Courtney Ramey said he was used to playing games like that. In truth, Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd brought him to Tucson because of it.

The Wildcats needed an enforcer, a bully. The offense that blitzed teams all last season, leading to one of the most successful first years by a Division I head coach ever, ran into a Houston red brick wall in the NCAA Tournament after getting beat a little purple in the round prior. Arizona wanted to get tougher.

Flash forward to Saturday night at McKale Center in front of a roaring crowd and you’ll find Ramey flexing on Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler after the final buzzer had sounded on a 75-70 win for the ninth-ranked Wildcats over the sixth-ranked Volunteers. You’ll see Zeigler jolt his body like he’s about to throw a hook at Ramey. And you’ll find Ramey not so much as flinch. He stands like a rock, still smiling.

“I’m just having a little fun,” he said after the game.

Added Lloyd: “You’ve got to fight force with force, it’s the only way to do it.”

Arizona avenged last season’s loss in Knoxville with a show of force.

Ramey was a pest, combining with Azuolas Tubelis late in the game when UT needed a bucket to wreck multiple actions and give UA a stop.

Oumar Ballo was a menace. After the fourth-year Wildcat center put up 18 points and eight boards on 6-of-10 shooting and a near-perfect 6-of-7 from the free throw line, he danced to midcourt urging more from a crowd that chanted loud and proud all evening. He flashed a couple of birds at Tennessee as the Vols left the court.

Arizona is cocky.

Arizona has been cocky, and some might say it has earned the right to squawk a bit. Last year’s squad won 33 games. This year’s team is off to a 10-1 start, won the Maui Invitational, now has four wins over ranked opponents, and has the country’s most efficient offense.

Arizona has something else now, too.

Muscle.

The Wildcats won the boards 38-30. Tennessee only shot 10 free throws in the game, making eight of them. Arizona nearly tripled that mark, connecting on 24-of-27 from the charity stripe, constantly going inside and bullying its way to the free throw line.

In a one-point game with under three minutes to play, Pelle Larsson forced his way to the foul line and pushed a layup up and in through a heavy foul. He drained the free throw and the UA went up by four points.

That was the start of a 9-2 spurt over the final 2:30 that iced the game.

Arizona made its free throws. Arizona got its stops. Tennessee got a good look late when it mattered and missed. A triple from Zeigler with six seconds left gave the Vols nothing but the ability to say they were outscored 9-5 over the final three minutes of the game and not 9-2.

Saturday night’s clash between the SEC and the Pac-12 had a distinct “March in December” feel to it. The Wildcats are checking quite a few boxes as Lloyd marches through Year 2.

Tubelis led the way offensively with 19 points and nine boards, connecting on seven of his 11 attempts from the field. Few all season have been able to keep him from getting to his spots or prevent him from making his shots when he gets there. Larsson had 17 points to go with eight rebounds and four assists. Ramey supplied 13 to give the Cats four in double-figures.

Lloyd will look for areas of growth, as any good coach would. Arizona’s bench continues to provide little. The starting five contributed all 75 points. The combination of Cedric Henderson Jr., Adama Bal, Kylan Boswell, and Henri Veesaar missed all four of their shots. Henderson was the only non-starter to play more than 10 minutes.

That’ll need to sort itself out soon.

And there were a handful of times where Arizona went away from its inside-out approach and the offense fell wayward.

But if you can take more free throws than 3s, you probably feel good about the way things went. Arizona got 30 points in the paint and another 24 at the foul line. It took fewer than 10 non-paint 2s all night. That’ll play.

The fistfight Lloyd said pregame was coming arrived immediately, with four lead changes in the first three minutes and seven in the first nine. A technical was handed out in the first half of the first half as the officiating crew felt compelled to try and keep things in check. A Tennessee player taunted Ballo early. (He returned the favor in the end.)

A 10-2 run over three minutes midway through the opening half gave Tennessee a 27-20 lead. Arizona then scored nine of the next 11 to tie the game.

The proceeding went to halftime knotted at 35-35, but Arizona scored eight of the first 10 points in the second half to open up a lead.

Arizona worked the lead up to seven, but Tennessee clawed back to get it to three with 11:08 to play.

Arizona then raced back out to 10, but Tennessee worked its way back to a 1-point game with 4:31 to play.

Just like its import guard from Texas, Arizona would not flinch.

The UA is back in action next Tuesday, Dec. 20, at home against Montana State, with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network.