Whether a surprise or not, Koa Peat's 'coming-out party' made Arizona men's hoops history

LAS VEGAS — After putting up possibly the most dominant freshman debut in Arizona men’s basketball history Monday, forward Koa Peat slumped in his chair and listened casually as his coach rattled off a list of his accomplishments during the postgame interview.

Then Peat felt Tommy Lloyd’s hand reach backward for a playful slap on the leg, and Peat lit up with a smile.

“He had four assists and five rebounds. Shoulda been double-digits on the boards, Koa,” Lloyd said, grinning. “But we’ll get there.”

Yeah, he’ll probably get around to that.

But for now, Peat still put up the second-most points ever for an Arizona player making his college debut, trailing only the 37 Eric Money pasted on Cal State Los Angeles at the start of the 1972-73 season.

Peat also became the first Big 12 freshman to score 30 against a Top 5 opponent since Oklahoma State’s Jawun Evans had 42 against second-ranked Oklahoma during the 2015-16 season.

Locally, this sort of outburst really comes as no surprise. Peat made the move from Chandler to Tucson last summer as one of the most decorated in-state recruits ever: Four FIBA gold medals, four Arizona state championships, three Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year honors and a McDonald’s All-American Game appearance.

Peat was so well regarded that Lloyd, who does not normally offer recruits scholarships until late in their high school careers, had been recruiting him since virtually the day Lloyd took over the Wildcats in April 2021.

Then, Peat was still a 14-year-old eighth-grader awaiting his Gilbert Perry High School career. But a strong, skilled 6-7 eighth-grader even then.

More than four years later, after first stopping over at McKale Center for an early orientation, Peat played a standout role in helping the Lloyd-coached Team USA win the gold medal in the FIBA U19 World Cup last July in Switzerland, too.

That was no surprise, either. But Peat’s college debut Monday, coming on national television, against the defending national champions, and while matched up against preseason all-American Alex Condon of Florida, opened eyes all over the country.

“Darryn Peterson, Cam Boozer and AJ Dybantsa got most of the preseason hype for the 2025 freshman class. Mikel Brown Jr. and Nate Ament also got a fair share,” wrote the Field of 68 college basketball site. “Guess Koa Peat should have been on that list.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

It was a national “coming out party,” Lloyd said afterward, saying Peat’s name was familiar elsewhere but that “nobody had really studied him and watched him.”

Florida coach Todd Golden had plenty of chances to study Peat. Especially during USA Basketball’s seven-game romp to the U19 World Cup title in Switzerland, when Peat led the Americans in rebounding per game (6.9) and was their third-leading scorer (12.6) behind Brown and Dybantsa, the BYU forward who was named the event’s MVP.

Golden, who kept his team’s preseason scrimmages against FIU and Illinois private, also had three televised chances to assess Peat in person with the Wildcats, and see how Peat worked in with UA returning bigs Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka: During the Red-Blue Showcase and UA’s exhibitions against Saint Mary’s and Embry-Riddle.

But it was still tough to forecast exactly what would happen Monday. Krivas had six points and eight rebounds over 26 minutes, while Awaka had seven points and five rebounds while playing just 16 minutes because of foul trouble.

And Peat went nuts.

“Usually, we deliver the physicality,” Golden said. “I thought Peat was really the biggest (factor). I thought we did a great job on Krivas. I thought we did a good job on Awaka. He’s an awesome player, as well. He was in foul trouble most of the night, but we limited his effort.

“It was really Peat that just used his physicality, and did a great job getting close to the rim.”

Golden said Peat and the Wildcats’ inside play “changed the complexity of the game,” and credited Lloyd for taking advantage of it efficiently.

“To Tommy’s credit, he wasn’t overcomplicating it,” Golden said. He was “just putting Bradley and Peat in the middle ball screen and we were dropping a little bit but Koa is tough to guard when he gets that little downhill run. We just weren’t able to match his physicality on those plays.”

Maybe it helped that Peat not only had been running those sorts of plays with Lloyd throughout the preseason, but also in the FIBA U19 World Cup, on a platform that isn’t as big in the U.S. but is widely watched throughout the international basketball world.

Peat was used to the big stage, and with the way he needed to act on it.

“I think it really helped me this summer, especially playing with coach Lloyd,” Peat said. “He ran some of the same sets at USA, so coming to U of A in the fall, it was pretty easy to adapt to those. And me and coach built a really good relationship this summer. I’m just excited for the season. I’m really happy to be coached by coach Lloyd.”