'it Was Not Easy.' Sure Looked Like It For March Madness Favorite Arizona

SAN DIEGO – Inside the Arizona Wildcats’ locker room after their 92-58 victory against Long Island University, players leaned back in their chairs, stretched their long legs and scrolled through their phones.

Yawn.

They had just dominated their opponent in a first round Men’s NCAA Tournament game with so much firepower that it almost looked easy. They seemed relaxed.

“No, it was not easy,” Arizona freshman forward Ivan Kharchenkov told USA TODAY Sports afterward on Saturday, March 20.

Say what?

No. 1-seed Arizona jumped out to a 27-point lead in the first half and got at least 14 points from three freshman starters, including Kharchenkov, who scored 14 with 10 rebounds.

“The game starts 0-0,” Kharchenkov explained. “We don’t start with a 20-point lead or anything.”

Yet they still pretty much did. They led 38-18 with 7:21 left in the first half and looked every bit the part of a potential Final Four team while advancing to the second round Sunday against No. 9 seed Utah State, who beat Villanova, 86-76.

Pizza night in San Diego for Arizona

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd still pushed the same message in his postgame news conference before he was even asked a question.

“These games are never easy,” said Lloyd, whose team improved to 33-2 this season. “You never take them for granted.”

It’s the kind of mindset the Wildcats are trying to keep as they stay on upset alert as a fashionable pick to win this tournament. They’ve been to the NCAA Tournament 19 times since 2001 but never reached the Final Four since then, when the late Lute Olson was still coaching the team.

This time the team carried the hopes of the thousands of red-and-blue-clad fans who packed Viejas Arena here on the campus of San Diego State. Many of them drove 400 miles west from Tucson. Some even joined Lloyd for pizza Wednesday night at local restaurant owned by former Arizona guard Matt Othick.

“He told anybody that had any affiliation with the Arizona Wildcats to show up…,  Lloyd said. “I was expecting a small little get-together of a few players. But man, the place was hopping.”

'I don't look at them as freshmen,' Arizona coach says

It was hopping at Viejas too, especially with 15 seconds left. The crowd loudly chanted “U of A! U of A!” after Arizona’s freshmen led the way once again. Five freshmen for Arizona combined for 55 points, led by guard Brayden Burries, who scored 18, including four 3-pointers in the first half.

Burries himself was playing in front of family who made the trip roughly 100 miles south of his hometown of San Bernardino.

“Especially being back in Cali – I hadn’t been back in a minute,” Burries told USA TODAY Sports. “Being back here, the weather’s great. Got to see my people. So it was great.”

They all had the pleasure of seeing what the Wildcats are capable of in a key sequence in the first half. After Burries drained a 3-pointer, senior guard Jaden Bradley got the rebound on the other end and skipped a one-bounce pass to Kharchenkov, who rolled to basket for a left-handed layup. The bucket put Arizona up 47-20 with 3:46 left before halftime — a feat that is definitely not easy to do for just any group of freshmen. These rookies are different, though.

“I don't look at them as freshmen, you know what I mean?” Lloyd said. “I just look at them as really good basketball players. These guys, they have high IQs. They have great character and obviously they're talented basketball players. And they put the work in.”

The win overshadowed the remarkable turnout of 16^th-seed LIU under coach Rod Strickland, the former NBA player. Three years ago, the Sharks were the nation’s worst team and won just three games. They finished at 24-11 with the loss.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Strickland said. “That team (Arizona) is predicted to win the tournament.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Arizona's first round NCAA win wasn't as 'easy' as it looked