NCAA Tournament: What Tommy Lloyd, Arizona Wildcats players said after beating Purdue to clinch Final Four bid

SAN JOSE—Depending on what time they got up, Saturday morning and afternoon was full of stress and anxiety throughout Wildcat Nation. Not for Tommy Lloyd.

“I woke up this morning—this is a true story—and I thought, are we in the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight?,” Lloyd said. “The moment I thought that, I knew we were all right, because I knew we weren’t making too big of a deal out of this.”

Arizona is headed to its first Final Four since 2001 after beating Purdue in the West Region final. It trailed by seven at halftime before the team that has won a school-record 36 games showed up in the second half.

“We got off to a good start,” Lloyd said. “Then we didn’t play great, but I thought Purdue played really well the second part of that first half. In the locker room at halftime you have long halftimes. We’ve talked a lot about this with the guys, long halftimes, long time outs. We can’t let that disrupt our rhythm. We have to be the team that comes out with the most effort out of a timeout, in these 3-minute time-outs or a 20-minute halftime.”

Arizona outscored the Boilermakers 48-26 in the second half.

Our full game recap can be found here, along with social media reactions to the victory. Below is what Lloyd and Arizona players said after cutting down the nets:

Lloyd on halftime adjustments: “(Jack Murphy) does our normal routine, shows the guys some clips. I come in when he is kind of done, talk to them kind of, my thoughts and a little overall thoughts of what I think what we need to do in the second half. Then these dudes have been unbelievable. This is when we’re at our best. I said, guys, the coaching staff and I are going to leave right now. You guys got a few minutes to talk amongst yourselves and kind of figure this deal out, and let’s go kick their ass in the second half. All these dudes, I was literally a spectator like you were in that second half. That’s what it felt like. So proud of these guys for what they did, for our program, and obviously our community.”

On outscoring Purdue by 22 in the 2^nd half: “Our guys were obviously great in the second half. I have so much respect for Purdue. I wouldn’t have said we’re going to come out and beat them by 22 in the second half. The message to the guys from me was, like, stay steady, let’s work ourselves back in the game. We’ve been great at the start of the second half. Then we’ll go from there.

“Our guys did a good job. They came out, and we tied the game pretty quick. Then it’s a 0-0 game, and can we win it down the stretch? Then somehow some way we were able to sustain that run. But, you’re right, I thought when you’re down at seven at half, you think this thing is going to come down to the last four minutes and you’re going to have to find a way. That was what I told the guys. Let’s find a way to be in the game in the last four minutes, and we’ve been great closing games this year.”

On how often he lets the players do their own halftime discussion: “We’re together every day, and so they hear me a lot. One of those things I’m so proud of when I listen to these guys at the press conference, when they’re, with no prompting, relaying the messaging that our coaching staff is trying to get them to understand. It tells me that our guys are paying attention. The most powerful thing in a team sport is a player-led program. The coach, you have to help them navigate it, but when you can get the players to kind of own these moments, you are just so much better. You are so much better.

“I’ve done it, I don’t know, probably four or five times this year. Every time it’s worked. So you probably can’t do it too often, but I’ve done it at a few time-outs. I’ve done it at a couple of halftimes. These guys have a way about them. There’s a seriousness about them. They know how to kind of rachet things down and tighten it up and get after people. I was really proud of them how they responded in that second half.”

On thanking Lute Olson: “Listen, Lute has given me a great life. He and I shook hands only a few times kind of in a handshake line or something at a game, and I think I was at a cancer event for him one time. His legacy in Tucson is so powerful. He’s the guy. There’s others before him, but he’s the main catalyst to make our program the center of the community.

“When I got the job, I was, like, wow, people in Tucson really want to like their basketball coach, and it wasn’t a contentious relationship at all. They want to love you. The reason they want to love you is because they loved Lute so much, and he meant so much to the community. Without Lute—without Sean (Miller) doing what he did for those 12 years he was here, I wouldn’t be able to do what we did today. I fully understand that. Those guys, this is for them too. You know, I have no problem sharing the success of this team with the coaches that came before me.”

On Arizona native Koa Peat getting the Wildcats to the Final Four: “They call him Mr. Arizona. Koa is special, and I know you guys hear it, but you got to hear it again. Four state championships at the same high school. Didn’t go to a prep school. Four gold medals with USA Basketball. No one in FIBA history has ever done that. And helped lead Arizona to a Final Four.

