Peat, Kharchenkov join Arizona basketball's home-away-from-home magic in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — The Arizona Wildcats might have married themselves to the Big 12 and its tournament base of Kansas City, but there’s little doubt their home away from home remains just off the Las Vegas Strip.

McKale North, they call T-Mobile Arena, where Arizona men’s basketball won five Pac-12 Tournament titles between 2015 and 2023, counting vacated triumphs in 2017 and 2018.

The place where Wildcat fans living in California and Arizona can easily reach by car or a short flight, and the place where there’s always things to do away from the arena.

“We all know this: Arizona fans have a special relationship with Vegas,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Monday, after the Wildcats upset defending national champion Florida 93-87 at T-Mobile. “We love coming here.”

The UA fans, making up well over half of those in the near-capacity crowd, even though thousands of BYU fans were also there awaiting a later game Monday night, appeared to love seeing them win, again, too.

The Wildcats left for the Big 12 after the 2023-24 season and didn’t enjoy nearly as strong a following at their new conference’s postseason tournament in Kansas City last season. They had good support, and it was especially audible in a year when nearby power Kansas was weakened, but nothing like Las Vegas.

Nothing like McKale North.

“I think there are few more Arizona fans out there tonight,” said Florida coach Todd Golden, a Phoenix native who said he grew up a Wildcat fan. “It felt similar to (playing in the) SEC championship with Tennessee in Nashville.”

It felt, to Arizona, like home. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why, after slipping behind by up to 12 points early against the defending national champions, the Wildcats took a four-point halftime lead and never trailed in the second half, holding the Gators off even as the game was nearly tied in the final seconds.

Or maybe it was the stewardship of senior point guard Jaden Bradley, who had a career-high 27 points to go with five assists, or the stunning college debut of freshman forward Koa Peat, who had 30 points, including two late monster dunks that helped Arizona hang on.

“It was a coming out party for him,” Lloyd said of Peat.

It was also an eye-opening debut for freshman wing Ivan Kharchenkov, who made the move from Germany’s top-level pro league to the NCAA, collecting 12 points and 10 rebounds on Monday.

Together, the Wildcats wound up passing a test Lloyd was reluctant to even have them take in the first place. Asked before the game if he would have preferred opening the season at home against a lower-level opponent, Lloyd said “yeah” but indicated he couldn’t turn down the chance to play the defending national champs on TNT.

“When you’re asked to open college basketball on national TV in Vegas, do you say, ‘Excuse me… we’ll play it, but we want to play it on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and before that we want to (play somebody else)?’” Lloyd said. “That’s not an option.”

But they made it work anyway, after Lloyd started a somewhat unexpected lineup with three freshmen: Peat, Kharchenkov and shooting guard Brayden Burries. Those three paired with Bradley and junior center Motiejus Krivas, leaving two starters from last season’s Wildcats, post player Tobe Awaka and wing Anthony Dell’Orso, to come off the bench.

Kharchenkov was not expected to start immediately this season, especially since Lloyd has a history of giving starting nods to veterans such as Dell’Orso. But Lloyd spoke of how Kharchenkov’s coach at Bayern Munich once told him the 19-year-old wing would be ready to go.

“I obviously called to do my homework and he’s just like ‘Tommy, you’re going to be blown away how ready he is from Day 1,’” Lloyd said. “He showed flashes of that, and he’s also had some ups and downs and practices, but for him to come out today and perform like he did on this stage was impressive.”

While UA’s starters tied Florida 6-6 before substitutions began, successive UA lineups struggled while the Gators built leads of up to 12 points midway through the half, slicing through the UA defense inside and out.

“Some of our (early) coverages weren’t great,” Lloyd said. “There’s a lot of things that they do similar to us and it’s hard to guard. They did a great job taking advantage of some of that early and getting some deep penetration. They got a bunch of points at the rim with their bigs and then our guys settled in and made some adjustments.”

