Beyond perimeter woes, Arizona suffered without Trey Townsend at K-State

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Even if you didn’t see all that woeful long-range shooting, the numbers jumped out of the box score.

Arizona missed 20 of 22 3-pointers during its 73-70 loss at Kansas State on Tuesday, including a 0-for-7 night from leading scorer Caleb Love, and statisticians didn’t even count his desperation three-quarter-court buzzer heave that missed wildly, unlike the one he famously sank two weeks earlier against Iowa State.

One more goes in, from anybody, and things are different. But UA coach Tommy Lloyd says looking at just that number is “a little too simplistic” for him.

“I’m not a guy who thinks the only way we win is if we make shots,” Lloyd said. “Does it make it easier? For sure. But to me that’s an excuse that’s too easy to use. There’s so many ways to win basketball games.”

Regardless of that viewpoint, two other things are true: Kansas State was actually even worse from long range, making just 1 of 19, while Arizona has never really depended heavily on the 3 all season anyway.

The Wildcats rank just 290 out of 364 Division I teams in the ratio of 3-pointers attempted to overall field goals attempted, just 34.6%. And because they hit them at a below-average 31.8% rate, they also rank just 336th out of 364 Division I teams in percentage of scoring that comes from 3-point shooting, just 24.8%.

But they usually thrive inside, and that’s where something else was wrong for the No. 13 Wildcats on Tuesday.

Starting power forward Trey Townsend missed his second straight game with a concussion, forcing what center Tobe Awaka indicated were some subtle changes on both ends of the court.

“Trey is an important part of this team and we’re definitely different without him,” Awaka told the Star after Tuesday’s postgame news conference. “I think he brings a lot of things that people might not necessarily see superficially, but behind the scenes we definitely understand. We’ve definitely missed him these past two games.”

Arizona’s win over Texas Tech on Feb. 8 obscured that much. Red Raiders coach Grant McCasland even said he didn’t think the UA bigs “missed a beat” without Townsend, marveling at the challenge of dealing with the rugged Awaka and versatile 7-footer Henri Veesaar.

But Awaka said it’s been an adjustment learning to play together with Veesaar; both almost exclusively subbed for each other at center earlier this season before Townsend’s absence forced Veesaar to play some minutes at power forward.

Awaka said the two have also needed to learn some new defensive tactics.

And while Townsend’s replacement, freshman Carter Bryant, was the team’s only player listed when ESPN updated its 2025 NBA mock draft on Wednesday, Townsend started for four seasons of college basketball before Bryant even arrived last fall.

“He’s definitely a smart player,” Awaka said of Townsend. “Offensively, he can help get guys open. He draws a lot of attention on his drives and crashing the glass. And defensively, he’s really good at helping other guys when the mistakes happen, covering the guys’ mistakes, playing helpside, things of that nature. So obviously, missing a guy like that was key.”

While Townsend’s absence theoretically also could have an impact on the Wildcats’ perimeter players, in part because Bryant is having to play more often inside, wing Anthony Dell’Orso hasn’t made a 3-pointer since he hit six of them on Jan. 25 at Colorado — and Lloyd has been playing guards Jaden Bradley and Love for all but a minute or two during Big 12 games anyway.

But, for what it was worth, Love was 3 for 15 overall from the field while Bradley made several uncharacteristic mistakes late in Tuesday’s game, including a long inbounds heave toward Veesaar with six seconds left that went into the hands of Kansas State’s Dug McDaniel.

Lloyd said Bradley needed to make a better pass but also partially blamed himself, saying he opted for the high-risk pass rather than inbounding more conventionally, since that might allow less time to operate if K-State fouled.

“In hindsight, I would have called something different, but we’ve worked on that play a lot and it’s something that we feel comfortable running in those situations,” Lloyd said. “It was just a little bit of an errant pass.”

After the game, Lloyd said the Wildcats had worked their way through a lot of adversity and that “by no means do I think it’s over.” No doubt there is opportunity for continued adversity ahead: Arizona will host first-place Houston on Saturday before hustling to Waco, Texas, for a game at Baylor on Monday night.

But the Wildcats (17-7, 11-2) also have the opportunity to climb back into a first-place tie with a win over the No. 6-ranked Cougars (20-4, 12-1) at McKale.

“It’s exciting,” Awaka said. “This game was a little disappointing but we have the perfect opportunity to bounce back and capitalize with the home environment.”

Maybe Townsend will be back, too. He’s now past the standard one-week minimum for concussion protocols and all signs indicate he does not have a severe concussion that could keep him off the floor for an extended time.

Lloyd left it open.

“He’s obviously in the concussion protocol,” Lloyd said, “and we hope to have him back soon.”