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The difference-maker in the Wildcats’ win at Cincinnati three days earlier, 7-footer Henri Veesaar, has been by far their most productive post player since Christmas.

And the Wildcats’ highest-rated NBA prospect, freshman Carter Bryant, has shot 78.6% from the field in Big 12 games while flashing promise all over the court.

All three of them are among the Wildcats’ top five scorers in Big 12 games, too.

Yet none are in the Wildcats’ starting five, and might not be anytime soon, including for UA’s game Saturday night against UCF at McKale Center.

The Wildcats have won five straight games, after all, and before that led UCLA by 13 on Dec. 14 in their last loss.

That’s a train UA coach Tommy Lloyd isn’t getting in the way of.

“I mean, listen, we’re playing better,� Lloyd said Friday during his weekly news conference. “Early in the season, we weren’t able to build leads, but I think in every one of our last (several) games, we’ve built leads. We may not have held every lead, but we’ve built leads. So I’m encouraged where we’re going and I feel like sometimes you just have to put the pieces in the right place.�

Except for making a midseason swap of Cedric Henderson for Pelle Larsson at small forward two seasons ago, a move Larsson volunteered for, Lloyd has pretty much locked in starting lineups early during his previous three seasons at UA.

So far this season he’s had four lineups already, partly because injured center Motiejus Krivas’ readiness has fluctuated until he was finally ruled out for the season last month. But the Wildcats are 4-0 with their current iteration: Bradley, Caleb Love and Anthony Dell’Orso on the perimeter, with Trey Townsend and Tobe Awaka in the post.

With that sort of overall team success, individual performances, at least in the short haul, might be secondary.

“It doesn’t have to come down to, ‘Well, this guy’s playing good, so we’re going to start him because that guy didn’t play good last game.’ That doesn’t make sense,� Lloyd said. “You have to have a little bit of certainty there.

“I’m not concerned about our lineup right now. It could change over the course of time but right now I’m not.�

While the Wildcats’ reserves have collectively kept the pressure on opponents, with UA leading the vast majority of its three Big 12 games, there are potential downsides to not starting the most productive players.

Mathematically, of course, not starting means a player only has 36 minutes or so to play over the course of a game, minus any time spent resting. But Lloyd said that isn’t a concern, having still played Lewis an average of 27.7 minutes in UA’s three Big 12 games, while Veesaar logged 26 against both Cincinnati and West Virginia.

A few minutes of their rest just happens to come right after tipoff.

“You might set up (to go in) after the first four or you might after the first two� minutes, Lloyd said. “It just depends on how it’s going. I think both those guys (Lewis and Veesaar) have had recent games where they’ve played well, and maybe they played more minutes than the guy that started in front of them. As the game plays out, we’ll make adjustments accordingly.�

Meanwhile, Veesaar’s versatility on both ends of the court and mobility for his size might suggest that his skills could mesh well with Awaka or Townsend in a starting lineup, though that’s an evolving decision Lloyd indicated he’s still looking at.

“You can always think about pairings, and I had put a lot of time this offseason in thinking about pairings,� Lloyd said. “One of the centerpieces of the pairings (Krivas) isn’t playing right now, so that kind of blew it up a little bit and I’ve had to just figure it out on the fly.

“I feel good where it’s at. Henri and Tobe really aren’t playing much together. That doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t, but they just haven’t been because we’ve kind of taken the rotation in another direction.�

One thing is certain about UA’s key reserves: Together, they’re playing well enough that when West Virginia’s defense helped make for another rough night from guard Caleb Love, this time Lloyd just benched him.

Love, who had nine points on 3 of 10 field goals with three turnovers Tuesday against the Mountaineers, played only 10 minutes in the second half while instead drawing praise from Lloyd and Lewis for his cheerleading efforts.

“Hell of a teammate,� Lewis said. “He supported us when he was on the bench. That’s the Caleb that everybody doesn’t get to see.�

Lewis wound up playing 17 minutes after halftime, with 13 points and three assists, while Veesaar had four points, three rebounds and two blocks over 13 minutes in the second half.

Love had only three points in the second half ... but ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ outscored West Virginia 36-28 anyway.

“Caleb’s going to be at the top of every team scouting report, and West Virginia has a really good individual defender (Sencire Harris) who was pretty committed to making Caleb’s catches tough,� Lloyd said. “We cycled through our rotation. Caleb came out, and the team continued to play really well.

“So I just kind of rode that one out in the second half and we feel like that was the right decision.�

Thanks to the recent play of his top reserves, that sort of move is a luxury Lloyd didn’t really have earlier this season.