Arizona Wildcats hoping to keep routine unchanged as March Madness hype grows

He picked up the first taste of that when he averaged 14.7 points in the Big 12 Tournament to help UA win the Big 12 Tournament title on Saturday against Houston, getting a chance to snip nets for the second time in 12 days, this time in the middle of the country.

A day later, Kharchenkov sat down in the unseasonably warm Tucson sun at St. Philip's Plaza with his teammates around him, and cheering fans behind him, to watch the NCAA Selection Show and hear that UA will be opening Friday against LIU in San Diego.

“I got told that March Madness is like a holiday month here in America, so I'm starting to experience it,” Kharchenkov said. “Especially how we played the Big 12 tournament, we definitely got something special there. I just want to experience it, because back in Europe, I never followed college like that, or the March Madness.”

The passion is different, and so are the mechanics.

Playing in Germany’s Bundesliga, Kharchenkov said he usually had a pretty good idea of what teams he would be facing in the playoffs every year since teams were assigned playoff matchups similar to how they are in the NBA, bracketed by the best teams facing the last qualifiers.

“One game here lost here or there could change your seeding and the other team’s seeding … but (it’s going to be) one of the four teams. Here, it's one of 64 teams. There was definitely something new for me with that.”

It essentially screamed at Kharchenkov when he stared at the CBS Selection Show on the big screen at St. Philip's Plaza. There were actually 68 teams in all announced, counting the eight that had to play “First Four” games, and everyone was divided into one of four different “Regionals,” which often aren’t the regions those teams are actually from.

It can be head-spinning stuff if you don’t grow up with it.

“I'm not gonna lie, the bracket is a little bit overwhelming,” Kharchenkov said. “Too many lines, too many teams. I just look at the game that we're gonna play next.”

Which is, of course, exactly the kind of focus his coach wants him to have.

That isn't necessarily easy for the Wildcats these days. These are different times, even by their lofty standards. Interest has risen in the Wildcats along with their 32-win season and two months as the AP No. 1 team.

Among other evidence, there was heavy security at the Selection Sunday watch party and Lloyd has even said recently he hesitates to make his occasional walk from McKale to get a Sonoran dog because he doesn't want to make a scene with people honking and waving at him.

“It’s crazy how people are right now,” Lloyd said.

So Lloyd is asking his players to turn inward a little this week, to dial out the noise, to keep their routines normal, for now.

“I just told our guys, the best thing we can do is just kind of stay out of the spotlight a little bit,” Lloyd said. “Do our normal obligations and lead our normal lives. The guys need to go to class and do all their normal stuff, and I'm going to do my normal stuff.

“It’s been a good process, so I don't know why we'd want to change that right now. I don't think it's any tougher. I think you just have to be intentional, and you have to value being steady and understand that there's real value in that.”

It might help the Wildcats that there’s a full five days between Selection Sunday and UA’s first game, giving them a chance to sneak back into a normal rhythm after what, at least for Kharchenkov, was an eye-opening scene at St. Philip's.

“That was pretty cool,” he said. “Just for the selections, making it that big a deal was pretty cool,” Kharchenkov said. “It just shows how much the fans care about us.”

Rim shots

– Asked if point guard Jaden Bradley’s jammed left index finger swelled up or was a concern going forward this week, Lloyd said UA athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie told him that “we came out of it good.”

Bradley injured his hand in a collison with Houston’s Emanuel Sharp in the second half of Saturday’s Big 12 Tournament final, but returned with a bandage over his left wrist and index finger, saying it “felt a little different.”

Lloyd said he didn’t know if Bradley would have to wear a bandage or undergo treatment this week but said Kokoskie said there were only the normal bumps and bruises for the Wildcats after the Big 12 Tournament. The Wildcats took Sunday and Monday off from on-court work but were scheduled to resume practices Tuesday.

– With the Big 12 Tournament contracted to stay in Kansas City through 2031, Lloyd said Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told him last week that he will work on establishing nonstop flights between Tucson and Kansas City.

Lloyd had expressed frustration that UA had a small fan presence in its quarterfinal game against UCF last Thursday and said on his radio show Sunday that "it felt like you're playing in a Costco."

There are no commercial nonstops between Tucson and Kansas City as of now, making the trips take at least four or five hours with a connection or drive to Phoenix.