Arizona defeats Arizona State in a close contest marred by a late altercation. Coach Tommy Lloyd discusses the events and the importance of the rivalry.
Arizona's head coach, entering his fourth year, lauded Hurley and Arizona State after the Wildcats secured a hard-fought 81-72 victory on Saturday in Tempe. The men's basketball rivalry game took a sour turn in the final minute when Arizona State's BJ Freeman headbutted Arizona's Caleb Love . Both players were ejected and refused to shake hands with Arizona players or coaches after the game.
Love led Arizona with 27 points, while Jaden Bradley added 14 for the Wildcats (15-6, 9-1), who now occupy sole possession of second place in the Big 12. Coach, Tommy Lloyd, commented on the situation, stating, 'That could be a good decision. If things got chippy, you know what I mean, that could be a good decision. I'm not going to question their decision to do that. I'm not going to hold it against anybody. We obviously didn't want anything else to escalate and I totally understand why that was done.'He continued, 'I didn't see what happened. There obviously was an altercation between Caleb and number 10. Obviously Caleb reacted. It sounds like he got headbutted. I haven't seen the video so I don't know one way or another what to say. Obviously it's disappointing, probably on all sides. We want to be a program that when the tough things happen, we want to respond with class. And I don't know if we did or didn't.' Lloyd further expressed his respect for Arizona State, saying 'Just a tough moment in an emotional game. I've got a lot of respect for for Bobby (Hurley) and Arizona State, and his guys played their asses off today. I mean they hit some great shots. It was a back and forth game and we were just able to make a run at the right time.' Lloyd concluded his thoughts by emphasizing the importance of the rivalry for the state of Arizona, stating, 'It was great. It was fun. It's a fun environment and you wish everybody could kind of experience it when you're sitting in that frying pan a little bit. But like I said, we like playing these guys because it's fun and it's great for the state of Arizona.' He added, 'We all know Caleb's a good player. I know he's not going to probably play like that every single day, but when he does play like that it doesn't surprise me. I think these games are going to be high emotion games. I think what's interesting is you look at these rosters, the percentage of players that are from the state is probably not very high. But you still feel the effort and the energy translate through the fan bases into this game. ... I have no issues with Arizona State or Arizona State people. A lot of them I'm friends with. It's just, hey, you chose different paths and I guess for these two hours people pick sides. But other than that I'm all for the state of Arizona, all around.
Arizona Wildcats Arizona State Sun Devils NCAA Basketball Men's Basketball Rivalry Game Caleb Love BJ Freeman Tommy Lloyd Bobby Hurley
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