The streak of 20-point wins came to an end Saturday at Utah, where Arizona only won its Big 12 Conference opener by 19 points. Who knows if that contributed to several AP Top 25 voters dropping the Wildcats from 1st to 2nd on their ballots, narrowing the gap between them and Michigan to one point. […]
The streak of 20-point wins came to an end Saturday at Utah, where Arizona only won its Big 12 Conference opener by 19 points. Who knows if that contributed to several AP Top 25 voters dropping the Wildcats from 1st to 2nd on their ballots, narrowing the gap between them and Michigan to one point.
Arizona (14-0, 1-0) is still No. 1 in the country, at least for another week, and next up is the first of nine conference home games. Kansas State (9-5, 0-1) makes its first trip to McKale Center since 1999 on Tuesday night.
K-State beat Arizona in their lone meeting last season, in Manhattan. Overall the UA is 6-9 against the other Wildcats including 5-2 in Tucson.
Here’s what to watch for when the UA and K-State meet up in Arizona’s Big 12 home opener:
Sharing is caring (and winning)
Tobe Awaka became the eighth player to lead (or tie for the team lead) in scoring this season, which also happens to be the number of players in Arizona’s rotation.
Arizona currently has six players averaging at least 10 points per game, and Ivan Kharchenkov isn’t far off at 9.3. The Wildcats are one of four Division I teams currently sporting six players in double figures, and during the shot clock era (1985-present) only 46 teams have finished a season with at least that many.
Three have had seven in double figures, most recently the 2021-22 Houston team that beat the UA in the Sweet 16.
The most Arizona has had in a season is five, done eight times but not since 2002-23. This season the Wildcats have had at least five score 10 or more in nine consecutive games.
While UA coach Tommy Lloyd said the balanced scoring hasn’t been by design, it has factored into his team’s ability to weather in-game storms.
“It allows you to kind of settle in on a rotation, subbing wise,” he said. “So you can get guys rest. Sometimes a team makes a run and you’re afraid to sub. And it’s happened to me a lot, you’re afraid to sub. So you might leave a guy out there for three or four minutes longer than he usually was, and then you kind of run their legs out of them. I just think when you when you have multiple guys you contribute, you’re a little more comfortable sticking to a kind of a closer to a subbing rotation, where guys have certainty and know where their opportunities are going to come.”
That’s noticeable in Arizona’s usage numbers. Currently, Jaden Bradley is averaging the most minutes at 28.1 while Brayden Burries and Koa Peat are each at 27.1. Last season Bradley and Caleb Love averaged 34.1 minutes and only five guys logged 20 per game, while in 2025-26 seven are getting at least 20.3 with Dwayne Aristode at 16.9.
Green light from the perimeter?
Arizona remains near the bottom nationally in 3-point attempt rate, taking only 28.9 percent of its shots from beyond the arc. The Wildcats attempted 18 3s at Utah, making seven, and their 37.8 percent accuracy is 31st in the country.
The season average sits at 17.9 attempts per game, with a high of 27 (Denver) and low of five (Florida). It has made at least 38 percent in 10 of 14 games.
This last game saw six different players hit a triple including two by Awaka, who 3 for 5 on the season. Lloyd has encouraged Awaka to work on that shot, not so much to help Arizona down the stretch as much as to improve his pro prospects.
“I want these guys to get better and have careers …that go way past Arizona, so these guys are working on things for the future,” Lloyd said. “We’re not just doing everything for us. And these guys they do individual workouts every day with our coaches. And you can only shoot so many jump hooks. It’s hard to work on offensive rebounding 1 on 0. So they’re allowed to work on other stuff.
“So are we going to live and die with that, no, but is it nice to have in your back pocket once in a while? Yeah. Am I proud of those guys for having the confidence to call their own number once in a while? For sure, we want our players to play with that confidence and that freedom.”
Another volume scorer to contend with
Utah’s Terrence Brown went for 26 points on Saturday, the third-most an opponent has scored against Arizona this season. Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford scored 30 and Florida’s Thomas Haugh had 27.
Now comes Kansas State junior guard PJ Haggerty, who is averaging 23 points per game. The transfer from Memphis (and Tulsa, and TCU) had 24 in the conference opener against BYU.
The 6-foot-3 Haggerty is also K-State’s leading rebounder (5.2 per game) and assist man (4.6), an indication of how unbalanced that team is. Four other Wildcats score in double figures but everything runs through Haggerty, who according to KenPom.com is involved in more than 32 percent of possessions.
Last game without students
Midway through last month, Lloyd spent time at the end of a press conference encouraging UA fans to take advantage of students being gone and get tickets for seats normally filled by the Zona Zoo. That produced the second- and third-largest crowds of the season at McKale Center for games against Bethune-Cookman (14,378) and South Dakota State (14,501).
Arizona has already sold out three of its nine Big 12 home games, the February tilts against ranked Texas Tech, BYU and Kansas teams, and is close on the other six including K-State.
Last season the UA sold out six of 10 Big 12 home games and averaged 14,058 for all regular season games. So far in 2025-26 it’s averaging 13,937.
Category: General Sports
