The Red-Blue Showcase is, first and foremost, a fan event. Call it Meet the Team with a little basketball thrown in for good measure. The results have no bearing on anything, nor do the performances.
That was Tommy Lloyd’s message after a 20-minute exhibition that saw Team Red rally in the second half to beat Team Blue 47-44 on Friday night at McKale Center. Caleb Love led Red, which featured four of Arizona’s top returning scholarship players, with 19 points including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:55 left, while Campbell transfer Anthony Dell’Orso had 15 for a Blue roster that featured four of the Wildcats’ five newcomers.
“I literally had nothing to do with that,” Lloyd said of the rosters. “That was all (assistant coach) Jack Murphy. I love my staff and give them a ton of freedom, so whatever they felt was comfortable with I was gonna go with it.”
Lloyd said the exhibition was the “longest extended scrimmage” Arizona has had since preseason practice officially began on Sept. 23. He said the game was most helpful for seeing his players building habits and getting comfortable with the pace and style of play, particularly for the newer players, but that no definitive decisions about rotations or playing time would come from it.
“I told our guys, no matter what happens today in the Red-Blue game, whether you play great, your team wins, you play bad, your team loses, it’s going to probably have no impact on our journey as a team this season, or your journey as a player,” Lloyd said. “We practice tomorrow. I can’t wait. We’re going to tape up and and we’re going to get after it like a normal day.”
Ahead of the scrimmage were a 3-point contest and a dunk contest. Love beat freshman Carter Bryant in the finals, hitting the last moneyball just before the buzzer to win 17-16.
“I had to make it interesting,” said Love, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year who like fellow UA guards Jaden Bradley and KJ Lewis tested the NBA Draft waters last spring before coming back for a second season in Tucson.
Bryant, a 5-star prospect who committed to the UA almost 18 months ago, also competed in the dunk contest and ended up beating out defending champ Lewis in the finals. He said this was the fifth Red-Blue game he’s been to, including ones as a recruit and when his father got him tickets one year for his birthday.
“This is surreal for me,” Bryant said. “For me to finally have the opportunity to compete in a Red-Blue game, it’s awesome.”
The only scholarship player not to participate Friday was sophomore center Henri Veesaar, who is dealing with a lower body injury that has kept him out of practice recently. Lloyd said there was no need to “throw him out there” for a scrimmage.
“It’s no secret, if we were in the midst of games he’d be available to play,” Lloyd said.
Arizona’s first competition against another team comes Oct. 21 at home against Eastern New Mexico, the first of two exhibitions. The 2024-25 season begins Nov. 4 at McKale against Canisius.
