It’s been a week since Arizona last played a game, which means it’s been a week of sitting below .500, something that hadn’t previously occurred since 2010. Not exactly the kind of start to the 2024-25 season that anyone associated with the Wildcats had expected.

“It hasn’t been the start any of us had signed up for, but we’re owning it,” coach Tommy Lloyd said Friday, the day before the Wildcats (3-4) return to action at home against Southern Utah. “It’s what’s happened. The last few days have been tough, but I’m really excited how it’s starting to feel. The most important thing is you stay committed to the process. Being challenged is not a bad thing.”

Ranked 10^th in the preseason Associated Press poll and picked to finish 5^th in its first season in the Big 12, neither of those projections look very accurate. But they also don’t automatically spell doom for the season ahead, as the Wildcats are one of seven schools from that preseason Top 25 with at least three losses.

None of that matters to most UA fans, who aren’t used to this kind of early struggle. In Lloyd’s first three seasons he started 11-0, 6-0 and 8-0, and in his debut campaign the Wildcats’ fourth loss came in the Sweet 16.

“I’ve been really fortunate in this coaching business to be around a lot of winning,” Lloyd said. “I’ve been really fortunate in my first few years at Arizona to have a lot of winning. Guys, I’m okay. I’m built for this. I can’t be a great coach if I’m only a good coach when our program is winning. Then I’m a front runner. I’m okay with where we’re at. I don’t love it, but I’m okay with it. I’m going to use this is a great learning opportunity for myself, and we’re going to use this as a defining moment for our program. That’s our approach.”

The UA is coming off a 4th-place finish at the Battle4Atlantis in the Bahamas, going 1-2 with losses to unbeaten Oklahoma and in overtime to West Virginia. Those games, as well as earlier losses to Wisconsin and Duke have exposed numerous flaws in the Wildcats’ game.

“I think you could list a lot of things,” Lloyd said when asked about specific flaws he noticed. “You kind of start (to open) Pandora’s box a little bit.”

Rebounding was his top area of concern, as Arizona lost that battle to both Oklahoma and West Virginia but it wasn’t the raw totals that bothered Lloyd as much as particular instances.

“I just think there was just a number of 1-on-1 rebounding battles that we could have been better on, they could have been tougher on,” he said. “I went back and watched them on film, we were getting pushed around a little bit. That’s just not acceptable. Your guards got to be tough enough to block out their 4 man. Your guards got to be tough enough to give effort to block out a 5. That’s winning. That’s us play. We got to get a little bit better at finding some more of those us moments and the individual needs to give a better effort.”

For the season Arizona is still 11^th in Division I in offensive rebounding rate (40.1 percent) and 57^th in defensing rebounding, but three of the four losses have seen the opponent be better on the offensive glass.

The Wildcats are also way down in assist rate, sitting 237^th out of 364 schools at 48.6 percent after being top 25 each of Lloyd’s first three seasons including 5^th and 2^nd, respectively, his first two years. The 48.6 percent would be the program’s lowest assist rate since 1983-84.

“Overall ball movement is probably not where it needs to be, that’s something we’ve been hoping to get back to,” Lloyd said. “These guys need to figure it out how it needs to feel and how it needs to look when we play in a game, versus practice. You can do it in practice, and hey, we’re going to work on ball movement, and everybody locks into the process and pats each other on the back, is all happy and excited. Well, what are you practicing for? You’re practicing for the game. So, it’s got to show the games, and it’s something that we’ve always emphasized. It’s falling a little short there right now, but, but hopefully that that trait will change.”

One area Lloyd doesn’t seem to worried about is Arizona’s defense, particularly against the perimeter shot. Five of seven opponents have hit at least 10 3-pointers, with five shooting better than 35 percent from outside and two knocking down better than 40 percent.

“Just get back to probably playing a little bit harder and having a little bit more attentiveness and effort in some of those areas, and trying to make people miss a little bit more,” Lloyd said when asked about fixing the perimeter defense. “I still think this is going to be a really good defensive team. I don’t think our numbers are crazy off. I mean, they’re obviously not what we want them to be. We just need to kind of harken back to, what are the things that drive winning on the defensive end?

“Well, you got to do a good job with the 3-point line. You got to protect the paint and hopefully keep the other team off the free throw line. I think you can look back at all these games and find instances where one of those three things has been prevalent, so we just got to get back to maybe being a little bit more consistent at all of them.”

Southern Utah (8-2) may not provide a big test in the 3-pointer or rebounding areas, as the Thunderbirds only make 7.2 triples per game and their rebounding numbers are in the bottom half nationally. They do get to the line a lot, though, taking 24 free throws per game with an offense that’s big on driving to the basket and trying to score at the rim.

“I don’t think there’s anything that they’re doing that no one else is doing, but I think you’re going to have a team that’s going to come in here licking their chops and ready to battle us,” Lloyd said.