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By Addison Kalmbach
Cronkite News

LOS ANGELES – After a dominating first weekend in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Arizona Wildcats are back in the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years under coach Tommy Lloyd.

With a chance to make the Elite Eight for the first time in nearly a decade, the Wildcats, seeded No. 2, are not overlooking a tough No. 6 Clemson team, which beat No. 11 New Mexico and No. 3 Baylor on the way to its first Sweet 16 since 2018.

“I know it’s boring, but we’re a one-day-at-a-time, one-game-at-a-time cliche coach, cliche team,” said Lloyd, before Arizona took on Clemson Thursday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena in the West Region semifinals. “So we’re 100 percent focused on Clemson, and we haven’t looked at anything beyond that.”

Making it through to the second weekend in March is one of the hardest accomplishments in all of sports. Arizona’s path has been no different. After losing two of their last three games, including the Pac-12 semifinal, the Wildcats had extra rest before their games against Long Beach State and Dayton in which they were victorious after slow starts. They’re hoping to continue the streak all the way to the Final Four which takes place at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium April 6-8.

But as everyone knows, anything can happen in March and Arizona, especially, is no stranger to that. Just last year, the two-seeded Wildcats were upset by 15-seeded Princeton 59-55.

It was a game where Princeton really slowed down the pace and made Arizona adjust to a measured tempo, something that Lloyd and his players have paid close attention to when preparing for Clemson.

“We’ve played a lot of teams that play slow in our league, too. I think in these tournaments a lot of the game and the fight is about effort and the 50-50 balls, rebounding. Guys will get hot and make shots or not. It’s just those things you can control is your effort. I think it’s going to be a big effort game,” Arizona senior guard Pelle Larsson said when describing what it will take to tame the Tigers.

Not only will the effort be a major factor, but so will keeping true to the identity that Arizona senior forward Keshad Johnson brings to the table.

“I just feel like we need to play Arizona basketball,” Johnson said. “They have their game plan where they’re just used to playing slow or whatnot. We’re used to playing fast. So we’ve got to stick to our own identity, whether we slow it down a little bit by them or we’re able to speed them up.”

Despite their athletic disparity compared to Arizona, Clemson makes up for this with strong defensive principles and discipline within its game plan.

Clemson is No. 23 in KenPom’s rankings that measure and rank teams based on advanced analytics on defense and offense ratings. The Tigers have a very high adjusted defensive rating, 98.4, which means they adjust to teams’ offensive strikes at a very efficient rate. To put that in perspective, Princeton had a defensive rating of 101.5.

Not only do the Tigers have a high defensive rating, but also their tempo plays a factor. With a 66.3 rating on KenPom, the Tigers slow down the game and run sets in the halfcourt. With a similar score to Dayton’s 64.4 rating, which Arizona struggled with at times, the Wildcats will need to stay disciplined and poised when guarding the ball.

“I see Clemson (as) an incredibly physical team that has a conviction to assert their physical will on you. I see they have a couple of elite perimeter players. I see they have two really good big guys. I see they have good size at the other positions” Lloyd said. “They play with effort and toughness possession by possession. That’s what I see when I watch Clemson.”

After a strong start to the season for the Tigers going 10-1, they hit a wall in league play. Opening up at just 4-6 in the ACC, coach Brad Brownell told his players that they were teetering with not making the NCAA Tournament and needed to fight the adversity.

The same mentality is being used this week against a strong opponent in the Wildcats.

“Don’t just be happy to be here,” Brownell said to his team in response to making the Sweet 16 for the first time in eight years.

Unlike the Wildcats’ relatively quick trip from Tucson to Los Angeles, the Tigers ventured from South Carolina as soon as they could to adjust to the time difference and get ready for the task at hand.

Despite the quick 12-hour layover in Clemson following their upset win over Baylor Sunday, the Tigers are focused more than ever this season knowing what’s on the line, even with the short turnaround.

Clemson has a similar plan to Arizona: play at the Tigers’ own pace and play with discipline.

“As corny as it sounds, sticking to your fundamentals,” Clemson senior center PJ Hall said. “Not using your hands, using your elbows and forearms, and make sure you’re not grabbing. All the stupid stuff that gets you those dumb fouls, try to stay away from that.”

However, senior guard Chase Hunter is looking at the fast-paced Wildcats from a different angle. Hunter knows not only will they have to get stops and apply pressure on ball handlers, but Arizona has to do the same with the Tigers.

“​​The thing is they’ve got to guard us, too. Making things hard for them offensively as well. Like I said, just making things hard for them, not letting them get some easy open looks early,” Hunter said.

The Tigers face off against a familiar foe: Caleb Love, a transfer to Arizona from North Carolina, averaged 14 points and three assists in his three efforts against Clemson while playing in the ACC, but most importantly, had a 2-1 record.

With a true defensive versus offensive battle set to take place, the Wildcats believe they have the edge when it comes to staying poised against teams like Clemson.

“I love our poise. It’s something we talk about all the time. Poise is built from confidence and belief, and I think we have those two things,” Lloyd said. “But that doesn’t mean that it’s always going to show up in the moments you need it to. That’s what makes these games such a spectacle.”

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