Arizona took care of business Wednesday night, keeping Samford’s pressure defense at bay and maximizing its own offensive chances for a lopsided win to get back to .500 on the season.

The game saw a change in the starting lineup as well as the collegiate debut of a promising junior and a great performance from the Pac-12 Player of the Year Caleb Love.

You can find our game summary here Here. Below is what love, Tommy Lloyd And Trey Townsend said after the victory:

Lloyd on dealing with Samford’s press: “I felt really good overall. I think we only had four turnovers in the first half, and I can (only) imagine that turnover against the press off the top of my head. We managed to deal with the press and get a bit of a lead. We kind of lost our way in the second half. And they do that with teams. They kind of wear them down a little bit. Maybe I should have substituted or continued, but we didn’t get off to a good start. I kind of wanted to see if we could rebuild a lead before we resumed our rotation. Maybe some guys got a little tired, but that’s still no excuse for not being tough. I could think of two lively rebounds where I think Delly had a rebound and Tobe had a rebound and they just threw a blind exit that you would normally feel comfortable with. But against these guys they stole both and three. They were a bit disappointing. And then I just felt like during that stretch in the second half, I think a couple guys, Caleb and maybe JB, maybe tried to force a ball into a little window. I don’t think you need to do that if you have a lead. You have to find a way to be a little more solid.

At the season high of 58.2 percent: “The other thing you have to deal with them is just the changing defenses on the other side. 2-3, 1-3-1 zone, they obviously play one man. So I think our guys handled it well for the most part. Because when you call up sets you can’t really find a rhythm. You have to rely on concepts and fundamentals. And I think overall our guys did a good job.”

For the transition game: “Transitions are great, but you also have to be good in the half court. And I thought our ball movement was better overall today, we just had a little bit of feel for it. You can say that this can be seen in the assistance numbers. We have a few more passes connected and that’s really important. The way we pass the ball is very important and, to be honest, just hasn’t been good enough so far. Hopefully we can continue to make progress there.”

On Love with 23 after 7 against UCLA: “Caleb is a good player. And guess what? I will stay with him. I mean, that’s my job. We will stay with him. I’m not a fair-weather person. I love my players. And listen, I’ll hold them accountable. We have a lot of conversations about things, and we have real conversations. But this is college basketball and I don’t care if there’s NIL in the game or what, my job is to help a young man through tough times and struggles. That’s my job and that’s what I’m going to do. And guess what? I wear it when things aren’t going well, and when things are going well, I don’t take credit for it. That’s exactly how I’m going to do it. I’m proud of the way Caleb played, but it’s one game. Got a game on Saturday, do it again.”

On Love picking up 8 fouls: “We noticed that his free throw rate is down a little bit compared to last year. I don’t think there is such a thing as tactics like we talked about. We want him to get to the free throw line and he did that well today. He has to find a good balance between chasing catch-and-shoot shots and drives and playing in transition.”

Why he launched Anthony Dell’Orso instead of Carter Bryant: “Try things out. I don’t claim to have all the answers. You know, I’m not the type of person who often mixes up the starting lineup. I will do it every now and then if I think it can help our team. But I just felt at the beginning of these games that maybe a little more shooting could help us. And listen, Delly was shooting 52 percent from 3 when he came into the game, and against UCLA I didn’t get enough minutes for him. That’s why I wanted to see what it looks like when it starts. The funny thing is guys, believe it or not, I don’t have the magic fairy dust because it didn’t start well. But we did it. So we’ll take some positives from this.”

On Bryant’s piece: “He’s growing in the program, guys. Today is the first day we played him a few minutes on the 4. Maybe I could have done this sooner. When Big Mo showed up and came back and was the focus of the core of our team, you had to plan for it somehow. If he’s in, Henri might need a few more minutes at the 4, so all those things happen. But the biggest thing is that the 4 and the 3 in our system are just a little different movement patterns in the way we play. And sometimes it can be a lot for a newbie. Carter, he’s had a steep learning curve, but he keeps climbing. I think he really influenced the game and played well.”

On Bryant making slow progress: “The 4 and 3 in our system could be a little confusing for a first-year player. Do you know who found out? A child named Pelle Larson. He figured it out with ease, so it was easy to do different things with him lineup-wise. Carter, with a little more experience I think we can do that too.

“He finds his way and everyone runs their own race and I’m really confident that Carter’s race will end well. Just like our team, we are going through it. You have to hold on somehow. It’s been a month. One month will not define Arizona basketball, nor should it define our season. Now it affects it 100 percent, but it doesn’t define it. So let’s fight for the result we want and that’s what we do. And I think Carter does the same thing.”

On facing TJ McConnell at Gonzaga: “TJ McConnell versus another kid named Kevin Pangos. Wow. Two full-fledged stallions are behind. They both moved on and Kevin had a cup of coffee in the NBA, but in Europe he made it at the highest level. TJ obviously had a lot more, he had a full barrel in the NBA. These two guys are guys, and any college basketball coach that could get a player like that would embrace him in a heartbeat.”

On Emmanuel Stephens’ goal on his first career try: “A great tip. Exactly what we came up with.”

On deciding to play Stephen for the first time: “He’s ready. We’ll see how it works because we believe he’s ready to contribute. He probably needs another week or two of good training and then we’ll think of some packages that we can play with him that make sense for him. But hey, when you see him, your eyes are on him, right? Something is always happening. I mean, he’s kind of a whirling dervish out there, which is exciting because there’s so much potential.”

Kind regards to his performance: “Just seeing the ball go through the basket was a great feeling. But I give full credit to my teammates because they put me in the right position. I moved around a little bit more and I know I have to do that for the team because of the spacing. From then on I kind of got into the rhythm.”

To start with a made 3: “When you see the first one go through, you feel good. You just want to get the best shots possible. I would like to thank my teammates for doing something for me. This is just good basketball, not just me. When we’re moving on the ball, I feel like we’re at our best.”

When reaching the line: “Finally. I had only shot twelve free throws at the start of the game, and shooting eight tonight felt good.”

On his self-confidence: “When you don’t shoot the ball well or make shots that you normally do in training or practice, you get a little confused. You just have to double your training, double your belief and still believe that you can hit those shots. My teammates have trust in me, my coaches have trust in me. It shouldn’t be a question of my confidence.”

On dealing with the slow team start: “We just have to keep believing that we are a great team. In the summer we had the feeling that we had a great group and were the best team in the country. And just because we’re 5-5 and struggling early shouldn’t take away our faith. We have to continue to develop and develop every single game. We just have to take it game by game. And I think it’s just an opportunity for us to make it a great story.”

Townsend on dealing with the press: “We had a good week of preparation for them. Our scouting team did a great job all week preparing us for this. We really focused on the basics all week so we were prepared. We knew they were going to keep the pressure on and keep them cornered throughout the game and overall I was happy with everyone’s performance. They stayed balanced and we were able to play with ease for most of the game.”

On facing two teams in a row that force a lot of turnovers: “They are both very aggressive. Of course we experienced that last weekend, but it just came down to being basically healthy, like I said, we worked on that a lot this week and just being hard with the ball. As soon as we focused on what was important and just stayed tough, everything became easier for people. We slowed ourselves down with passes, instead of letting the defense dictate our speed, we tried to let our offense dictate the defense.”

On the goal for Saturday’s game against Central Michigan: “Try to play a full 40 minutes. Obviously we were close today, but there was a three, four minute stretch where we slowed down a little bit. I still don’t think we played the full 40 minutes.”