The Wildcats took off on a 13-2 run to pull within 36-33 after a 3 from Kharchenkov and a layup from Peat, then led 50-46 at halftime and never trailed in the second half.

Curiously, the Wildcats took only five 3-pointers throughout the game and made two of them, with Kharchenkov hitting both of those.

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That’s one way to solve a problem that appeared to surface when UA shot a combined 8 for 23 from 3-point range during its two exhibition games, including a 4-for-13 effort against the defense of NAIA Embry-Riddle.

Lloyd said taking just five 3s was “crazy” and not the game plan, but the Gators sort of altered things when they sent the Wildcats to the line 38 times.

“It’s how they’re guarding you sometimes,” Lloyd said. “If you shoot five 3s and you can attempt 38 free throws, I mean, I don’t know — you guys are probably all smarter at analytics than I am — but that puts a lot of pressure on a defense, because what happens when you shoot a free throw is they foul you, and those fouls add up, and then they get deeper into the bench.

“And maybe then ... they can’t be as aggressive. So, there’s lots of ways to win a game. I know a trend is shooting 3s. And I don’t think we’re going to shoot five 3s a game. Obviously I like to be in the 20s if they’re the right 3s, and I think we’ll get there over time.”

Florida’s fouls limited preseason all-American forward Alex Condon and center Reuben Chinyelu, who both wound up fouling out, while guard Boogie Fland picked up four fouls. The three Florida standouts combined for just 24 points.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats wound up scoring 11 more points at the line than Florida, hitting 31 of those 38 free throw attempts while the Gators made just 20 of 30. Bradley made 9 of 10 free throws and Peat hit 8 of 12.

“They did a good job converting on those opportunities,” Golden said. “You can’t send a team to line 38 times — a good team, any team — and expect to give yourself a really good chance to win.”

The Wildcats did get a scare at the end, but they never trailed afterward, thanks in part to two emphatic dunks Peat threw down on successive UA possessions to give the Wildcats a 74-70 lead with 6:20 to go.

Peat first threw down a one-handed alley-oop dunk off a feed from Dell’Orso and then, after Florida’s Thomas Haugh missed a 3-pointer, dunked straight down the lane after taking a shovel pass in the lane from Bradley.

Arizona entered the final minute with an 88-80 lead but Florida had a chance to tie the game with 29 seconds left, when UA led just 90-87. But Fland drove inside and dished to Xavian Lee, who missed a 3-pointer from the left corner.

Peat rebounded the miss, his seventh rebound of the night, and after being immediately fouled, hit both free throws to pretty much close it out.

‘Come out, compete’

Afterward, Lloyd called Bradley “amazing,” and raved about the debut college performances of Kharchenkow and Peat, who arrived as probably the Wildcats’ most decorated in-state freshman ever: Four Arizona state championships, four gold medals with USA Basketball, a three-time Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year and, of course, a McDonald’s All-American honor.

“Everyone’s known about him, but no one’s really studied him and watched him,” Lloyd said. “He’s a special player. Just the way he came out in that atmosphere, and he went against the first team all American (Condon). That kid is a heck of a player, and Koa obviously more than held his own.”

Together, the new-look Wildcats also put themselves on a pace toward resuming their normally torrid early-season starts under Lloyd. They went undefeated in November during Lloyd’s first three seasons before going 3-4 in that month while uncomfortably sorting out their rotation last season.

“Haven’t been through what we went through last year, but with the character we have and certainty in the level of talent that we have, I wasn’t really worried about winning or losing today,” Lloyd said. “I just wanted to come out, compete and get a feel for it. And to get the win is great.”

Considering the venue and the history, maybe that part really shouldn’t have been a surprise.

After all, UA’s November success under Lloyd started back in 2021 when he took his first, unranked, team into T-Mobile Arena and destroyed No. 4 Michigan by 18 points.

Since then, the Wildcats have become 10-2 at McKale North. Maybe someday, Kansas City obligations notwithstanding, they’ll have a chance to win game No. 11 there.