Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
5 takeaways from first week of Arizona men’s basketball season
Arizona has opened the 2024-25 season with a pair of lopsided wins, beating Canisius 93-64 and then crushing Old Dominion 102-44.
Things get a lot tougher starting Friday at Wisconsin, with Duke coming to town after that followed by the Battle4Atlantis in the Bahamas.
With two games in the books, here are five takeaways from those wins.
1. The Love, Lewis, and Bradley trio
In the first two wins for the Wildcats, all three starting guards had solid performances. Coach Tommy Lloyd has found a way to put all three on the court and have an efficient offense.
For Caleb Love, it is a year to prove that not only is he one of the best players in the nation, but he should have a shot at being an NBA draft pick. Against Canisius, he had 17 points, four rebounds, and six assists. Love would follow that performance with 10 more points against Old Dominion.
KJ Lewis is the energy guy out of the three guards. He comes in and makes timely plays. Having 14 points in the season opener, he would add eight more in the second game. Lewis’ playmaking comes on the defensive side. Between the two games, he has three steals and three blocks.
If Lewis is the defensive piece of the trio, and Love is the “do it all” piece, Jaden Bradley has been the offensive piece. He had 15 points against Canisius, and seven against Old Dominion.
Bradley also had seven assists in the two games. However, he is not just an offensive player. In the Canisius win, there was a sequence where he had a steal and score, and followed it with another steal and score off of the next inbounds pass.
2. Things get real now
Starting the season 2-0 is always a great thing to accomplish, but now Arizona is facing a tough stretch in their non-conference schedule. On Friday the Wildcats will make a trip to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. Last season Arizona beat Wisconsin in McKale Center.
A week later, they come back home for one of the biggest non-conference matchups at McKale Center in recent years. The Duke Blue Devils come to Tucson for the first time since 1991.
Last season, Arizona beat Duke in Durham 78-73. The Blue Devils have the potential number one pick in next year’s NBA draft in Cooper Flagg.
Between the two games, there is a good amount of time between each of them which gives the Wildcats needed time to reflect and fix.
“What it allows you to do is kind of go back and clean things up,” Lloyd said. “It allows you to revisit things you installed earlier in the fall. Then it gives you time to game plan your opponent.”
In the following five days, the Wildcats head to the Bahamas for the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis. They will play Davidson in their first game and two more teams after that.
“Obviously we have a couple really big single games coming up, you got Wisconsin, you got Duke,” Lloyd said. “Both are going to be incredibly challenging, but what I got to have my eyes on too is, you got three games in three days that are going to be really hard in the Bahamas.
3. Free throw issues?
If there was one thing to critique in Arizona’s first two wins, it would be the performance from the charity stripe.
Going 19 of 27 in the opener may have just been due to first-game jitters. However, going 18 of 29 against Old Dominion is a bit concerning.
Getting to the free throw line has always been part of Lloyd’s offensive philosophy, but the amount of missed free throws has been something that has hindered the Wildcats at times.
Regardless of the percentage from the line, Lloyd is not worried about that aspect for his team.
“Well, we need to step up and make them,” Lloyd said on the free throw struggles. “We’re not going to make a big deal out of them, I think we’re going to be a really good free throw shooting team in time.”
4. Defensive tenacity
Even with scoring 90-plus points in both wins, one aspect that has been stout has been the defensive performance for Arizona.
The Wildcats combined to force 37 turnovers, which have led to 49 points. Arizona also has nine blocks and 24 steals.
Canisius was held to 43.1 percent from the field and Old Dominion shot 31.6 percent. Arizona is making it tough for teams to score. The Wildcats also held both teams scoreless through the first four minutes in the first half. Lloyd was unaware of just how good of a start the Wildcats usually have to start games.
“It’s great, I didn’t even know that, that’s great news,” Lloyd said. “I’ve really been on these guys to step it up defensively. I want more.”
5. Strong rebounding
Arizona has controlled the boards in both games this season as it has 102 rebounds. 17 offensive rebounds against Canisius and 24 against Old Dominion.
It’s not just going and getting rebounds, it’s the way the Wildcats are doing it. Grabbing the ball at the highpoint, finding a man and boxing him out, and not letting the ball hit the ground.
Tobe Awaka has been a driving force in that aspect, with nine rebounds in the first game and 15 in the second.
“Just get everything,” Awaka said on his rebounding mindset. “Coach has sort of been harping on us for rebounding with two hands. Making sure you go up with two hands forcefully and bring the ball down.”
If Arizona can continue this trend, it will lead to many more victories.
In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
In the first game of the series, Arizona (14-23, 5-11 Big 12) battled in a low-scoring affair but fell short in a 2-1 loss to Kansas State (24-12, 8-8 Big 12). The Wildcats from Tucson held the Wildcats from Manhattan at bay for a good majority of the night.
Given that Kansas State leads the Big 12 in conference play in batting, on-base percentage, and slugging, Arizona had a rather good performance, but it was not enough.
Owen Kramkowski pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing the first Kansas State run in the top of the eight. He finished with six strikeouts and kept the high octane Wildcats at bay.
“I thought the defense played well behind him too,” said head coach Chip Hale. “There’s a lot of ground balls, and we made plays where we were positioned in good places, and he was pitching in the eighth inning. That’s unbelievable.”
Garrett Hicks (3-1) came in to try and stop the bleeding for the Wildcats and did so by not allowing Kansas State to take the lead in the eighth. It was in the ninth when the lead was surrendered.
It took until the sixth inning but the first run was scored by Arizona. Andrew Cain singled to left field and after Maddox Mihalakis flew out, it was Beau Sylvester bringing Cain home with a triple through right center field.
Sylvester extended his hitting streak to eight games and it proved to be not enough to get Arizona to the finish line.
Kansas State tied the game at the top of the eight when back to back singles got runners on at first and third. Then a passed ball allowed the third base runner to come home.
Arizona had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the ninth after Cain singled to deep right field. With Sylvester back at the plate, it seemed like it was a perfect set up.
A wild pitch nearly got past Kansas State and Cain tried to take advantage of it and steal home. However, Kansas State was able to corral the pitch and get Cain out at home.
AJ Evasco started the ninth inning with a double for Kansas State and back to back fly outs eventually got him home to give Kansas State the lead and the win.
With eight players being left on base, Arizona will need to bring those runners in more often than not if they want to tie the series Saturday afternoon.
As a young team, the Wildcats have had to walk a very tight line between disappointment and dejection and will need to continue handling these losses with grace if it wants to turn a corner.
“It’s the way it goes, it’s baseball,” said Hale. “If we don’t handle it, we will come out tomorrow and won’t be ready to go, so hopefully they handle it.”
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