All-Access at the 1st/2nd rounds in San Diego: Arizona vs. Wright State

The NCAA tournament is about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The 1st/2nd rounds are taking place in 8 cities around the country and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD is covering all of the angles so you can look forward to a cascade of coverage in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage from San Diego with a recap of Arizona vs. Wright State.

I was starting to run out of gas after 2 games in a row but was saved by a delicious evening meal of fish tacos/chips/potato salad/cookie!
Let’s tip it off with my Wildcats:

Arizona SO PG Kerr Kriisa is in uniform but SR Justin Kier took his place in the starting lineup while Kerr recovers from an ankle injury:

The Wildcats came out red-hot, building a 16-5 lead by the 1st TV timeout thanks to 7-9 FG. Wright State was able to hang around by winning the turnover battle: they did not commit a single TO in the 1st 11 minutes (by comparison, Arizona had 10 TO before the under-8 timeout). The Wildcat offense kept on dominating, as they knocked down 16 of their 1st 22 shots, but Wright State JR PG Trey Calvin singlehandedly kept his team in the game with 14 PTS in the 1st half to help close the deficit.

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd must have been happy with a double-digit lead as he headed to the locker room up 42-31, but who knows what the 2nd half would have in store.

Wildcat JR C Christian Koloko kept finding open teammates for baskets over and over, setting a career-high with team-high 6 AST to go along with 17 PTS/13 REB/5 BLK (in just 30 minutes in his very 1st NCAA tourney game!):

Arizona made a ton of threes all night long (11-20) to win it going away 87-70.
In the postgame press conference I asked Christian Koloko about his record-setting stat line that had never been done before in the history of the NCAA tourney. He said that it feels good but that he was just playing basketball and it happened to end up that way so he was happy.

I asked Coach Tommy Lloyd about Koloko having 6 AST tonight after only having 5 AST during the entire month of March. He said that Wright State was really collapsing on his big man in the paint and that Christian had 2-4 post entries which he eventually passed out for open threes. The coach commended him for making great decisions.