Wildcats aim to balance rest, rhythm while having extra day before ASU game

In the merry-go-round that is the Big 12 basketball season, there are few places to get off.

Twenty games, most spread out by no more than four days, all packed in over 10 weeks after Christmas. Often requiring travel crossing one or more time zones, too.

But Arizona is enjoying the closest thing to a break this week, and it might be just in time.

The Wildcats are coming off an emotional 86-75 overtime win against No. 3-ranked Iowa State late Monday night, but get four-plus days off to rest and prepare for an 11 a.m. game at ASU on Saturday.

“It feels like a bye week,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said.

It’s not the sort of extended break the Wildcats used to get during Pac-12 schedules, when a game with ASU would normally be the only one assigned over a given seven-day period, but it may provide just enough of a break.

Because while they might need rest, considering the away games ahead against ASU on Saturday and BYU on Tuesday, too much rest might break the rhythm that has helped them win 10 of their past 11 games.

After Monday’s game, Lloyd said he wasn’t sure yet how he and his staff would handle the mini-break, saying it was a possibility he might even allow for two days off. He ended up offering a compromise of sorts, with the Wildcats taking Tuesday completely off and undergoing only a light workout on Wednesday, after which a few of them even planned a late-afternoon bowling excursion.

That gives them Thursday and Friday to conduct regular practices, while guard Caleb Love said the Wildcats would be ready for ASU on Saturday.

“We won’t lose momentum,” Love said. “Coach Lloyd won’t let us lose momentum.”

Lloyd did have about 39 minutes of video from Monday’s game to find some teachable moments. Even with Love, who sent the Iowa State game into overtime with a 60-foot buzzer-beater, then hit two 3s in overtime to help seal it ... but was 1 for 10 from 3-point range before his bomb at the end of regulation.

Center Tobe Awaka indicated there were other issues, too.

“Knowing coach, he’s gonna have us right back in the film room, on the court, doing what we need to do to get better,” Awaka said. “We won this game, but it wasn’t perfect. So during film time, there’s gonna be a lot of things to dissect and we’re gonna be able to grow from it, even though we won.”

Awaka’s hard hat

After collecting 17 points and 12 rebounds against Iowa State, Awaka has averaged 12 rebounds in UA’s past four games, counting a 15-rebound effort against Colorado and a 14-rebound game at Texas Tech.

“Tobe, the dude’s a beast,” Lloyd said. “The dude’s crushing it.”

None were more critical than the four offensive rebounds Awaka turned into eight points he scored in the second half, two from free throws and three from tip-ins.

Without that sort of production, Lloyd said, Love’s game-tying shot wouldn’t have even been possible.

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“What he does is not an easy job,” Lloyd said of Awaka. “Going and getting balls against other big guys that are trying to block you out, that’s hard living. If you have guys that are tough enough to step up and do that, I mean, it was incredible.

“He probably gets overlooked a little bit in the scheme of the game, because everybody’s going to remember the shot and then the overtime. But that’s the guy that put us in position to hang in there.”

Shorthanded Sun Devils hang on

ASU will host Arizona on Saturday after winning its second straight road game, 70-68 at Colorado on Tuesday, despite playing most of the game without two key players.

Big man Jayden Quaintance didn’t make the trip because he hurt his ankle on Jan. 24, then struggled against Iowa State the next day, while leading scorer BJ Freeman suffered a deep thigh bruise just four minutes into Tuesday’s game and did not return.

Adam Miller led the Sun Devils with 18 points while making 4 of 5 3-pointers, and center Shawn Phillips had 13 points and nine rebounds.

“It was a gut-check game for us,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. “We dealt with a lot of stuff with injuries, and we’re still dealing with it. We really stepped up, though. Adam Miller played great both ends of the floor. Sean Phillips had probably his best game this season for us.”

Before the Colorado game, Hurley said there was a chance Quaintance could return on Saturday to play against the Wildcats.

“I think this is more of a short-term thing,” Hurley said, according to ArizonaSports.com. “He’s so young and he’ll recover quickly.”

Townsend hits 2K

Forward Trey Townsend reached the 2,000-point mark as a collegian by making a layup less than four minutes into Monday’s game.

Initially a walk-on at Oakland who worked his way into the starting lineup for his first game as a freshman in 2020-21, Townsend wound up scoring 1,813 points over four seasons with the Golden Grizzlies.

With seven Monday, Townsend now has 192 at Arizona as a fifth-year collegian, for a college total of 2,005.

Burger boys

Arizona didn’t have a recruit on the McDonald’s All-American rosters that were released earlier this week, but the Wildcats still might wind up with one. Or more.

Three top UA targets were named to the McDonald’s West team roster: Gilbert Perry forward Koa Peat, San Bernardino (Calif.) guard Brayden Burries and Los Angeles guard Alijah Arenas, who recently reclassified from 2026 to 2025.

So far for its 2025 class, Arizona has received a signature from four-star Dutch forward Dwayne Aristode of Brewster Academy and a commitment from three-star guard Bryce James.

James is the son of NBA star LeBron James, while Arenas is the son of former UA and NBA standout Gilbert Arenas.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats also picked a good time to host 2026 target Cameron Holmes, who watched UA’s upset of Iowa State from a low-level seat near the UA bench. The Goodyear Millennium wing is the younger brother of Denver’s DaRon Holmes, a one-time UA recruiting target who became a standout at Dayton.