Arizona
Being concerned about this Arizona men's basketball season makes sense, writing it off as over doesn't
Men’s basketball was supposed to save us.
Ranked ninth heading into the season, Tommy Lloyd’s team was going to allow us to move on from a disaster of a football season and enjoy plenty of wins, big-time matchups and hopefully a deep tournament run.
Nine games into the season there have been few wins, no big-time victories and the tournament seems like anything but a guarantee.
The good news for Arizona is that despite its 4-5 non-conference record, one whose latest loss was a game the Wildcats coughed up in Phoenix against UCLA, there is still time to turn things around.
The bad news is that up to now the team has not shown much to make you think it is capable of righting the ship and rolling through the Big 12.
This is where Lloyd comes in. More specifically, this is where his abilities as a coach — to motivate, to tinker, to create — will be shown. Or not.
It’s clear this year’s Cats are lacking in some key areas. Their three-point shooting has been inconsistent at best and there is no true low-post scoring threat. Rim protection is tough to come by and the high-low game that has defined Arizona’s attack is unavailable at the moment.
What the team does have is a dynamic back court, athleticism and enough depth to in theory be able to find a lineup or lineups that work.
It’s on Lloyd and his staff to figure out how to use it.
The coach said as much after Saturday’s loss to the Bruins, especially in light of Mo Krivas’ latest injury troubles.
“Obviously with big Mo not playing we kind of are figuring out on the fly how this team is going to look going forward and trying to tweak some things,” he said. “Maybe see this team has some other strengths. So I just didn’t feel like we had a great, maybe not the players’ fault, but I just didn’t think we have a great understanding of how we wanted to attack and play today, pressure situations. Obviously, we gotta continue to work on that and build that certainty and that identity within the guys now that it looks like Mo is going to be out for a little bit.”
Certainty and identity, two things that every good team needs and both of which are lacking with this group. It is missing toughness, grit and the ability to close out games.
Arizona under Lloyd certainly had an identity the last three seasons. But now? Arizona’s offense is ranked 37th in KenPom. The Wildcats are struggling from the outside and are averaging just 15.4 assists per game, which is tied for 102nd in the country.
Something has not been working.
Known for offense over the last few years, if this season’s team is to reach its potential things will have to look different. For the first time since Lloyd arrived there is no dominant or consistent low-post scoring presence, and further there is no hybrid, Swiss Army Knife-wing like Pelle Larsson who could do anything and everything on the court.
What the team does have though is the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year who, as a fifth-year senior Caleb Love has the kind of experience coaches dream of. It also has a point guard in Jaden Bradley who looks ready to be among the country’s best, a talented freshman in Carter Bryant and a bouncy wing in K.J. Lewis.
There’s also veterans Trey Townsend and Tobe Awaka, each of whom are in their first seasons with the program but have postseason experience. Anthony Dell’Orso has taken a step up in competition but has brought his 3-point shot with him and Henri Veesaar, in this third college season, and should finally be ready for minutes as a 7-footer who can step out to the 3-point line (and is not afraid to let it rip, as was seen against UCLA).
Is this as good a roster as last year’s or any of the two before it? So far the answer is a resounding no, but that comes with a catch.
It’s important to note that while Arizona is certainly not off to the start any of us wanted or expected, things may not be quite as bad as they appear. If you are a believer in analytics, as of Dec. 16th EvanMiya.com has the Cats as the 24th-best team in the country while Haslemetrics.com lists them at 19th.
EvanMiya shows Arizona to have both a top-25 offense and defense, which if that holds for the rest of the season should result in plenty more wins than losses.
Then again, things could go the other direction.
Lloyd said after the UCLA loss that it was important for the team to stick together and not splinter. With plenty of big games ahead and a path to the dance still very much in front of them, that probably won’t be an issue.
What could be a problem is if the coaches and players either can’t figure out how to maximize what they have and are or figure things out too late. A subpar nonconference performance does not end the season, but it does plenty to whittle down the margin for error.
As of now there are four top-25 teams left on Arizona’s schedule, with another three who received votes in the latest AP Poll. That group makes up 10 of the 20 Big 12 conference games, and while the rankings are sure to change over the next handful of weeks the fact is despite how it may feel, the season is far from over and opportunity to make this a good one still very much exists.
Arizona
Arizona, career nights from Burries, Krivas beat K-State
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Brayden Burries scored 28 points, Motiejus Krivas added a career-high 25 and No. 1 Arizona remained unbeaten with a 101-76 win over Kansas State on Wednesday night.
Arizona (15-0, 2-0 Big 12) is off to its best start since winning the first 21 games of the 2013-14 season. Arizona won by at least 18 points for the 10th consecutive game, matching a mark Michigan had earlier this season that tied for the longest such run since 2003-04.
Burries had his fifth 20-point game and matched his career high by going 12 for 16 from the field while adding nine rebounds. It was his 10th straight game in double figures, including at least 20 points in five of those, after just one over his first five.
Krivas was 7 of 10, making 11 of 13 free throws, and had 12 rebounds.
Koa Peat had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Tobe Awaka added nine and 11 as Arizona outrebounded Kansas State 55-32. Arizona shot 49.3% from the field but was just 3 of 16 from 3-point range.
Kansas State (9-6, 0-2) went 8 for 36 from deep and shot 33.8% overall. PJ Haggerty led the way with 19 points on 8-of-20 shooting, while Nate Johnson added 15 and Dorin Buca 12.
Down 15 at the half, Kansas State pulled within 58-49 with 16:09 left on a 3-pointer by Johnson. Arizona responded with a 6-0 run and kept the margin at least 12 the rest of the way. Back-to-back dunks by Burries and Peat and a corner 3-pointer by Jaden Bradley keyed a 13-0 run to put Arizona ahead 92-65 with 3:31 remaining.
