No. 17 Arizona will tip-off its regular season against Southland Division's Nicholls State Colonels this Tuesday night.

Tommy Lloyd and junior forward Azoulas Tubelis spoke to the media to discuss the opening of their regular season.

Lloyd on practices since the first exhibition

"Obviously we had some things we had to address from the from the first exhibition and you know, which is always the case and tried to clean up some of our stuff and we're still trying to put our entire packages in and that will happen probably over the course of the next month and even continue throughout the season. But then you know, you start taking a slant to preparing for Nicholls State."

Lloyd on the freshman big men's contribution against Nicholls State

"We'll see, I was just talking to Murphy, this is a heck of a game for freshmen. You're stepping into a team, it's going to be a high pressure ball pressure denial type thing which traditionally creates a lot of problems for an offense and can lead to a lot of turnovers. We'll have to see how they handle it and hopefully they handle it well and probably depending on how they handle it will depend on how much they play."

Lloyd on Kerr Kriisa's play style

"I don't know if Kerr [Kriisa] really needs to be feeling anything out, I think he needs to go get it. That's been the message for me. you go get it, you play, how you play and then the team will react accordingly. I don't think he needs to bend over backwards to sacrifice and to make sure other guys are getting up to speed, when Kerr is clicking at a high level, he's a high-level player, and you know I'd rather have him play at that level than everybody else, you know, catch up with him."

Tubelis on gambling defensively

"I was excited, I thought that every ball I steal is just amazing,, fans will go crazy. But yeah I need to fix that. And the next day, I woke up I watched the game and yeah, I can't do that."

Tubelis on playing for coach Lloyd

It's great, it's fun. It's my second year with him all summer, he was here he was working out to me and, and other players who were here, so I know it means that she cares about the players, he's a player's coach. He talks, not just about basketball or like what you need to do and that he talks about life. And he understands if you have a bad day, he's a fantastic coach.

Tubelis on Henri Veesaar and Dylan Anderson

"They're really talented players. And it's really hard to compete against them in practices. But yeah, I think they need some time. Like, I was a freshman here, I know that I'm not gonna play much and if I want to play much I have to prove it and practices so I think they're doing a pretty good job."

Tubelis on being a leader to the freshmen

"Me, Kerr and Pelle [Larsson] are trying to be leaders and we're telling our new guys that we were in your shoes and we understand how hard it is to be a freshman or newcomers. So yeah, we're trying to we're trying to make them to make them better."

Arizona will host Nicholls State this Tuesday night at 7 p.m (MST) at McKale Center and will air on Pac-12 Networks.

> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona fans Inside McKale

> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel

> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattRMoreno, @THutch1995)

> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)

> LIKE us on Facebook

> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)