SALT LAKE CITY โ When Long Beach State coach Dan Monson finally rolled in late to a coaching brotherhood gathering with Arizonaโs Tommy Lloyd and Gonzagaโs Mark Few on Tuesday night at a pizza restaurant, his excuse was ready to go.
โTommy tries to give me some grief,โ Monson said. โI said, `Tommy, weโve been putting in that Princeton offense for three days. Itโs complicated. It took a little extra time today.โ โ
The ever-affable Monson told that story with a smile, of course, having said on Sunday there was no way he could possibly install such a thing in three days. It was the kind of joke that close friends, such as the three Gonzaga-bred coaches, can tell each other without hurting feelings, even if the memory itself still hurts.
Princeton. The 15-seeded team from the Ivy League that beat Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
Lloyd remembers. Arizona fans remember. Millions of college basketball fans probably remember.
Even then-not-yet-Wildcats remember.
โI mean, everybody heard about it,โ said UA guard Jaden Bradley, who was about to play for Alabama against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a first-round game when it happened. โWe were warming up and I kind of saw the ending of it on the big Jumbotron. So everybody kind of saw that.โ
Of course, half of the current Wildcats didnโt need a jumbotron to etch the memory into their brains. They were on the floor that day at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
โIt would be dumb not to learn from it,โ senior wing Pelle Larsson said. โItโs definitely in the back of our minds. But that was also last year. Weโve moved on and gotten a lot better. And I think our mentality right now is a lot better because of it probably.
โYou learn, and itโs a new year. New opportunities.โ
New team. New approach.
โI think weโre just getting to this tournament a little different than last year,โ sophomore guard Filip Borovicanin said. โLast year we started a little bit preparing for the next game, for the second game, and here we are getting ready to win first game ... and not (think) deep in the future. if youโre going to be Elite Eight, Final Four, youโre going game-by-game. Thatโs the biggest difference.โ
Nobody knows the value of that approach more than senior forward Keshad Johnson, who started for a San Diego State team that made a stunning โ and nerve-wracking โ ride to the national championship game last season. Of the Aztecsโ five NCAA Tournament wins, four came by single digits โ including one-point wins in the Elite Eight and Final Four.
โKeshad has been very vocal,โ Lloyd said. โI think his message to the guys is, โYou donโt ever assume anything. Itโs literally a one-game-at-a-time approach. You got to come out and be willing to lay it on the line in that one game.โ
โItโs simple but itโs beautiful because itโs very true.โ
So maybe no words, no thoughts expressed about potential second-round opponents Dayton and Nevada. No looking ahead to Los Angeles, where senior guard Caleb Love could be matched up with his old North Carolina teammates in the Elite Eight.
Asked about how people must have at least pointed that out to him this week, Love would barely bite.
โIโm not really focused on them. Iโm focused on us,โ Love said. โWeโre focused on Long Beach State.โ
If thereโs one thing the Wildcats have also proven over Lloydโs three seasons with them: They also tend to focus better after a loss.
UA still has never lost two games in a row since Lloyd took over in 2021-22, so by that measure alone, the Wildcatsโ Pac-12 Tournament loss to Oregon would suggest Long Beach State is in trouble.
So Oregon is motivation. And, of course, Princeton.
โWhenever we get stuff like that, we respond,โ center Oumar Ballo said Wednesday. โThatโs what championship teams do. They need to respond, especially when itโs most needed. I feel like (Thursday) weโre gonna show up.โ