Arizona's Freshmen Making the Difference

Arizona is set to play the the 16 seeded LIU Sharks in San Diego this Friday at 10:35 a,m, (MST) and al though its freshmen have competed in tournaments, state champions, even FIBA and European games, there is no tournament quite like March Madness.

Maturity amongst first year players

Lloyd knows his first year players haven't been in a tournament quite at the magnitude of March Madness, but knows that they are ready for the moment and have displayed a level of maturity on par with the veterans.

"I think those freshmen might be as mature as anybody in the whole group and I think theyre just wired that way," Lloyd said. "I'll obviously take stock this week and talk to them and watch them and then figure out if we need to have more pointed conversations, but, um, no, I I they're they're really mature, competitive guys.
I think they're I think they'll be excited."

A young starting five

When the starting roster came out and fans saw that three out of the five starting players were frhsmen, there may have been some concern for Lloyd's team given the physical conference the Wildcats compete in.

Now that Arizona snagged the regular season and tournament Big 12 titles, those concerns have evaporated. And why would they stay when 45.99% of the teams average amount of points are scored by those freshmen?

When Lloyd and his group of coaches finalize the starting lineup, there was no second thoughts behind it, as he knew the identity that he wanted for Arizona this season.

:To me it's almost easier to make that decision knowing you have the veterans coming off the bench.," Lloyd said. "You were able to hedge your bet, so to speak. I felt great about that from day one. You have an idea of what you want the identity to your team could be that that you think suits your team and so you kind of try to create an opportunity for that to happen and that's what we did with that. We want to be a physical defensive oriented strong rebounding team that can run good offense. Those are the reasons we kind of made those decisions."

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