Because he’s a longtime Tucsonan with a history of coaching success at local high schools and Pima College, Brian Peabody sometimes calls in favors whenever an Arizona men's basketball game approaches.
“I just tell my friends that are season-ticket holders, 'Hey, if you’re not going, can you give me the extra ticket because I’d really like them for my players,'" Peabody said. “When I get any, I try to share them with everybody, especially the ones who are from out of state so they can experience what McKale is and see U of A play.”
One of those players who took advantage over the past two years was Gabe Oldham, a Utah native who has visited McKale plenty of times for games but didn’t figure he’d ever be able to do so without a ticket.
“I never wondered that,” Oldham said, chuckling. “Just kind of a far-fetched dream, if anything.”
But that’s exactly what he’ll be doing Monday, playing for Denver in its game with the Wildcats at McKale Center.
There were reasons for him to doubt such a thing was ever possible.
For one, even after helping lead Pima to a 35-1 record last season, Oldham said he wasn’t even sure he would play Division I anywhere. But he found a home with new Pioneers coach Tim Bergstraser, thanks in part to a connection with former Pima assistant H Hendrickson, who had moved to the Division II league where Bergstraser had been coaching.
“It was a toss-up for me coming out of Pima if I was gonna go Division I or not,” Oldham said. “I knew I could compete at this level if there was the right fit with the coach and everything, but it kind of seemed more just kind of a dream.”
Also, playing in college anywhere wasn't an automatic. Not only did Oldham leave Spanish Fork High School just after COVID hit in 2020, but then he went to California on a two-year Latter-day Saints mission.
He was under just about everyone's radar, finding after his mission that the few four-year college offers he had were no longer on the table.
Then, during a showcase-type workout at Utah's Snow College in spring 2023, Oldham suffered a knee injury, leaving him unable to further impress the schools still showing interest, Southwestern Oregon Community College and Pima.
He visited Pima anyway. There, surprisingly, he found Peabody was willing to take a chance, thanks again to Hendrickson's recommendation.
“I wasn't able to work out or even show them anything,” Oldham said. Peabody has since "told me he was talking to H, and was like 'You better be right about this kid because I haven't seen anything from him. I don't even have any high school film or anything.' All he was doing was taking H's word for it that I would be a good fit at Pima.”
Turned out, the recommendation was right on. Oldham averaged 12.9 points and 9.8 rebounds while averaging just 16.4 minutes, numbers that tell only part of the story.
Pima center Gabe Oldham (32) picks up a foul as he gets hipped by Chandler-Gilbert guard Teagan Mullowney (0) pulling in a pass in the first half of the Region I, Division II playoff final in Tucson on March 7, 2025.
“I’m not bragging, but the stats are kind of misleading for all my guys, because we were killing everybody,” Peabody says. “He only played half the game, so you could basically double those stats if he played a full game.”
Stats didn’t define what Oldham brought the Aztecs anyway. Not even close.
“This is my 34th year of being a head coach, and he's by far the best leader-slash-teammate that I've ever had,” Peabody said. “I say this kiddingly, but I’m not kidding: He was more mature than I am today. He could have coached the team without me. He was just a player-slash-coach and I’ve never had somebody like that on my team.
“It was just awesome to have him for the two years. One reason we had the season we had last year, I point to Gabe, because he held everybody together. He's an awesome teammate, an awesome person.”
It was a process, though. Oldham laughed when he noted that he went from a high school team that had a rule against swearing, to playing under the notably intense Peabody at Pima.
“That was a big adjustment,” Oldham said. “He coaches hard but that's why he always has good teams. That was definitely the biggest adjustment, just trying to get used to that coaching.”
Over time, the way he described it, Oldham actually did absorb Peabody's style and helped lead his teammates with it.
“Peabody was always talking about 'the national tournament, the national tournament.' We would lose a game and he'd be like, 'We're not gonna get a bid now and all these things,'" Oldham says. “I was like, 'Man, why is he so caught up with the national tournament?' I always thought you take it one step at a time, you focus on the next game, you win the game, whatever.
“But he always had the bigger picture in mind. And then it was funny. In my sophomore year, I turned into a mini-version of Peabody. I was always talking to my teammates, like 'We can't turn the ball over. That could happen at the national tournament!'"
At the same time, on the court, Oldham said Peabody helped grow his game.
“I didn't really have much of a post bag,” he said. “Even though I am considered a center, I didn't really have much of a back down, baby drop step, baby hook or anything like that.
"When I was in high school, I was just kind of a run-and-gun, free floating, clean up the trash, put-it-in-the-rim kind of player. Dennis Rodman is what I compare myself to. Now, when I get that ball on the post, I'm a lot more comfortable than I was.”
Pima center Gabe Oldham (32) rises above the crowd to snare an inlet pass during the first half against Chandler-Gilbert in Tucson on March 7, 2025.
Of course, all those skills will be tested Monday, maybe like never before. Oldham doesn’t need to see Denver’s scouting report to realize that much.
Averaging 4.4 points and 5.0 rebounds while starting four of Denver’s five games so far, Oldham will be mixing it up this time with Arizona centers Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka on the floor, instead of just watching them from the stands.
“When you're a basketball player, you're always gonna watch your position, see what they're good at, maybe even try to learn a few things,” Oldham said. “I pride myself on my physicality. I can't stand it when I see a big and he just looks soft. Like, he's just wasting space out there.
"But the one thing I’ve got to tip my hat to is those two centers over there at Arizona, they're big dudes. They use their physicality. They're strong. They never back down from a fight.”
