When five-star recruit Koa Peat, a 6-foot, 10-inch power forward, announced last week that he will play for Tommy Lloyd at Arizona, it added to an impressive list of Wildcats who have been Arizonaβs Gatorade Player of the Year.
Gilbert Perry High School guard Koa Peet cuts down a piece of the net after the Pumasβ 74-58 win over Phoenix Sunnyslope for the Open Division Championship at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on March 4, 2023.
Peat, who won the award in 2023, 2024 and 2025, gives Arizona its 17th Gatorade POY winner since the award began in 1986. The winners include Mike Bibby (twice), Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, Jerryd Bayless (twice), Alex Barcello (twice), Nico Mannion (twice), Dylan Anderson (twice) and Sunnyside Highβs Deron Johnson (twice).
By comparison, ASU signed just four Gatorade POYs: Corey Hawkins, Taylor Rohde, Donnell Knight and Mark Becker.
It has been such an Arizona-dominated award that the one Sun Devil who excelled, Becker, is now a Wildcat. Becker, who scored 920 points for the Sun Devils from 1986-90, is now a scientist at the UA, a program manager for IARPA β Intelligence and Advanced Research Projects.
