Arizona

Arizona’s Koa Peat has won at all levels, Michigan next in Final Four

Published

4 days ago

April 4, 2026

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Arizona’s Koa Peat has won at all levels, Michigan next in Final Four

INDIANAPOLIS – Chandler native Koa Peat has won a lot of big games.

He led Perry High School to four straight state high school championships. He’s been part of gold-medal-winning entries for Team USA. And he’s a star freshman on the No. 1 University of Arizona team, which is on the precipice of the school’s first national championship since 1997.

It should have been hard for him to come up with an answer when asked the last time he actually “lost” a big game, but he did come up with one.

He singled out Arizona’s loss to then-No. 9 Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in February. That was one of just two games the Wildcats dropped this season. It says a lot that it was the worst loss he can remember.

Peat and the Wildcats (36-2) will square off against Michigan (35-3) in the second of two NCAA semifinals on Saturday, April 4 at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. The game is scheduled to tip off at roughly 5:50 p.m. MST, and will be televised on TNT, TBS and truTV.

The first Final Four game will pit Illinois against Connecticut at 4 p.m. and will be televised on TBS and truTV. The winners will compete for the national championship on Monday, April 6.

Arizona has won 13 straight games since back-to-back losses to Kansas and Texas Tech in February. Peat has hardly looked the part of a freshman.

“They call him Mr. Arizona,” said Wildcats’ coach Tommy Lloyd, who agreed to a contract extension on the eve of the team’s semifinal showdown. “Koa is special, and I know you guys hear it, but you got to hear it again. Four state championships at the same high school. Didn’t go to a prep school. Four gold medals with USA Basketball. No one in FIBA history has ever done that. And helped lead Arizona to a Final Four.”

At 6-foot-8, 235 pounds, Peat hardly looks like a freshman physically. He doesn’t play like one either.

Peat is averaging 14.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists. That might sound pedestrian compared to some athletes who have put up video-game-like offensive numbers. But this Arizona team is balanced offensively, with all five starters averaging double figures.

Peat has been at his best in the big moments. He was named the most outstanding player in the West Region, scoring 21 points against Arkansas in the Sweet 16 win and 20 against Purdue in the Elite Eight victory, which earned the Wildcats a berth in Indianapolis.

He came onto the scene with a bang, scoring a season-high 30 against defending national champion Florida on Nov. 3.

Message delivered.

While that game was a long time ago, it was a good indicator that the Wildcats could go the distance because they beat a team like Florida, which is similar to Michigan with size in the front court.

“We always watch our good highlights, so just seeing those (against Florida) definitely gives us confidence for sure,” Peat said.

Michigan coach Dusty May said it takes a certain kind of player to be able to compete at this level as a true freshman, and Peat fits the bill, as does Brayden Burries.

“When we were at Florida (Atlantic) we used to talk about how there are certain prerequisites to be able to play as a freshman at a Power Five level,” May said. “And one of those prerequisites was playing USA Basketball because of the amount of intensity that it takes to compete during the trials, during the practices and also the games and also the sacrifice it takes because you’re playing with 11 of the best players in our country and you have to sacrifice so much just to play.”

Genes and a competitive drive probably help too. Peat grew up in a house full of athletes as the youngest of seven siblings, all of whom played football or basketball. His brother, Andrus Peat, has been in the NFL for 10 years and currently plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. His father, Todd, played for four teams in the NFL, most notably the Cardinals.

“It’s been a blessing to have great people like that around me, a family as I have with so many athletes who played Division I sports,” Peat said, on the eve of the national semifinal. “I would say I am the most competitive just because their competitiveness was passed down to me, seeing how good they were and what it took to compete.”

Lloyd has been impressed, although not necessarily surprised, with how Peat has performed as well as the way he has remained grounded.

“The dude, he’s amazing. His ability to perform the way he did in these moments, you know, he’s been in a lot of them,” Lloyd said. “I told our guys, don’t make too much out of this. It’s like a state championship game. You guys have all played in them. Or a gold medal game or whatever. Let’s just find a way to win the game. Don’t make it more than it is.”

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Arizona

Arizona teen who vanished in 1994 resurfaces decades later as mom of 3 who works for private investigator

Published

5 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Arizona teen who vanished in 1994 resurfaces decades later as mom of 3 who works for private investigator

A runaway Arizona schoolgirl last seen 32 years ago is reportedly living as a married mom of three who works for a private investigator.

Christina Plante was 13 when she disappeared from her parents’ house in Star Valley, northeast of Phoenix, one Sunday afternoon in May 1994.

