Eeking by top-15 teams Florida, UCLA and UConn before Thanksgiving put the spotlight on the Arizona Wildcats.
But in the month since then, much of the time spent at home in Tucson has set up the current No. 1 team in The Associated Press poll to find its identity, according to head coach Tommy Lloyd.
“How the schedule broke this year, and it wasn’t intentional … we had some tough games early and we were able to pull them out, and then we kind of came home and we had like a two-and-a-half- week stretch we were at home,” Lloyd told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta. “I really challenged our guys to not worry about what we had already accomplished. Let’s be more excited about what lies ahead.
“Let’s have a couple good weeks of practice and really build and galvanize who we want to be. Let’s really just write down what our on-court values are, what our on-court identity is. … I feel like what I’ve seen from this team is, over the last couple of weeks, they really have galvanized and gotten better and really kind of created an identity that they’re comfortable with.”
The results have been more impressive than the start in some ways — not just because former No. 3 Florida is now ranked 20th and then-No. 15 UCLA is not ranked at all.
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Arizona’s margin of victory in the last five games is 30.2 points.
While some on-paper mismatches against Denver, Norfolk State and Abilene Christian are included, the stretch also includes a home win over current-No. 21 Auburn by 29 points and last week’s 21-point neutral-court victory against now-No. 16 Alabama … in Birmingham.
How have the 10-0 Wildcats done it?
Phoenix-area product Koa Peat, who leads the team at 14.3 points per game heading into a homecoming against San Diego at Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday, has not been carrying all the water.
Fellow freshman Brayden Burries has found a rhythm after scoring in double-figures just once in the first five games.
Burries has led Arizona in scoring three out of the past five games, hitting double-figures in all of those while shooting 61.3% from the field.
“I think he just got experience. … You prepare as much as you want, but until you kind of go through actual games themselves, you don’t know where you stand,” Lloyd said on a call with reporters Wednesday. “You know you’re a good player … I think it’s really important a player goes through that struggle. Anything that’s learned without struggle, there’s not much value to it.”
Still, it’s been about balance for this version of the Wildcats.
Senior point guard Jaden Bradley is the team’s second-leading scorer but has picked his spots well — especially late in close games. He has matched Peat with an absurd field goal percentage of 55.7% so far this year.
Lloyd has looked smart betting on the big-man duo of Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka, a decision that allowed last year’s standout big man Henri Veesaar to transfer to North Carolina.
He has also built out the nation’s No. 1 team to be fairly deep, pushing last year’s starters Anthony Dell’Oroso and Awaka to the bench in favor of a youth movement. Freshman starter Ivan Kharchenkov and reserve Dwayne Aristode have found some rhythm in the past five games as well, giving Arizona a sure eight-man rotation if it can remain healthy.
As a whole, the bigs have built the identity for the Wildcats.
Arizona has doubled down with size to strong results, ranking third in the nation in rebounding percentage and 11th in offensive rebounding rate, pulling down 40.9% of its own misses.
Offensively, only one team out of 365 takes a lower percentage of its overall shots from beyond the 3-point line than Arizona’s 27.2%.
For context, the Wildcats take 16.8 per game, while the nation’s leaders at Charleston Southern launch 37.1 per, with 56.2% of its buckets shot from deep.
Arizona is scoring without raining down 3s, ranking 23rd in offensive rating and 26th in true shooting percentage. The latter accounts for free throws and 3-point shots being worth more (the Wildcats do have a top-40 accuracy of 38.1% from 3, for what it’s worth).
Equally balanced, the Wildcats are ranked 21st in defensive rating.
The Wildcats’ last foray into a No. 1 ranking a few years back lasted just a few weeks.
If they can beat San Diego State in front of a pro-Arizona crowd in downtown Phoenix on Saturday, the nonconference schedule finishes against Bethune-Cookman and South Dakota State. Arizona could enter the Big 12 schedule in 2026 with a 13-0 record.
The pressure could build, though high expectations are already pretty well-established.
“I think the only thing I’ve told our guys as we kind of were moving up the rankings … when you see that number in front of your name, trust it,” Lloyd said. “Now, you got to go out, and you got to go back it up. … People around the program were thinking of how we should attack that Alabama game (after becoming No. 1). And I just told our staff, ‘I don’t care about anything. I just want to effing beat Alabama.’
“I don’t care about rankings or defending this or what KenPom says we’re that. I don’t care about analytics. I just want to effin’ beat Alabama. So let’s just prepare our guys to do that. And that’s really the mindset we take.”
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