Nothing about Monday night’s exhibition game against Eastern New Mexico counts toward the upcoming season, but it did provide a preview of how that season may look.
Arizona shot 63.3 percent and made 14 of 26 3-pointers in a 117-54 win, getting double-figure scoring from seven players while going so deep into the bench that walk-ons were replacing walk-ons down the stretch. It was a successful debut for Tommy Lloyd’s fourth team, one that features five new players and one making a return after missing a year due to injury.
The standout among those newcomers was Oakland transfer Trey Townsend, who scored 24 points in 22 minutes on 8-of-11 shooting. He was 4 of 5 from 3-point range, a part of his game he rarely showed with his previous team but something Arizona encouraged him to work on during the summer.
“I’ve always felt that I was a capable 3-point shooter, it just wasn’t my main role at Oakland University,” said Townsend, who made 12 triples last season and 50 in four years with the Golden Grizzlies.
Lloyd noted that Townsend, who started Monday night at the 4 spot occupied last season by Keshad Johnson, is similar to Johnson in that he was someone who played a specific role at his previous school. Johnson only made 28 threes in his four seasons at San Diego State and then hit 36 with the Wildcats, helping him make the Miami Heat roster as an undrafted free agent.
“These guys are really good players in winning programs that … forced is a strong word, but they play a certain role to help that team win,” Lloyd said. “And so sometimes a change of scenery kind of helps maybe break down some of the barriers, and it allows them to do different things. Trey was iso’d a lot when he was in Oakland, and he was really good. They had a bunch of really crafty, good sets, and he was great in isolations, and great when they had matchup advantages, him taking advantage of it. We haven’t done as much of that with him, which we might down the line. But I want him to be comfortable just playing the flow of the game right now. And it looks like he is to me.”
Fellow transfers Tobe Awaka (Tennessee) and Anthony Dell’Orso (Campbell) also had solid debuts, with Awaka going for 14 points and 15 rebounds and Dell’Orso adding 11 points with three 3-pointers. Freshman Carter Bryant had seven points, four rebounds, two blocks and an assist.
The top scorer among members of the 2023-24 UA team was center Henri Veesaar, who didn’t play last season after a preseason elbow injury caused him to redshirt. The 7-footer scored 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting, making 2 of 3 from outside and looking nothing like someone who hadn’t played in an actual game since last year’s exhibition opener.
“It felt great finally playing a basketball game,” Veesaar said. “I was just so excited.”
Lloyd said Veesaar is the byproduct of a rare trait in today’s college basketball: patience.
“I thought Henri looked great; he’s practiced really well this fall, consistently well,” Lloyd said. “Henri’s been incredibly patient. He’s been incredibly mature about a hard process. Getting better is hard. One of the best development variables of all is time, and experience. I know who didn’t forget about him, our staff.”
Townsend, Veesaar and sophomore point guard Conrad Martinez, who contributed seven points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal, have spent much of the offseason working with assistant coach Ken Nakagawa, a “behind the scenes” guy according to Lloyd.
“I can really see a significant improvement in all of those guys’ techniques,” Lloyd said.
Arizona’s starting five for the exhibition saw Awaka and Veesaar in the frontcourt with Jaden Bradley, KJ Lewis and Caleb Love in the backcourt. Lloyd said that’s not necessarily going to be the lineup for the next exhibition, Oct. 28 against Division II power Point Loma, or the season opener Nov. 4 against Canisius.
“We started who we did today, but we also have another player come back that’s pretty good, so that might shake things up a little bit, or maybe not,” he said.
The player coming back is sophomore center Motiejus Krivas, who is dealing with an ankle sprain that has held him out of practice. Lloyd said Krivas is “doing some basketball stuff” but wasn’t ready to play.
