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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 20: Motiejus Krivas #13 of the Arizona Wildcats goes after the ball during the second half against the Long Island University Sharks in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena at San Diego State University on March 20, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) | Getty Images
SAN DIEGO—It had been 26 years since Arizona had three freshmen in the starting lineup of an NCAA Tournament game. That trio (Gilbert Arenas, Jason Gardner and Luke Walton) formed the corp of the 2001 squad that would make it to the national championship, the last time the Wildcats reached the final weekend of the tourney.
There will be no second go-around with this group. At least two, if not all three, will be gone when this season ends, and so far they’re making the most of what figures to be their lone NCAA Tournament experience.
Brayden Burries, Ivan Kharchenkov and Koa Peat combined for 47 points in the 92-58 win over No. 16 seed Long Island. Include in Dwayne Aristode and Sidi Gueye and freshmen contributed 55 points, 28 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks.
“I don’t look at them as freshmen, I just look at them as really good basketball players,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “These guys, they have high IQs, they have great character and obviously they’re talented basketball players. And they put the work in. So when you have that combination of elements, I don’t think it matters what year you are in school. And I would have been more surprised had they come out and been a little bit nervous today than play the way they did.”
While Arenas had 16 in that 2000 first round win over Jackson State, Gardner and Walton would each score only three and as a group those freshmen were 7 of 24 from the field. On Friday the UA freshmen made 20 of 31 shots, including 5 of 7 from 3.
“It was a great experience out there,” said Burries, whose 18 points were tied for 10th-most by a UA freshman in the tourney, most since Lauri Markkanen had 20 in 2017. “First time, now just ready to continue to just get better.”
For the season, the UA is getting 50.1 percent of its scoring from first-year college players. Only the Wildcats’ 2019-20 squad, led by one-and-done players Josh Green, Nico Mannion and Zeke Nnaji, got more scoring from freshmen.
The physics of rebounding
Though Arizona has outrebounded all but two opponents this season, not all rebounds are created equal. There have been games where it has been susceptible to giving up second chances particularly against teams that shoot a lot of 3-pointers.
Long Island was the antithesis of that, and though it attempted 27 3s (making eight) it had 41 2-point attempts but missed on more than two-thirds of those. And Arizona was usually there to scoop up those misses.
“Rebounding is always an interesting thing, there’s some old adages—long shot, long rebound,” Lloyd said. “There’s some truth to that, especially getting in the tournament with the new Wilson balls. Sometimes they bounce back a little farther than they’re used to. But there’s another adage: short shot, short rebounds. You’ve got to be great on those. We work on our rebound instincts every single day. We want our rebounding mentality to be more based off instincts than habits or techniques. It’s something we value and we work on it every single day.”
The Wildcats finished with 52 rebounds, finishing plus-21 on the boards.
Kharchenkov had a career-high 10 rebounds, becoming only the fifth UA freshman to record a double-double in the NCAA Tournament and first since Deandre Ayton in 2018, and seven of those were on the defensive glass.
The UA also had its fair share of offensive boards, grabbing 16 that led to 22 second-chance points. Five different players had three offensive rebounds, most by a Wildcat team in at least 20 seasons.
At home in San Diego
Arizona fans travel well, regardless of the locale, though admittedly its turnout in Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament was nothing like how it would be for Pac-12 tourneys at McKale North. Lloyd assumed many Wildcat supporters were saving their money for the NCAA tourney and expected a much better showing in San Diego.
That prediction was an easy one, as the bulk of the crowd for the first round game was rooting for the UA. But the local support goes beyond Viejas Arena, as San Diego has been a part of Wildcat Country for a long time.
Dating back to Lute Olson, Arizona has strongly recruited southern California and some of those ex-players still reside in the area. Several showed up for a staff dinner the first night the UA was in town.
“We had a get-together, it would have been Wednesday night; Matt Othick owns a pizza joint in this area, and I think he told anybody that had any affiliation with the Arizona Wildcats to show up,” Lloyd said. “I was expecting a small little get-together of a few players. But man, the place was hopping. So we took our staff and families out there and it was great to hang out with guys like Jud Buechler and Kevin Flanagan. These guys are great Wildcats. They’re the fabric to our program.”
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