No. 24 Arizona is coming off consecutive defeats for the first time in the Tommy Lloyd era when it faces undefeated Davidson on Wednesday to begin the Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Arizona (2-2) lost at Wisconsin 103-88 on Nov. 15 and followed that with a home loss against Duke 69-55 on Friday.
The Wildcats have dropped 15 spots in the Associated Press Top 25 poll in two weeks.
Arizona’s record is .500 this early in a season for the first time since it was 3-3 to start the 2017-18 schedule.
“I’ve got work to do, so let’s get to work,” said Lloyd, in his fourth year as Arizona’s head coach. “Let’s see where we’re at in a month, and if we’re still struggling, you know what I’ll do? I still got work to do, but I’m gonna get to it.”
Arizona shot 39.6 percent from the field against Duke, and just 26.1 percent (6 of 23) from 3-point range. The Wildcats were outrebounded by 43-30 and their 15 turnovers led to 19 points.
Jaden Bradley led Arizona with 18 points and KJ Lewis added 12. Preseason All-American Caleb Love had eight points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field, including 1-of-9 from 3-point range.
Arizona made only one field goal in the last 5:39 as Duke pulled away after its lead was trimmed to six points.
“We didn’t play great,” Lloyd said. “Now we need to take a step back and figure out why. Are there some schematic problems? Are there some problems with how our personnel is kind of put together?
“We got to figure out what our certainties are, and the things we have to have, and then over the course of the next couple of days, if there’s adjustments we need to make, we need to figure out what those are.”
Davidson is 4-0 after a 15-17 record last season, in which it lost its last six games to put an end to postseason hopes.
A 93-66 win over visiting VMI on Friday followed a 91-85 win at Bowling Green and 76-70 victory over visiting East Tennessee State.
The two wins by 10 points or fewer are important because Davidson was 6-12 in such games last season. It was 4-11 in games decided by five points or fewer.
“The goal (is) to get better,” Davidson head coach Matt McKillop said after the season opener. “We talk about fighting to win every possession. I think we had to figure out what that really felt like with the lights on.”
Davidson made 13 shots from 3-point range in the win over VMI. Reed Bailey had 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Bobby Durkin added 19 points, including 17 of them and a career-best five 3-pointers in the first half.
Bailey leads Davidson in scoring (19 points per game) and rebounding (7.8).
Durkin is shooting 57.9 percent (22 of 38) from the field and 54.2 percent (13 of 24) from 3-point range.
By contrast, Arizona’s Love is shooting 32 percent (16 of 50) from the field and 21.4 percent (6 of 28) from beyond the arc.
Bradley leads Arizona with 15.5 points per game. He is shooting 50 percent (24 of 48) from the field and is 35.7 percent (5 of 14) from 3-point range.
–Field Level Media
