No. 9 Arizona knows it's 'going to be a fist fight' against No. 6 Tennessee

Tommy Lloyd has one memory that stands out more than anything else from taking his undefeated Arizona basketball team to Thompson-Boling Arena last December. 

“Sixteen to two,” Lloyd said Tuesday night. “Sixteen to two. That’s my memory.”

Tennessee scored the first nine points of the game and extended the run to 16-2 after the first five minutes, eight seconds, forcing Lloyd to call a timeout. 

The biggest lead of the night was 15 and it was a 13-point game at halftime. But Arizona came back to tie it with 4:54 left, then again with 2:58 to go, only to see the Vols pull away in the closing minutes in a 77-73 win.

Now, as No. 6 Tennessee (9-1) makes the return trip to No. 9 Arizona (9-1) for Saturday’s game (10:30 p.m. Eastern Time; ESPN2), Lloyd knows exactly what to expect from these Vols. 

“It’s going to be a fist fight,” he said after Arizona’s 99-61 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Tuesday. “That’s the way they play and there’s really no other way to describe it. You think you’re going to go in and win this game by being dainty and cute, you got another thing coming.”

Vols at Arizona: College basketball’s No. 1 defense vs. No. 1 offense

It’s a matchup of KenPom.com‘s No. 1 team in adjusted defensive efficiency against the No. 1 team in adjusted offensive efficiency.

Arizona averages 92.0 points per game, scoring 100 or more points three times, 90 or more points five times and 80 or more in all 10 games this season. Tennessee gives up just 51.4, holding opponents to 50 points or less in seven of the first 10 games. 

On Tuesday against Corpus Christi, Arizona scored 47 points in the first half, 52 points in the second half and finished the night 15-for-27 from the 3-point line.

”I think on a lot of nights you’ll have open shots,” Lloyd said, “for us it’s just about finding the discipline to take the right open shots.”

And they did it largely without starting guard Kerr Kriisa, the 6-foot-3 junior who left Tuesday’s game due to a non-COVID illness after playing just five minutes. He scored 11 points to go with three rebounds, three assists and four turnovers before fouling out after 38 minutes in Knoxville last year. 

“He hasn’t been feeling well, a little bit run down,” Lloyd said, adding that the illness shouldn’t affect his availability for the Tennessee game. “I don’t think it’s anything significant. We’ve been riding pretty hard and he’s got a little bit of a bug and he just didn’t feel it today.”

Arizona shoots 39.3 percent from the 3-point line as a team so far, making 8.3 per game. The Wildcats shoot 54.7 percent from the field as a team. 

Tennessee is No. 1 defensively in effective field-goal percentage (36.8), No. 1 in three-point percentage allowed (20.2) and No. 9 in two-point percentage allowed (41.4). 

Arizona is No. 1 in effective field goal percentage offensively (61.6), No. 23 in three-point percentage (39.3), and No. 1 in two-point percentage (63.0).

“They’re big and fast and they run,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on Monday. “It’s going to be a very electric building. I think they came in last year, they hadn’t lost if I remember right. We were able to beat them in a great game. We got a big lead, they came back, we finished it. 

“Tommy Lloyd has done a good job again. Arizona is a historically great program. Their fans love their team.”

Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee at No. 9 Arizona, Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Lloyd said his team wants to be just as tough as the defensive numbers say the Vols are. And he believes his Wildcats are capable of it.

Arizona is No. 64 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, ranked 69th in effective field-goal percentage allowed (46.6), No. 209 in three-point percentage allowed (34.3), 33rd in two-point percentage allowed (43.8) and No. 346 in turnover percentage (15.0).

“We want to be a really physical team,” he said, “and we’re built to be a really physical team. We’ve got to keep hammering that home. I don’t know if it’s ugly or if it’s beautiful, but it’s going to be a fight. And we’re built to fight.”

“All I know is we’ve got a game Saturday,” Lloyd added, “against a really good opponent and we need to put our hard hats on.”