Despite obstacles on final Pac-12 visit to Pullman, Arizona Wildcats have reason to be ready

“Oooh. Awesome!” Smith said. “Come on up! Winter’s here, baby. Let’s go!”

Even though the forecast is actually for a comparatively balmy plus-five degrees at tip time Saturday, that’s still well below the pain threshold of adopted Arizonan Tommy Lloyd.

Despite spending 21 years in Eastern Washington working on the Gonzaga staff, the third-year UA coach now says he won’t even play pickleball if it’s under 46 degrees.

“My blood has definitely thinned,” Lloyd said. “Forty-six is now freezing on my thermometer.”

That’s not the only warning sign the Wildcats have to face Saturday, either.

The others have been popping up all week: Top-ranked Purdue lost at Nebraska. Second-ranked Houston lost at Iowa State. Third-ranked Kansas lost at Central Florida. And fifth-ranked Tennessee lost at Mississippi State.

That’s right: Of the seven teams ranked ahead of No. 8 Arizona in the Associated Press Top 25, four of them already lost road conference games before the weekend even started.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Lloyd said. “We know how hard this is. We had our moment at Stanford and we very well could have another moment in Pullman this weekend.”

They could. But Arizona has won 11 straight games in Pullman, and the Wildcats have plenty of reasons to suggest they also should be ready this time.

The first reason is that Stanford loss, how Arizona was actually ahead of the curve on the early-conference upset thing, losing 100-82 to the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion on Dec. 31.

“We remember that Stanford game,” guard Caleb Love said. “I think that’s big for us. It’s not taking teams lightly going into the game.”

While that loss may still sting the Wildcats, the other losses by Top-10 teams might at least make them feel a little better.

“It’s hard to win on the road in college basketball,” Lloyd said. “It’s something you don’t ever take for granted. If you went back and looked at a trend those first two weeks in January when power conference teams start playing road games, there’s a lot of quote-unquote upsets. So they’re probably not as big of upsets as we think.

“It just happens. With a lot of these power conference teams, you can really tilt your (nonconference) schedule to play a lot of home games and maybe a select neutral or two, so when you go out on the road, it’s going to be more difficult. We totally know and respect that.”

The Wildcats’ second reason to be ready for Saturday’s game is that, unlike those power conference peers Lloyd is referring to, they didn’t load up their nonconference schedule with softies.

Already having beaten then-No. 2 Duke in a true road game during the first week of the season, UA lost at Stanford at the tail end of what was actually a five-game streak away from McKale Center in which the Wildcats faced Purdue in Indianapolis, Alabama in Phoenix and Florida Atlantic in Las Vegas before starting Pac-12 play on the road in the Bay Area.

The Wildcats also know playing at WSU is not your everyday conference road game.

While WSU could attract a season-best crowd Saturday because of the Wildcats’ stature and the Cougars’ win over USC — along with a midafternoon tip time on a day too frigid to do much else — the Palouse’s sparse population usually ensures that Beasley will be less than half full.

It’s a road game but, other than the vibe from courtside WSU students, not usually a hostile one for the visitors. It can be a challenge only for those who are used to feeding off a crowd’s energy one way or another.

For Love, that could be an adjustment. Not only has the veteran North Carolina transfer displayed a fearlessness in adverse situations but he’s also never played in Pullman.

But Love and the Wildcats did play in another half-empty arena two weeks ago at Stanford, so they have a pretty recent memory of what can happen in that sort of environment.

“We’ve just got to create our own energy as far as however many fans there’s gonna be,” Love said, “and not feed into the ‘Oh, it’s not gonna be as hype as other games.’ “

Finally, as ominous as the weather may appear, the game will be played inside a heated building.

The Wildcats will only need to take a few outdoor steps here and there, like the charter plane to bus, the bus to hotel and the hotel to the Beasley loading ramp, and Lloyd says he’s sure equipment manager Brian Brigger will “gear the guys up” for those brief occasions.

That’s another reason why the Wildcats should be ready for Saturday’s game, too.

At least Lloyd hopes so.

“I mean, come on, you’re gonna play a hard road game,” Lloyd says. “If you’re gonna let the weather on the outside impact what’s going to happen on the inside, you’re probably not focused on the right thing.”