A pair of pep talks propelled Brayden Burries’ best scoring night of his career in Arizona’s dominant win over Alabama.
The first came before tip-off, when Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd spoke with the freshman guard one-on-one.
“Before the game, he talked to me and was like, ‘It’s gonna be a big one tonight, and I believe in you, it’s all I needed to hear, honestly,” said Burries. “Just gave me all the confidence I needed for real.”
After an uneven first half, Burries’ confidence was reinforced by a locker room pick-me-up from his older teammates.
“I just think my vets, like Jaden Bradley, coming up to me saying, like, ‘Yo, we all need you. Keep shooting.’ Delly (said), ‘Just keep shooting.’ They believed in me.”
The message got through. Burries scored 20 of his career-high 28 points in the second half to lead No. 1 Arizona to a 96-75 win over the Crimson Tide in Birmingham. Our recap of the game can be found here.
Below is what Lloyd, Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov said after the game:
Lloyd on his overall thoughts on the win: “A great environment. Thanks to the University of Alabama and Birmingham, you guys brought a great crowd. It was a ton of fun competing here. I mean, obviously you could say that after a win, but I would have said it after a loss, too. So it was fun coming down here and seeing everybody come out and watch two really strong programs go at it. And I’m thankful for Nate for giving us the opportunity and scheduling the series with us. And hopefully maybe we can continue something like that in the future. He’s a hell of a coach.”
On Jaden Bradley’s return to Alabama: “Jaden didn’t have a bad experience at Alabama, and Jaden’s such a good guy. I think if you guys did a little research, we literally in the last three years, we probably have a top 25 transfer team from Arizona players out there. It’s kind of what happens this day and age. So there’s no ill will towards anything. I mean, we didn’t even talk about it. Obviously Jaden’s so steady as a person that he came back here and just played his normal game. He’s not going to try to do anything over the top. There was no revenge or anything like that.”
On bringing in so many international players: “Well, you could probably go online and read my background, you’ll find out. I was one of the first guys, looking at those as Gonzaga teams over there, going to get all those international players 25 years ago. I was doing it then. We had one of our legendary Gonzaga guys there today that works for the Atlanta Hawks now, drove down for the game, Przemek Karnowski. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve been fortunate to kind of create a niche recruiting and thankful this guy (Kharchenkov) bought into it, because he’s a heck of a player, too. So it’s just something I’ve always kind of done, and I honestly don’t know any different.”
On whether he’s ever coached a game with such a lopsided offensive rebound margin (22-3): “I’ve coached in so many games, I don’t know. But we really wanted to come out and we wanted to put it to them on the glass. We feel like we have an advantage there on most nights. And I think we were +20 on UConn a few weeks ago. Now, they were missing one of their big guys, so let’s factor that in as well. But we knew that a theme for the week for us is early energy, early effort. Because against Alabama, you have to start your possessions like that. You can’t be (in) stardom. You can’t ease into anything. And then the word we really hammered in on was endurance. You have to have competitive endurance against a team like that, because they just keep coming at you, coming at you, coming at you. And our guys, I thought they did that. The game started okay, they made a little run. I feel like the place got going a little bit. And we didn’t say anything crazy at halftime. Just you know, hey, let’s see if we come out and land the first punch and see what happens. And fortunately, we landed a few haymakers, made some defensive plays. Obviously Brayden got in his own little flow. And it was pretty special.”
On attempting more 3-pointers on Saturday: “Sometimes you take what the defense gives you, and these guys will probably tell you, I’m still telling them at time out, we don’t have to settle. We don’t have to settle, you know. And it’s just a little bit of a mindset. Brayden got on a little bit of heater, and I trust him, when he’s doing that. And it was pretty special some of those threes he makes in transition. That’s the stuff we’ve seen him do when we were recruiting him. And so to do it on this kind of stage was pretty cool.”
Burries on his performance: “I’m just thanking all my teammates and coaches, especially coach Lloyd. Before the game, he talked to me and was like, ‘It’s gonna be a big one tonight, and I believe in you, it’s all needed to hear, honestly. Just gave me all the confidence I needed for real.’”
On his confidence picking up in the second half: “I mean, the first half, I was confused on why they were playing off, like short closeouts. And then at halftime, I just think my vets, like Jaden Bradley, coming up to me saying, like, ‘Yo, we all need you. Keep shooting.‘ Delly (said), ‘Just keep shooting.’ They believed in me. So that’s all I needed to hear.”
Kharchenkov on Arizona expanding its energy level later in the game: “I just kind of stepping up the energy a little bit, especially after playing 25 minutes, even giving 10% more. Just extra effort and yeah just beating them down.”
On what contributed to his career-high five steals: “Like coach said, we were talking about endurance all week long, and we just to play all 40 minutes extra with a lot of energy. And I think we hit another 10% more in the second half. And I think that was the advantage for us.”