With the NCAA Division I mens basketball season coming aorund in November, the Arizona Wildcats are looking to make yet another statement in their second year with a new conference.
Last year, Arizona made it to the finals of the Big 12 tournament in its first year with the conference as a No. 3 seed but fell to the Houston Cougars 72-64.
Although Arizona lost, the run was still impressive as it had notable wins such as the Kansas Jayhawks and the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who had beaten it earlier in the season.
Arizona also made it to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and made it to the Sweet 16 before losing to Duke 100-93.
Overall, Arizona finished the regular season with a No. 15 rank and a 24-13 record.
Arizona was busy this offseason as it added seven new players and one transfer. Of the seven freshmen that were added, three of them are five-star recruits.
With a combination of returning starters and the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, Arizona might be an even stronger team than it was last season.
Guards Anthony Dell'Orso and Jaden Bradley took to the podium to answer questions from the media on Wednesday about the upcoming season, players that made it to the NBA, what they've been up to during the break and much more.
Here are five of the best answers we got from the pair in the nearly 20-minute long conference.
1. Dell'Orso and Bradley on returning.
"I love what coach Lloyd and the staff and the programs all about," Bradley said.
"I feel like I definitely wanted to finish out my senior year here. I wouldn't want to do it anywhere else and I feel like they're gonna help me, you know, achieve my goals at the next level. You know, starting here, coach Lloyd, we got our whole staff back, some key players, some new guys, so were all gonna help each other achieve our goals."
"I was pretty heavily wanting to come back pretty quickly," Dell'Orso said.
"I just thought that with what I experienced last year, the way Tommy kind of recruited me, the way we had talked about like the process and what you want to achieve, you know, later in your career, he could help me with those things. You know, with certain guys kind of leaving, new guys coming in, I could see the foundation was already there, especially with guys like JB coming back, Tobe, Krivas, kind of set that tone for me. I can step right into something I already know with coaches I already trust and I can just build on what I already did."
2. Bradley on being a team veteran and being a leader.
"None of the stuff kind of really changes," Bradley said.
"(We're) missing some key guys last year that were leaders, but we definitely changed some little stuff cause, you know, obviously we didn't get as far as we hoped to, so you got to make minor, little adjustments, little tweaks. But we got a me, delli, Tobe, Krivas, you know, We've been in this program, so we really got to step up, speak up, but not feel like with this program, everybody has a voice, you know. Even if it's a freshman, you know, when they're talking, everybody's gonna have eyes on them. You know, listening. We all respect one another.
3. Dell'Orso on helping out the younger players.
"I mean, there's always growing pains with anyone, Doesn't matter how good you are," Dell'Orso said.
"But, you know, that's, that's where we kind of come in as guys that have been in the program. We can kind of help, you know, I can give my kind of two cents on what I went through and things that I'm seeing, maybe ways that coach explain. I can find a way to say it, a different way that may get through them. And I think that just comes down to, like the four of us who did come back, we can really use our experience to kind of help them. And they're also eager to learn. You know, that's, that's the number one thing, if you have to be willing to be coachable, and these guys are great at that, you know, they're willing to take information like no tomorrow, so it's promising signs, and they're obviously off to a good start."
4. Bradley on using last season as motivation.
" I mean, just, you know, we definitely wanted to, you know, hang up a, you know, big 12, you know, regular season championship, or a big 12 tournament," Bradley said.
"And, you know, get past the sweet 16, you know, as a program. I've personally never been past a Sweet 16 before, either. So just those little accomplishments, you know, throughout the season. That's definitely, you know, we're not talking about it all the time, but that's something, you know, big picture that we want to accomplish, you know, just one to three or not. You know, three, three out of three for sure."
5. Dell'Orso on incoming international players.
"Yeah, I would just say, you know, keep working hard. "Dell'Orso said.
"Obviously, you know, just there's going to be times when you don't want to keep playing. You want to kind of go home, or you want to kind of give in a little bit, and you can't. You just got to keep kind of pushing. You got to trust that the people you chose to, you know, come play for that they have your best interest, and that when you practice, you're really, like, going 100% wanting to get better. You know, may take longer than you expected, but you can't, you can't give in to that, that you know, unfortunate, like feelings or whatever you have in the moment."
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