Tommy Lloyd's No. 4 Wildcats have no chill this holiday week — and that's really by design

After playing a big game or two once the fall semester ends, top teams often schedule a final mid- or low-major opponent to beat up on, then plan on sending everybody happily off for a short holiday break.

This week, for example, top-ranked Purdue scheduled only Jacksonville. Second-ranked Kansas's one game is against Yale. And third-ranked Houston has nobody other than Texas State.

But Arizona has developed a much different pre-holiday scheduling philosophy under third-year coach Tommy Lloyd.

A month after he took the job in April 2021, Lloyd finalized a deal that sent the Wildcats to Tennessee on Dec. 22 that year. Last season, Arizona hosted Tennessee in the return game on Dec. 17, though the Wildcats also squeezed in low-major opponents Montana State and Morgan State before Christmas.

This season, the Wildcats have completely torn the model up. They scheduled three high-major games in an eight-day period leading up to their Christmas break -- and agreed to play all of them away from McKale Center, including their nonconference finale on Saturday against Florida Atlantic in Las Vegas.

It’s not chill. But it’s also not boring.

“I just think it's more fun,” senior wing Pelle Larsson said. “You want to seek out the challenge, test yourself and just get better, because we're gonna play a lot of good teams in the Pac-12 and beyond that.”

Larsson might have a point. The Wildcats lost that 2021-22 game at Tennessee by only four points, and appeared to go all-out in a 92-84 loss at Purdue at Indianapolis last Saturday and during an 87-74 win over Alabama on Wednesday at the Footprint Center.

But they sleepwalked through those final two pre-Christmas games last season, having trouble putting away both Montana State and Morgan State in games that proved anticlimactic after the Wildcats beat Tennessee 75-70 at McKale.

So maybe the choice comes down to scheduling a potentially close game against another high-major team in a game that everyone’s excited about – or a potentially close game against a low-major opponent that isn't supposed to stay close.

“I think it's a credit to Tommy to put our guys in this kind of position to challenge them,” says veteran UA assistant coach Steve Robinson, who has also been a head coach at Tulsa and Florida State. “Which is easier to get your guys focused -- play in a high level game or playing in front of a sparse crowd against the 355th (rated) team?

“Hopefully, playing in this level of a game game gets their attention. They think about the game and what we’ve got to do.”

Larsson provided possibly the most notable example of that focus Wednesday, breaking the Wildcats out of a 54-54 tie midway through the second half against Alabama by forcing a turnover on Alabama forward Grant Nelson – then rebounding an ensuing missed shot by teammate guard Caleb Love and putting it in to give Arizona a 56-54 lead.

“It was awesome,” Lloyd said. “We just made a late call from the bench to pick up (Nelson), who’se a good player but generally not a guy who brings the ball down the court and Pelle can really pressure the ball. So Pelle went up there, got after him a little bit, he mishandled it and Pelle made an incredible hustle play.”

While Larsson appeared to reaggravate an injury to his right hand initially suffered when he hit the floor hard against Purdue last Saturday, he stayed in the game and added three more points during what turned from his rebound basket into a game-changing 10-0 run.

“Plays like that are going to come every game and you’ve just gotta be the most aggressive guy and dive for the ball first,” Larsson said. “l think we did that multiple times.”

Arizona wound up with all five starters in double-figure scoring Wednesday, and Lloyd also praised the urgency shown by reserves Jaden Bradley and KJ Lewis.

Bradley has sat out practices this month while rehabilitating a turf toe injury but played a key role in UA’s zone defensive success against Purdue on Satuday and logged 17 minutes against his old team on Wednesday.

“He was really spectacular today,” Lloyd said. “He’s getting healthier and he’s a tough kid. He's been trying to play through it. He always says he's not hurting but sometimes I look out in practices and it doesn't look like he's moving great, but he's hung with it.”

Then there was center Oumar Ballo, who collected his second double-double of the season four days after wrestling with Purdue star center Zach Edey. This time, Ballo collected 16 points and 12 rebounds while shooting 6-of-10 from the free throw line, his aggressiveness helping get Alabama big men Mohamed Wague and Nick Pringle fouled out of the game.

“We obviously wanted to pound it inside and take advantage of ‘O,’ “ Lloyd said. “O is coming on. I’ve been around O a long time and I think we’re on the precipice here… the physical force of him putting his body on guys in the paint just wears them out.”

Another notable stat: Ballo played 33 minutes against Purdue and 31 against Alabama, while averaging only 21 in eight games before then.

There was no rest. For the Wildcats, that can only happen after Saturday.