It built a 10-point lead less than six minutes into the game and upped it to 20 with 2:52 left in the first half. Burries had 16 before halftime.
Arizona
Arizona HS football’s No. 1 2027 prospect has ASU, Miami high on list
Arizona Open Division football championship MVPs on Basha’s big win
“As soon as we stepped on the field, nerves went away and it was just playing football,” Rogers said of Basha’s performance.
Chandler Basha left tackle Jake Hildebrand, the state’s No. 1 2027 college football prospect, said Arizona State and Miami are among the top potential schools on his recently revealed 10-best list.
Miami is playing in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl as part of the College Football Playoff semifinal against Ole Miss at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Jan. 8.
Hildebrand, 6-foot-6, 293 pounds, has started every varsity game since his freshman year and helped lead the Bears to the Open Division state title this past season. He won’t be able to attend the Fiesta Bowl because he’s in San Antonio, getting ready to play in the Jan. 10 Navy All-American Bowl. The game airs at 11 a.m. MST on NBC.
Hildebrand also has CFP semifinalists Indiana and Oregon, along with Texas A&M, Alabama, USC, Ohio State and Texas among his top 10 colleges.
“A few schools that are my favorite from the top 10 are ASU, Alabama, Texas A&M, Miami and USC,” Hildebrand said in a direct message to The Arizona Republic. “They have definitely been the schools that have been contacting me the most and built the best relationship with.”
There is no timetable for when Hildebrand will commit. He could wait until he makes trips this spring, summer and fall. But he is among the most coveted left tackles in the country, who has 38 offers, according to 247Sports.
The 247Sports Composite has Hildebrand ranked as the No. 13 overall offensive tackle in the country in the 2027 class. He is ranked No. 1 in the class of 2027 by The Republic.
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. Catch the best high school sports coverage in the state. Sign up for Azcentral Preps Now. And be sure to subscribe to our daily sports newsletters so you don’t miss a thing. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
Arizona
Future of Arizona’s Oak Flat faces pivotal day in Phoenix courtroom
Apache Stronghold leader’s propane lines severed
Apache Stronghold leader Wendsler Nosie’s propane tank lines were severed. Nosie claims it is related to the controversy surrounding Oak Flat mine.
Three lawsuits aiming to keep the U.S. Forest Service from turning over Oak Flat to a mining company for a massive copper mine go in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for arguments Jan. 7.
The British-Australian firm Resolution Copper has long sought the exchange to build a mine that bodes to obliterate a site Apaches and other Native peoples hold sacred. It also is one of Arizona’s few functional wetlands.
Two lawsuits filed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a coalition of environmentalists and the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona challenged the land exchange, authorized by a last-minute amendment to a “must-pass” defense bill in December 2014. The arguments in the lawsuits are based on the tribe’s religious beliefs and on environmental concerns, including disputes over water usage and possible damage of one of central Arizona’s key aquifers.
In the third suit, the latest to be filed, a group of Apache women who have spiritual and cultural connections to the site argue that the exchange would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First Amendment’s religious rights protections and two environmental laws.
Their lawsuit also brought two new factors into play: a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirms parental rights to direct their children’s religious education and references to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s blistering dissent to the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear another case related to the land exchange.
A three-judge panel will hear the cases at the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix.
Religious rights advocates and First Amendment experts have said the ability of Native peoples to exercise their religious rights is at stake.
Oak Flat story: As an Apache girl enters womanhood, lawsuits and tariffs cast shadows
The struggle over Oak Flat nears 30-year mark
For more than two decades, Oak Flat Campground, known to Apaches as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, “the place where the Emory oak grows,” has been ground zero in a battle over Native religious rights on public lands as well as environmental preservation for a scarce Arizona ecosystem.
The 2,200-acre primitive campground and riparian zone, within the Tonto National Forest about 60 miles east of Phoenix, also lies over one of the nation’s largest remaining bodies of copper ore.
To obtain the copper, Resolution, which is owned by multinational firms Rio Tinto and BHP, plans to use a method known as block cave mining in which tunnels are drilled beneath the ore body, and then collapsed, leaving the ore to be moved to a crushing facility.
Eventually, the ground would subside, leaving behind a crater about 1,000 feet deep and nearly 2 miles across, obliterating Oak Flat.
Resolution Copper, a British-Australian mining firm, sought Congressional approval to exchange other parcels of land it had purchased with the U.S. Forest Service for nearly 10 years when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other officials engineered a late-night rider to a must-pass defense bill in December 2014. Then-President Barack Obama signed the bill and ever since, tribes, environmentalists and their allies have fought to stop the exchange.
Resolution has said that the mine would bring much-needed jobs and revenues to the economically challenged Copper Triangle to the tune of about $1 billion a year. The company has provided funding to support recovery from the floods that devastated downtown Globe in October and has supported other community organizations.
In November, Resolution announced it had completed rehabilitation of the historic No. 9 shaft at the Magma minehead, including deepening it to nearly 6,900 feet and connecting it to the No. 10 shaft, which plunges about 6,940 feet below the surface.
Vicky Peacey, president and general manager of Resolution, said the shaft project was a huge milestone, employing homegrown talent from surrounding communities to get the job done.
Despite the ongoing litigation, she said, “We are ready to advance this important copper project, enabling thousands of high-paying jobs, billions in economic development for rural Arizona, and access to a domestic supply of copper essential to American security and modern infrastructure.”
Grassroots group Apache Stronghold, led by former San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Wendsler Nosie, filed the first lawsuit to stop the exchange. That litigation was declined twice by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2025, but Apache Stronghold continues to fight the land exchange as the group supports the other three lawsuits.
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @debkrol and on Bluesky at @debkrol.bsky.social.
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