Previewing Arizona vs. Saint Mary’s Exhibition Matchup

"It's a great program," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said of Saint Mary's. "I mean, it's been one of the most consistent programs in the country for 10, 15, 20 years now. (Randy Bennet's) a great coach, and we have a good relationship.

And then the relationship with Arizona goes before me. My relationship with him goes back before me coming here. So, yeah, it just makes great sense. We played him many times."

Last year in exhibition play before the start of the season, Arizona took on Eastern New Mexico and Point Loma. Lloyd talked about the possibility of scheduling bigger schools in exhibitions moving forward, while also balancing what facing smaller schools can also bring.

"You also have an obligation to everybody in your roster to make sure they get opportunities in these games and you want guys to play," he added. "And, there's a lot of great basketball being played at the Division II, the Division III, the NAIA, and JUCO level. So, I think it's great for those kids to have an opportunity to play a program like Arizona as well, and I don't think that should be lost."

Saint Mary's is coming off a 29-6 (17-1 WCC) season with another trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Gaels defeated Vanderbilt in the opening round before falling to Alabama in round two.

Lloyd's Hopeful Thinking

It is unclear what the starting lineup and rotation will be in Saturday's exhibition game for Arizona, but Lloyd is hoping to get everyone playing time on the team. He also added not to read too much into the rotations and minutes each player sees.

"I hope everyone gets an opportunity to play," Lloyd said. "We just got to figure out what that looks like. And we have an obligation to prepare the team for tough games ahead. So, we got to figure out if there's certain lineups we need to look at, or a certain number of minutes we want to get guys, we kind of got to figure out what that looks like."

Arizona will play its first of two exhibition games on Saturday, with the other one taking place on Oct 27 against Embry-Riddle.

What storylines are you watching for on this year's roster heading into Saturday's exhibition game against Saint Mary's? Let us know by clicking the link to find us and be sure to follow us.