Ever since Tobe Awaka accepted a move to the Arizona bench sometime back in the preseason, the Wildcats have ridden a tightly locked eight-player rotation to record-breaking heights.
Awaka, an honorable mention all-Big 12 pick as a starter last season, said in November that he didn’t underestimate how hard UA coach Tommy Lloyd’s job was to juggle a rotation together.
“There's a lot of egos, there's a lot of skill sets you have to mix and match,” Awaka said then.
So he’s been coming off the bench behind starters Motiejus Krivas and Koa Peat in the post. Senior wing Anthony Dell’Orso, also moved to a reserve role this season, has added shooting and versatility off the bench. Freshman forward Dwayne Aristode, effectively the eighth man, adds an emerging 3-and-D punch to the wing.
And, whenever starting point guard Jaden Bradley needs a break, shooting guard Brayden Burries merely scoots over to his spot, while Dell’Orso, Aristode and starting wing Ivan Kharchenkov fill the rest of the perimeter.
Arizona forward Tobe Awaka (30) manages to force Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson (4) into a miss on his last second shot at the buzzer on regulation, helping force overtime in their Big 12 game, Feb. 14, 2026, in Tucson.
Done.
“I feel comfortable with the eight-man rotation at this point,” Lloyd said on Nov. 10, after just three games. “I feel like we’ve got a really solid eight-man rotation.”
It continued for 21 games after that, all the way through the Wildcats' Big 12-record 23-0 start. The same eight guys, in and out, roles all fully defined.
But those days appear to be over, at least for a while.
Aristode became the first of the eight rotation players to miss a game this season when he sat out Arizona’s loss to Texas Tech on Saturday, and Peat left that game in the first half with a lower-body injury, his shooting having dropped off in the previous two games, possibly because of it.
Already Saturday, while saying then he wasn’t sure what Peat’s fate was, Lloyd said Aristode would be likely out “for a short while" and started pondering new ways to make it work.
While Awaka is a natural choice to start if Peat is out, there could still be a pool of overall minutes to soak up. Lloyd said he had a plan to play Dell'Orso more often, which could compensate for Aristode's absence, while Lloyd can also turn to those other two non-redshirting scholarship players on his bench: Forward Sidi Gueye and guard Evan Nelson.
Arizona guard Evan Nelson (21) dribbles down the court during a match against NAU at McKale Center, Nov. 11, 2025.
“This kind of fell on us pretty fast these last few days,” Lloyd said after Saturday’s game. “If we have a little more lead time, I think we definitely want to look at Evan and Sidi in some role that can kind of help give us a little more depth.”
On Saturday, Lloyd didn’t play Nelson, the grad transfer from Harvard and Salpointe Catholic High School, who has seen only spot minutes in 16 games so far this season. But Lloyd did deploy Gueye for a minute in the second half, however, and McKale fans cheered wildly when the lanky Senegal native put in a second-half bucket.
Gueye is a talented but longer-term prospect who was slowed in the preseason with a knee issue, but after Gueye had four points and three blocks in nine minutes against Abilene Christian on Dec. 16, Lloyd said he had told Gueye to be ready to play in a “high-level” game within the next four weeks.
“Sidi has gotten off to a slower start here for a variety of reasons, but Sidi is really talented, and he's a great kid,” Lloyd said then. “He can catch up fast, so I want to get him in catch up mode right now.”
Arizona forward Sidi Gueye (15) tries to keep his grip on the ball while dealing with pressure from Texas Tech forward JT Toppin (15) in the second half their Big 12 game, February 14, 2026, Tucson, Ariz.
But since then, Gueye has played only 23 combined minutes over 15 games, with five DNPs.
While Nelson is a much more experienced player, having started regularly for Harvard over the previous two seasons, he has also played predominantly only when the Wildcats have put a game under their control.
After Nelson played eight minutes against Norfolk State, Lloyd was apologetic about his situation.
“That's my fault, and I'll own that,” Lloyd said. “But the purpose behind it is we have four freshmen, and we're trying to get those guys ready for some tough upcoming games. I'm trying to give them every opportunity I can to get those repetitions that matter.
“Evan is a great teammate and a great person. I don't know if he loves it, but I think he understands what we're doing and to me, that's really important.”
The extra minutes to freshmen may have helped turn then-struggling Burries into the Wildcats’ leading scorer. But now, Nelson might finally get his opportunity.
It is possible Nelson could be used in brief situations when Burries or Bradley is resting, or if Arizona pushes wing players into a smaller look that might even feature Kharchenkov at power forward.
Already at ASU on Jan. 31, Lloyd played Kharchenkov briefly at the four when Krivas and Awaka had picked up two first-half fouls, somewhat like he had played the similarly skilled Pelle Larsson there at times during his first three seasons at Arizona.
“I think Ivan’s starting to find his way in that lineup because he kind of brings a different element to that four position,” Lloyd said. “He obviously has more guard skills.”
At that point, Lloyd said he was starting to experiment with other lineups in case players ran into foul trouble. Now he might have to start doing so for other reasons.
Certainly, their opponent on Wednesday will have to.
BYU had already lost four potential contributors before shooting guard Richie Saunders, whose two free throws in the final seconds beat Arizona at McKale Center last season, tore his ACL on Saturday against Colorado and was lost for the season.
“We're all human,” Lloyd said. “The season's been long, and obviously you can see some injuries and illnesses are starting to pile up. If you think you're going to go through a season unscathed, you've never done this before.”