“That was my recruiting pitch. Four, four, and four. Let’s do it. The dude, he’s amazing. His ability to perform the way he did in these moments, you know, he’s been in a lot of them. I told our guys, don’t make too much out of this. It’s like a state championship game. You guys have all played in them. Or a gold medal game or whatever. Let’s just find a way to win the game. Don’t make it more than it is.”

On Brayden Burries shaking off a rough start: “The first half he didn’t look great. He kind of looked tentative like he looked at the start of the year. He kind of took some questionable shots. Then in the second half he was on the left wing, and he kind of — I think he had an open three, but he kind of hesitated and then ended up shooting it and missed it. I think a couple of guys in the staff got after him a little bit. I knew he was going to make his next one. He’s really been able to respond from those moments this year, and I think that just shows the overall growth of him as a player.”

On Steve Kerr and other Arizona greats being in San Jose: “I love those guys, and they have given me a better life because they helped build this program to what it is now. The legacy is so strong. Those guys have been so cool and so welcoming to me. You know, the sun may be shining on this team and me coaching it right now, but when it’s shining on you, you got to fight like hell to protect it and build it. So that’s what I feel like my number one responsibility is, to fight to protect the program and fight to build it for those who came before me and for those that are going to follow after me, because you know what, Arizona is going to have another good coach after me. I promise you. The place is special.”

On the challenge of facing a veteran Purdue team: “Massive challenges. They have a great coach, and they have a great system, and they have so much experience. I mean, their recall of probably being able to make adjustments and run sets they haven’t run in months is probably really, really impressive. We knew it was going to be hard. When you look at it, obviously Braden (Smith) is so good, and we knew he was going to have the ball a lot in his hands. You know, we tried to figure out a couple of different plans.

“But we also knew we had to do a great job on Fletcher Loyer. He made four threes in each of the last two games. We’ve been pretty good when we’re locked in on chasing guys through screens. We’re physical enough to kind of get through it. Then Trey Kaufman-Renn is so interesting. He has that 15-foot push floater. He’s great getting down to his right hand. They do a good job of putting him in situations. (Oscar) Cluff is playing his ass often. That dude, I felt like he had every rebound out there today.

“So we knew it was going to be tough, but we knew we had to do a good job on Braden. Then we really wanted to, like — we wanted to see if we could limit Fletcher as much as we could. If Braden scored 25, maybe it wasn’t going to be our day. If Trey scored 25, maybe it wasn’t going to be our day, but we just felt with our physicality and athleticism and size we could put on Trey, we wanted to see if he could consistently score over us. I didn’t realize he was 5 for 14. I know he had some foul trouble, but our guys did a great job executing the plan on him. Listen, Coach Murph is killing it. Coach Murph has done the last three scouts, and you guys don’t know how time-intensive that is. Now, our staff has helped him, but he’s been kind of the driving force. Obviously he runs things by me with these game plans, but he’s crushing it. He’s had three great scouts in a row, and our guys are really connected with him on his scouting and they’re doing a great job executing his plans.”

On understanding how much the Arizona community cares about basketball: “ Listen, the people of Tucson are basketball historians. The number of stories I’ve heard consistently about things that happened 10, 20, 30 years ago, it’s impressive. I mean, they really hold on to the things this program accomplishes and they hold on to our struggles as well. They’re great historians.

For me, like right now, I’m a little tired, you know. I want to kind of go hang out with my team and my family and just get back to Tucson and those Catalina foothills and take a breath tomorrow. My main motivating factor has been our community and our fans. I just feel like — and I’m probably going to be a little bit oblivious to it because I won’t be in the middle of it, but you take the 15 minutes of collective joy of each individual that loves this program, that’s happy right now, how powerful is that? How cool is that? You talk about getting the compound effect.

“So I’m really happy for our community now, and I’m sure — you know, I’m tired, I want to relax a little bit, but I’m sure when we get back to Tucson, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some fans there waiting for us, which is going to be awesome to share this with them.”

On Arizona being praised by Arkansas coach John Calipari and Purdue’s Matt Painter: “ Hey, I’m thankful for that, because I do respect Coach Cal and Coach Paint. Those guys have been good to me kind of being a new guy at this level. I don’t sit around and, I don’t know, feel good about myself because people are saying good things about us, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. Those guys are great coaches, and they’re formidable foes. We’ll take it all in, but you know what, not to get off track, you know what I’m really looking forward to? A day off tomorrow and then practice on Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to practice on Tuesday.

