During a Thursday radio show that used to be held on Mondays every week, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ coach Tommy Lloyd was discussing KJ Lewis’s play on a Tuesday at the end of a two-game trip that, in the Pac-12 days, typically ended on Saturday.
Or maybe Sunday. But never Tuesday.
“In that game on, uh, Tuesday — I keep wanting to stay Saturday — that game on Tuesday night, he was spectacular,†Lloyd said of Lewis’s efforts at West Virginia on Jan. 7.
Lloyd had caught himself, while he and host Brian Jeffries chuckled. But it would have been hard to blame either of them if they went with Saturday and didn’t blink.
Old habits can die hard and, while the Wildcats’ move to the Big 12 in football merely changed the direction of their charter flights every weekend, in men’s basketball, it has meant flipping the entire week around.
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While the Pac-12 was known for its tidy Thursday-Saturday arrangements every week, sometimes lapsing into television-induced Thursday-Sunday or Wednesday-Saturday splits, the Big 12 “opens†a week with a game on Saturday and then schedules teams to play again on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and sometimes even a Monday.
But never Thursday or Friday.
All of which means a Wednesday or Thursday can be the new Sunday. Thursday is the new Monday.
And maybe Friday is the new … Wednesday?
Who knows?

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ forward Tobe Awaka (30) manages to snare the inbounds pass over Baylor guard Jayden Nunn (2) during the second half of their Big 12 game, Jan. 14, 2025, at McKale Center.
After ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ beat No. 25 Baylor 81-70 on Tuesday at McKale Center to complete another two-game “weekend†sweep, Lloyd was asked if it felt like a Tuesday or a Saturday.
“I don’t even know,†he said. “I know tomorrow we have off and hopefully the guys get some rest. I’m sure me and the staff will start preparing for our road trip.
“But yeah it’s that time of year, you know? Wednesdays are now Sundays, right? You can still go to church on Wednesday and Sunday.â€
Sure. And you can rest your body on either day, too. But, for a basketball team that must carefully balance rest, practice, schoolwork and travel throughout Big 12 play, strategic daily planning is essential.
For Lloyd’s first three years at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ when the Wildcats played a Pac-12 schedule, and during many of Lloyd’s years as a Gonzaga assistant in the West Coast Conference, cramming two games at the end of the week at least opened up the Sunday-Tuesday period.
His teams could take a full day of rest, then maybe a day to focus on individual work — or keep heavily used players off their feet — before shifting to game-week prep on Tuesday and/or Wednesday.
Lloyd said the necessary reconfiguration is still a work in progress.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ guard KJ Lewis (5) powers his way through Baylor guard Jeremy Roach (3) for a steal and Wildcat fast break during the first half, Jan. 14, 2025, at McKale Center.
“It’s been a lot of years,†Lloyd said. “For a majority of my coaching career, conference season has been pretty much been Thursdays and Saturdays, and you get a little bit of a rhythm in how to prepare your team.
“There’s a lot of two- and three-day prep now so you’ve got to figure the rhythm of that. What that looks like with days off. What that looks like with practicing on yourself. What that looks like when preparing for an opponent.â€
The flip side is that the Big 12 schedule offers more time between games. Only twice this season will the Wildcats have to play two games in a three-day period: They’ll host Colorado on Jan. 25 and Iowa State on Jan. 27, then follow a Saturday home game with Houston on Feb. 15 by traveling to play Baylor on Feb. 17.
During other weeks, the Wildcats are getting at least two full days between any two games, including their games this weekend, at Texas Tech on Saturday and at Oklahoma State on Tuesday.
“It gives you an extra day to rest,†forward Henri Veesaar said.
Lloyd said the extra time between games has also been helpful because his staff is still learning the new Big 12 opponents, instead of having a head start every season knowing the tendencies of Pac-12 coaches who returned.
Also, it’s allowed Lloyd a little more leeway to dish heavy minutes as needed and, especially, keep trusty point guard Jaden Bradley on the floor as much as possible.
Bradley is averaging 37.2 minutes over five Big 12 games, yet came through with another press- and zone-busting effort on Tuesday against Baylor, with 13 points, a 3-pointer, five rebounds, six assists, only one turnover — and even a dunk.
“Man, I don’t know what happened right there,†the 6-3 Bradley said of that elevation. “My legs were feeling good.â€

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ forward Carter Bryant (9) slams home a Wildcat bucket in the second half against Baylor at McKale Center, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
Maybe, if that Baylor game was on Saturday afternoon, coming 36 hours after a Thursday night game as it might have been in the Pac-12, Bradley’s legs don’t feel the same way.
Or, if Tuesday’s UA-Baylor game was a Thursday matchup that was to be followed quickly by a Saturday afternoon game, maybe the Wildcats would be ripe for a letdown, overconfident and underprepared for what was coming next.
“Last year, you could have won this game today and have UCLA coming in two days later,†Lloyd said after the Baylor game. “It’s all relative.â€