WACO, Texas — Over 72 hours passed between Arizona’s games at Houston and Baylor during their only two-game trip of the regular season, yet it was a blaze for Justin Kokoskie.
Already helping forward Koa Peat rehabilitate his lower-leg injury on the Wildcats’ run through Texas, the UA athletic trainer was thrown into further action when wing Anthony Dell’Orso appeared to sprain his left ankle with 1:02 left against Houston.
Arizona forward Koa Peat warmed up before the Wildcats' game at Baylor on Tuesday, though he did not play for a third straight game because of a lower-leg injury.
Dell’Orso went back in the game after an 18-second break — “he’d go back in if he had one good leg,” Kokoskie said — but the Wildcats found out after the game it was both an ankle sprain and a foot muscle sprain.
Quickly, UA’s Saturday afternoon game turned into a Saturday night rehab ward. And Sunday, and Monday, too.
“I set up some stuff in his room, we were in the hotel swimming pool a lot, and went back and forth to the meeting space,” Kokoskie said.
It worked well enough. Dell’Orso and forward Koa Peat were both listed as questionable in the Wildcats’ day-before availability report they sent the Big 12 on Monday — and as “game-time decisions” during the pregame report UA filed 90 minutes before Tuesday’s tipoff.
Just after that report went live on the Big 12’s website, Dell’Orso and Peat both hit the floor, though Peat went through only limited work, and it was clear he would not play.
But it was a minor surprise that Peat reached that point. He accompanied the Wildcats on the trip so he could rehabilitate with Kokoskie and go through light on-court work, but advanced far enough that he might be able to play Saturday when the Wildcats host Kansas at McKale Center.
In all cases, Kokoskie said the Wildcats have benefited from a strong culture and work ethic.
“Guys want to give it everything they’ve got … my job is to put the brakes on at times,” Kokoskie said. “We have great kids, great parents and the support groups around these kids has been phenomenal. That carries into the medical side, as well.”
The Wildcats hadn’t had a rotation player miss any of their first 24 games of the season, until Dwayne Aristode went out with an undisclosed illness that kept him from making the trip to Texas.
BBQ night
The Wildcats didn’t exactly kick back during their extended trip to Texas, practicing Sunday in Houston, flying to Waco on Sunday afternoon and practicing again Monday and before Tuesday’s game — while holding several meetings.
But Kokoskie said they did venture out to a local barbecue buffet on Monday night in Waco.
“It was good to get out for an hour,” Kokoskie said.
Wash ‘n fold
Meanwhile, equipment manager Brian Brigger spent a chunk of his time borrowing the washing machines at both Houston and Baylor.
That was required not only because the Wildcats wore their road 1997 navy uniforms for both games but also because they held three practices between games: On Sunday, Monday and early Tuesday before the Baylor game.
“I only carry two sets of practice uniforms on the road,” Brigger said. “Both schools helped me out.”
Pregame prayer
The Wildcats were subject to their second arena pregame prayer of the season, as they were at BYU last month.
Among other things, the prayer asked for play without injuries.
Easy courtside seats
Even two hours before Tuesday’s game, only 13 students stood — well, mostly sat — to wait for the best seats at Foster Pavilion.
It might be easy to attribute to the Bears’ sagging fortunes entering Tuesday’s game, but that isn’t the whole story: Baylor’s All University Sing is in full force this week, keeping many students from attending the game.
They were preparing for a competition of seven-minute Broadway-style productions, a tradition Baylor has held since 1953.
This was the front of the student line two hours before the Baylor-Arizona game on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026.
The students who did show up at Foster Pavilion, meanwhile, were holding the faith.
“Maybe today is our day,” said senior Maddie Miller.
Open seats
But the Bears’ struggles — and possibly the 8 p.m. tipoff, a tricky one for alums from other Texas cities to make on a weeknight — were reflected in the rest of the stands.
Even though Baylor’s ticketing seat map showed only about 100 seats available for sale on Tuesday afternoon, the 7,500-capacity arena had only about 6,000 fans inside — and about 1,000 of them were wearing red and chanting “U of A” from time to time.
Until things picked up as Baylor’s threat continued into the second half, Baylor partially made up for its relative lack of crowd noise by blasting music over the loudspeakers at decibels that went into the 90s.
NBA scouts everywhere
The game was attractive to NBA scouts, however. Baylor set a conference-season-high of credentialing 35 NBA scouts for 21 teams to attend Tuesday’s game.
No doubt, NBA scouts are looking at projected first-rounders Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou of Baylor — and pretty much everyone in the Wildcats’ rotation — but there’s also some efficiency to their work this week.
Most of them are also expected to make the 100-mile commute to Austin to take in a Wednesday game between Texas and Florida.
Must-see TV
ESPN posted Tuesday that its Top 5 doubleheader Saturday combined for its “most consumed” day of regular-season college basketball ever.
The Arizona-Houston game on ABC drew 2.4 million viewers, ABC's most-viewed college basketball game since 2002, while the Michigan-Duke game on ESPN attracted 4.3 million, ESPN said.
Cupcake vision
While student fans at many schools will pick up a free chicken sandwich if an opposing team misses two free throws in one trip to the line, and Arizona gives out Eegees, Baylor student fans get free cupcakes from the nearby Magnolia Market if the same thing happens at Foster Pavilion.
As a result, student fans frantically wave giant cupcake cutouts at the Wildcats, who shot free throws facing them in the second half.
The big number
25: Second-chance points for Arizona, a season-high.
Quotable
"I think that makes for a fun atmosphere, and U of A has always traveled well. ... That's something you love in basketball, is people being passionate about college basketball." — Baylor coach Scott Drew, on the cheering from both UA and Baylor fans at Foster Pavilion
