It's been a week since Arizona last took the court, a week that has seen them sit below the.500 mark. This is a situation that hadn't occurred since 2010, and it's not the start to the 2024-25 season that anyone associated with the Wildcats had envisioned. Coach Tommy Lloyd remains positive, stating, "It hasn't been the start any of us had signed up for, but we're owning it. The last few days have been tough, but I'm really excited how it's starting to feel. The most important thing is you stay committed to the process. Being challenged is not a bad thing."

Preseason Projections and Current Reality

Ranked 10th in the preseason Associated Press poll and picked to finish 5th in their first season in the Big 12, those projections now seem inaccurate. However, the Wildcats are not alone; they are one of seven schools from the preseason Top 25 with at least three losses. This early struggle is unfamiliar to most UA fans, as in Lloyd's first three seasons, he started 11-0, 6-0, and 8-0, and the fourth loss in his debut campaign came in the Sweet 16. Lloyd said, "I've been really fortunate in this coaching business to be around a lot of winning. I've been really fortunate in my first few years at Arizona to have a lot of winning. Guys, I'm okay. I'm built for this. I can't be a great coach if I'm only a good coach when our program is winning. Then I'm a front runner. I'm okay with where we're at. I don't love it, but I'm okay with it. I'm going to use this is a great learning opportunity for myself, and we're going to use this as a defining moment for our program. That's our approach."

Battle4Atlantis and Exposed Flaws

The UA is coming off a 4th-place finish at the Battle4Atlantis in the Bahamas, going 1-2 with losses to unbeaten Oklahoma and in overtime to West Virginia. These games, along with earlier losses to Wisconsin and Duke, have exposed numerous flaws in the Wildcats' game. When asked about specific flaws, Lloyd said, "I think you could list a lot of things. You kind of start (to open) Pandora's box a little bit." Rebounding was his top concern, as Arizona lost those battles to both Oklahoma and West Virginia. It wasn't the raw totals that bothered him as much as specific instances. He said, "I just think there was just a number of 1-on-1 rebounding battles that we could have been better on, they could have been tougher on. I went back and watched them on film, we were getting pushed around a little bit. That's just not acceptable. Your guards got to be tough enough to block out their 4 man. Your guards got to be tough enough to give effort to block out a 5. That's winning. That's us play. We got to get a little bit better at finding some more of those us moments and the individual needs to give a better effort." For the season, Arizona is still 11th in Division I in offensive rebounding rate (40.1 percent) and 57th in defensing rebounding, but three of the four losses have seen the opponent be better on the offensive glass.

Assist Rate and Ball Movement

The Wildcats are also way down in assist rate, sitting 237th out of 364 schools at 48.6 percent after being top 25 each of Lloyd's first three seasons including 5th and 2nd, respectively, in his first two years. The 48.6 percent would be the program's lowest assist rate since 1983-84. Lloyd said, "Overall ball movement is probably not where it needs to be, that's something we've been hoping to get back to. These guys need to figure it out how it needs to feel and how it needs to look when we play in a game, versus practice. You can do it in practice, and hey, we're going to work on ball movement, and everybody locks into the process and pats each other on the back, is all happy and excited. Well, what are you practicing for? You're practicing for the game. So, it's got to show the games, and it's something that we've always emphasized. It's falling a little short there right now, but, but hopefully that that trait will change."

Defense and Perimeter Shot

One area Lloyd doesn't seem worried about is Arizona's defense, particularly against the perimeter shot. Five of seven opponents have hit at least 10 3-pointers, with five shooting better than 35 percent from outside and two knocking down better than 40 percent. Lloyd said, "Just get back to probably playing a little bit harder and having a little bit more attentiveness and effort in some of those areas, and trying to make people miss a little bit more. I still think this is going to be a really good defensive team. I don't think our numbers are crazy off. I mean, they're obviously not what we want them to be. We just need to kind of harken back to, what are the things that drive winning on the defensive end? Well, you got to do a good job with the 3-point line. You got to protect the paint and hopefully keep the other team off the free throw line. I think you can look back at all these games and find instances where one of those three things has been prevalent, so we just got to get back to maybe being a little bit more consistent at all of them."

Southern Utah and the Upcoming Test

Southern Utah (8-2) may not provide a big test in the 3-pointer or rebounding areas, as the Thunderbirds only make 7.2 triples per game and their rebounding numbers are in the bottom half nationally. They do get to the line a lot, though, taking 24 free throws per game with an offense that's big on driving to the basket and trying to score at the rim. Lloyd said, "I don't think there's anything that they're doing that no one else is doing, but I think you're going to have a team that's going to come in here licking their chops and ready to battle us."