Arizona basketball has moved to 22-0 on the season wth an 87-74 victory over Arizona State. Arizona is now off to the best start in program history. One of the big reasons for the success of the Wildcats has been the play of their freshman. Now, head coach Tommy Lloyd is speaking about his freshman studs.
“We knew those freshmen were going to get a lot better. Just awesome kids. Their supreme competitors. You know, there is a beauty to what they are doing. There's a beautiful thing to being really talented, really good, and a little bit naive,” Lloyd told TNT after the game.
The primary contributors for Arizona have been two freshmen. Brayden Burries has been great this year. He is scoring 15.3 points per game while adding 4.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. Meanshwile Koa Peat has also been great. He is scoring 14.8 points per game while adding 5.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
Arizona and Arizona State were tied at the end of the first half at 38 points a piece, but in the second half Burrei and Peat took over. The two combined for 24 points in the second half, while fellow freshman Ivan Kharchenkov scored 12 points in the second half to give Arizona the victory.
While it is nice that the team has moved to 22-0, Lloyd is not concerned about that.
“I’m the wrong guy to talk about that, you guys can talk about that. It was a great week. We started off with a tough win at BYU. You win two road games in a week in the Big 12, I don’t care what your record is you feel good,” Lloyd told the media after the game, according to Brian Pedersen of Arizona Desert Swarm.
Arizona is now projected to be a one seed in the NCAA tournament with its undefeated record. They return to the court to defend that record on Saturday against Oklahoma State.
