After Final Four, trip to Lithuania, Tommy Lloyd says Wildcats must still 'start over'

Entering his sixth season as Arizona’s head coach, Lloyd is coming off a season in which he took the Wildcats to the Final Four and picked up the Naismith Coach of the Year award.

Then he locked up a new five-year $37.5 million contract, brought in another well-regarded recruiting class, and received a head start for this season by getting to take the Wildcats on a three-game exhibition tour of Lithuania in August.

All that might be true. But maybe it doesn’t matter.

There’s still work to be done.

“Honestly, the foreign tours, they're a great experience, but I don't know if there's a direct correlation between taking a foreign tour and where your team is right now,” Lloyd said Tuesday, after the Wildcats beat San Francisco 93-69 in their first of three McKale exhibition games. “It's just an amazing thing. It's year 28 for me in college basketball at this level, and I'm always amazed how you have to start over every single time.

“Even when you come back from a foreign trip, you feel like, oh maybe (not) but you have to start over. It's just how it works. So you better lock into that beginner's mindset and fall in love with the process and the work. Otherwise you're going to get sloppy and skip steps.”

So where are the Wildcats at, with two more exhibition games to go – Friday against San Diego State and Oct. 23 against Eastern Washington – before they open the regular season on Nov. 2 against UCLA in Las Vegas?

Solid offensively, defensively opportunistic, typically physical but bumpy, in the sort of way October exhibition games tend to present elite teams.

They had one major excuse: As they did during the Lithuania swing, the Wildcats were playing without projected starting power forward RJ Godfrey, who remains ineligible while the Georgia “five for five” lawsuit he is a plaintiff in remains in limbo. Reserve freshman center Endurance “Endi” Aiyamenkhue also did not play because of a lower leg injury, though Lloyd said he'll soon return.

Without Godfrey, Lloyd started with a small lineup as he did during their exhibition trip to Lithuania, with Derek Dixon at point guard, Bryce James and Caleb Holt on the wings, Ivan Kharchenkov at power forward and Motiejus Krivas at center.

Predictably, returnees Krivas and Kharchenkov did the most damage, with Krivas collecting 20 points and six rebounds while Kharchenkov had 18 points and five rebounds. Holt added 17 points and five rebounds.

The only minor surprise with Lloyd's starting lineup was that he started James over freshman wing Cameron Holmes and backup point guard JJ Mandaquit.

James hit a 3-pointer 16 seconds into the game but went scoreless the rest of his 13-minute appearance, shooting 1 for 3 without a rebound or assist but with one steal.

Lloyd said he wanted to experiment with that lineup, though he said he didn’t know what he would do against San Diego State on Friday.

“I didn't want to overthink it,” Lloyd said. “Listen, Bryce has had a good fall for us and continues to grow as a player. Starting Bryce, I just felt maybe puts the rotation in the right way, with some good, impactful guys coming off the bench.”

Holmes played 20 typically high-energy minutes off the bench, with six points, five rebounds and three assists, while Mandaquit had eight points and two assists in 18 minutes — and proved an effective backcourt mate with Dixon on occasion.

Over one two-minute stretch in the middle of the first half, the Wildcats increased their lead from 10 to 14 points when Mandaquit played point guard, and Dixon shifted to shooting guard.

It might have been a preview of what the Wildcats could show at times this season, much like they did in 2023-24, when Jaden Bradley both subbed for starting point guard Kylan Boswell and played with him — before going on to start in 2024-25 and becoming the Big 12 Player of the Year last season.

“Going back a lot of years, I've always liked having two point guard types on the floor,” Lloyd said. “I think it can be a great way to play if you have a group of guys (where) it makes sense. First off, it allows Derek to get some extended run, and it allows JJ to get the minutes he needs to get.

“Those two guys complement each other, and obviously I think Derek's a really good point guard who's had a really good summer and fall for us. When you put him alongside JJ, maybe he can get off the ball a little bit because he's also a dynamic shooter.”

Saying he prides himself as a three-level scorer who can get downhill — Dixon was 4 of 11 from the field and 2 of 6 from 3-point range — Dixon said there’s a different feel when playing alongside Mandaquit.

“You have somebody else who's initiating and creating, so I can try and be a little bit more aggressive coming off screens, coming off actions,” Dixon said.

Dixon finished with 10 points and three assists, with three turnovers, while playing a team-high 31 minutes. Mandaquit had eight points and two assists without a turnover in 18 minutes in what was his first exhibition game with the Wildcats, having sat out the Lithuania games while recovering from a foot injury he suffered last season at Washington.

Lloyd said Mandaquit has actually only been practicing fully for about a month.

“JJ has really made a lot of progress in the last month, and I thought he looked great out there,” said Lloyd, who also coached Mandaquit on USA’s team in the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup. “As he gets a little bit more comfortable, his teammates get more comfortable.

“I think he's going to be a guy that that really impacts winning.”

The Wildcats are expected to still do a lot of that. They’re still expected to become a preseason Top 10 team and possibly the preseason pick to win the Big 12.

Also, as Lloyd might recall, head starts can actually help: The last time he took the Wildcats overseas, to the Middle East in August 2023, the Wildcats went on to win their first eight games of the season — beating Duke, Michigan State and Wisconsin along the way — while taking over the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25.

So maybe there ultimately won't be that much for Lloyd and the Wildcats to worry about.

“I'm trying to hold myself accountable, to be there for these guys and coach them where they're at, and not be frustrated by where you might hope they would be,” Lloyd said. “You know, experiences like this are amazing catalysts to see what we can do and how much better we can be.”