What Tommy Lloyd, Oumar Ballo and Pelle Larsson said after Arizona’s win over Stanford

The Arizona Wildcats overcame an early first half injury to star forward Azuolas Tubelis and to drub Stanford 85-57 Thursday night. Our recap of the game can be found here.

After the game, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said on the UA postgame radio show that Tubelis suffered an ankle sprain. Lloyd did not provide any further details. Lloyd, Oumar Ballo, and Pelle Larsson spoke to the media. Here’s some of what they said.

Lloyd on finding different ways to win: “That’s what winning’s about is finding different guys. There’s not a set formula every day. The game of basketball is crazy. There’s a lot of moving parts; injuries, scheduling, all these things that play into things and sometimes you just got to weather storms and that’s what high character kids in high character programs do.”

Lloyd on overcoming Tubelis’ injury and still winning by 28: “I thought it was great. I mean, it was one of those deals. Who would have thought that you could play like this and win this convincingly with Azuolas getting hurt right away and (Christian Koloko) struggling with foul issues all night? So, if you would have told me that before, I probably would have been a little bit concerned. So I was really happy for how our guys responded and played as a group and it’s given opportunities for other guys like Pelle to step up.”

Lloyd on playing Larsson more minutes than he intended: “I knew once (Tubelis) got hurt that we were play a small lineup, meaning four guards a lot of the game. So we kind of just settled in and talked about how we want to move the ball and move our bodies with great pace and attack close outs and make some plays and the guys did that efficiently. Then our bigs delivered when they got opportunities and that’s what high character kids and high character programs do.”

Larsson on making do without Tubelis for most of the game: “We have a lot of good players that can do a lot of good things. “I think we’ve faced a lot of adversity this season but we’ve responded every single time. So it just feels good to be with these guys.”

Larsson on seeing significantly playing time: “Every player wants to play as much as they can, I think and when you get to play, you hustle and give the good effort I think feels great.”

Larsson on witnessing Tubelis’ injury. “That was very unfortunate. Someone fell into his leg.”

Ballo on what went into his career-best outing: “As you know, we have a lot of guys and different guys have their night. Tonight was my night. I’m just happy that my team made this night special for. They passed me the ball. They knew I was hot and looked for me. We did it.”

Ballo on his teammates celebrating his performance: “They were happy for me because it’s a family. Every time someone have a great night we’re happy for them. It’s our own. That’s the best thing about our team, just being happy for each other.”