Now 45, the former missing teen was discovered living in Springfield, Missouri, in a five-bedroom house she shares with her husband, Shaun Hollon, 49, the Daily Mail reported.

Since her identity was revealed, Plante has given very few details about the past three decades.

She reportedly married as a teen and had three sons before earning a psychology degree and getting a job with a private investigations firm.

“She isn’t being very cooperative with us. She wouldn’t say who she met with or how she even got out of town,” Gila County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jim Lahti told the Daily Mail.

“She did admit that she ran away. She didn’t want to be there,” he added.

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Mixed Arizona reaction to Trump’s chilling post before ceasefire deal

Published

17 hours ago

April 8, 2026

Press Room

Mixed Arizona reaction to Trump’s chilling post before ceasefire deal

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A ceasefire announced Tuesday will suspend the war in Iran for two weeks and Iranian officials said they will negotiate with the United States starting Friday.

President Donald Trump agreed to a deal hours after he posted “a whole civilization will die tonight” on social media.

Before news broke about the cease-fire, Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona introduced articles of impeachment Monday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Ansari, the daughter of Iranian immigrants, is also part of a growing list of Democrats calling for Trump to be impeached.

“Iran is a country of 90 million people. Threatening them with annihilation is a monstrous war crime and puts them and American service members and Americans at grave risk,” Ansari said in a video posted Monday on social media. “As a chief enabler of this illegal war, Pete Hegseth is responsible for directing this insane military action against Iran, which has already killed thousands of civilians, led to the unnecessary deaths of American service members, and displaced over a million people in the region.”

Not everyone with strong ties to Iran agrees with her.

“I don’t see why they should be impeached,” said Amirdanial Azimi. He is the president of the Iranian Students Association at Arizona State University (ASU). He grew up in Iran and has family and friends there right now.

“Speaking to my friends and relatives, I’ve realized that they’re more scared of their own government than they are like external forces like the United States and Israel,” Azimi said.

Azimi predicted Trump would not follow through with his threat to destroy Iran.

“I do take offense, like Iranians do take offense, like they don’t want their civilizations to be wiped off,” Azimi said. “This is the fault of the Iranian regime, their government, because they’ve been chanting death to Israel, death to America for the past years.”

Hessam Rahimian is a refugee turned American citizen. He said he escaped Iran decades ago, where his uncle was murdered and his cousins remain in jail. He said schoolchildren are taught to chant “death to America” every day.

He said he has hundreds of family members and friends still in Iran. In Arizona, Rahimian organizes rallies in support of the war to raise awareness about the reality of life in Iran and the thousands of protesters killed by the Iranian government.

Before the attack was called off, Rahimian said it was challenging to process Trump’s threat to wipe out his home country.

“So he did say that, but he has also said, in the same token today, that the Iranian people are good people, and he will do his best to make sure that they’re safe. So which one you go with, again, I go back to his actions in the past year, it has been against the Islamic regime and not the Iranian people,” Rahimian said. “Would I like for him not to use that language? Of course, absolutely. But we also know that the war talk takes place and they say things to create fear.”

Daniel Rothenberg is a politics and global studies professor at ASU. He said the biggest question is why the U.S. is at war in the first place.

“This is, above all, a war of choice. The U.S. was not attacked. There was no imminent threat from Iran,” Rothenberg said.

Rothenberg said Trump has not clearly explained the point of the war that is costing billions of dollars a day and countless human lives or what a victory would look like.

“Wars tend to end through negotiations, not through military victory,” Rothenberg said. “I mean, what does it mean to wipe out a civilization? And frankly, why would you even make that sort of threat? What’s the purpose?”

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Kroger, Albertsons sued by Arizona, seven other states seeking antitrust lawsuit expense reimbursement

Published

1 day ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Kroger, Albertsons sued by Arizona, seven other states seeking antitrust lawsuit expense reimbursement

Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. Inc. have been sued by Arizona and seven other states and the District of Columbia, all of which are seeking to be reimbursed for costs they incurred while fighting a merger between the two grocers that later failed on antitrust grounds.

The coalition of plaintiffs, which also includes the Federal Trade Commission, is seeking $10.3 million from Cincinnati-based supermarket giant Kroger and Boise, Idaho-based grocery rival Albertsons, according to the lawsuit filed March 31 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore.

Kroger is the parent company of Fry’s Food Stores in the Valley, and Albertsons owns the Safeway brand in Arizona.

Read more of this story from the Business Journal.

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