“I do always say day-to-day, but I’m running a tremendous program and organization,” Lloyd said. “So I’m always thinking big picture. But I also understand the only way to be good in this business is be good day-to-day. You can’t be so focused on the big picture that you’re missing the now.”