“That was the one little — your mind goes a lot of places when you are kind of lost in your thoughts. My one thing was, like, man, if we don’t pull this out today, we don’t get to practice on Tuesday. I don’t know if these guys love practice, but I love practicing with them. I can’t wait to get out there Tuesday and kind of get back on them and, like, no, no, no, let’s go. We’re still fighting, and we’re still fighting to get better and see if we can get a little bit better before next Saturday.”

Jaden Bradley on defending Braden Smith: “He’s a great guard. Great leader for them. He had it going in the first half doing anything he wanted he still got to his spot in the second half. He just wasn’t hitting all the shots. It’s just a tough cover. Just trying to get through all those ball screens. I felt like our bigs did a great job helping us just in different defensive coverages. Whoever was guarding him did a great job just mixing it up on him. Just shout-out to Coach Murph for the scout and we kind of stuck with it.”

On defeding Fletcher Loyer: “He was definitely high up on the scout. Braden Smith and the other bigs, they have a lot of attention on them. If you fall asleep, he’s hitting two threes and another three. That was a big part of the scout. Don’t let him get a clean look. He got some good looks. He hit a couple, but I feel like everybody that was on him just made it — contested everything, tried to get to every ball screen. We know if we limited his three-point attempts, we have a great look at winning the ball game.”

On Arizona basketball history: “Definitely know the history. Arizona is a great athletic school. Coach Murph does a great job. I feel like every year I’ve been here he’s just telling us the history, knowing the players that came before us, even the managers and everybody that came before us, the coaches. So knowing the history, I feel like just they’re going to tell us even if you don’t want to hear it. Making it to the Final Four is big. We appreciate Tucson, the supporters, and everybody behind the scenes. We just are happy that we get to reward them with this.”

On riling up the crowd: “ I’ve just have been following Ivan’s lead, waving my arms and getting the crowd hyped. We really appreciate them. It felt like a home game atmosphere out there. We couldn’t have did it without them. Excited to get back, get back to them to celebrate this with them. Just excited. You know, want to see them in Indiana. Let’s get it rocking again. Let’s get it rolling, and just appreciate y’all.”

Peat on the player-led halftime: “Just our leaders leading us, honestly. JB, Tobe, Ivan, Mo, they all talked to us and just told us to keep going. You know, we’ve been through adversity this season. Can’t get too high or too low. Just stay even keeled. And we went out there and played our game and came out victorious. I’m just proud of the guys. We stayed together.”

On playing for Lloyd: “ Coach Tommy is huge for us. Always giving us great speeches the night before the game. I think it was back to the LIU game, just had me ready to play honestly that night, and we played the next day in the morning. I mean, Coach, he’s great. Ever since he recruited me, it’s been nothing but love, and I’m just happy to be able to win games for him. Me and these guys, we want to win as many games as we can for Coach because he deserves it. He won’t say it, but I think he’s the best coach in the country.”

On doing a victory lap through the crowd: “It was Braden’s idea, honestly. He’s really big — we’re all big on the fans, but just that love and support they show us, we just got to show it back and give it in return. That’s what we did. We went around and just dabbed up all the fans. We’re just so thankful for them.”

Ivan Kharchenkov on if he thought this was possible when Arizona first contacted him years ago: “No, I never thought, when I was first time talking to Arizona. I didn’t even know really what it was all about. But when the talks got pretty more serious and, you know, close to the deal, yeah, of course, we were talking about winning. That’s the most important thing in sports. Yeah, I mean, we’re rolling pretty good right now.”

On the fan support: “ Yeah, they’re big-time. I love playing in front of our fans. They give us emotions, a lot of energy, and you know, just looking at the crowd you remind yourself who you are doing it for.”

Burries on the crowd: “We try to get them into it because that’s extra, that’s extra points for us, honestly, the momentum. When the crowd gets involved, people start to get a little timid. Our fans, did a great job, there was a lot of them out there.”

On when he knew Arizona had the game won: “When we got up 10, then we started making a run. We just started defending and rebounding. Started to score at will, and, that’s when we’re like, okay, just slow down. Just take it possession by possession.”

On how long they’ll celebrate: “Once we get back it’s back to business we’ll focus on whoever we’re playing.”

Motiejus Krivas on making the Final Four: “Before the game, we were just thinking to win the game, but now when you realize what was done. It’s not our goal but it’s so close to our goal. Super proud of the team, happy for everyone that supported us.”