SAN JOSE—On the opening possession of its Sweet 16 matchup with Arkansas, Arizona went into the normal halfcourt set that it runs at the start of nearly every game. Brayden Burries eventually drove to the rim and scored with ease, something that would happen a lot in the 109-88 win.
The Wildcats had 60 points in the paint, tying its season high, and added another 30 at the foul line. According to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, they’re the first team since as least 2000 with those numbers in an NCAA Tournament game.
This kind of production is nothing new for Arizona. Or, for that matter, the school where Tommy Lloyd learned that style of play.
“I’m playing the same exact style we learned at Gonzaga that I brought to Arizona,” Lloyd said. “I’m doubling down on it. I’m not worried about trends. I never look at trends. I’m like, what do I think is the most effective way to my team play, and what are my strengths as a coach? You gotta play into that. Why would I try to reinvent myself as a coach when this has been pretty effective.”
On a night when the eight Sweet 16 participants combined to take 199 3-point field goals, hitting on 69, only one team made more than they missed. Arizona was 5 of 8 from 3, improving its perimeter shooting in the NCAA Tournament to 47.4 percent.
The UA was 32 of 50 on 2-pointers, a 64 percent clip that’s actually only 5th-best this season. For the season the Wildcats are shooting 55.3 percent on 2s.
Balanced scoring sets NCAA tourney record
This was the 17th game this season that Arizona has had at least five players score in double figures, the fourth with four. There was even a game where seven made it to 10 or more points.
But what the Wildcats did against Arkansas was something different altogether. Six players scored at least 14, the first time in NCAA Tournament history more than five have reached that tally. Florida, in 2007, was the last team in the tourney to have a half a dozen get at least a dozen, and that Gators squad ended up winning its second consecutive national title.
“It’s always good when you share the wealth and you’re not worried about scoring and who gets to shine,” said Jaden Bradley, who had 14. “I feel like this group of guys really don’t care. We just care about when it says 0-0 and that we’re winning at the end of the day. Off the court, we love each other. We’re supporting each other, whether it’s basketball and off-the-court stuff. Always playing games and doing stuff to build our culture. We really did a great job at the beginning of the season setting the foundation with culture, and it’s really showing and carrying on right now.”
Arizona had six in double figures in an NCAA game three times prior, and the last one was significant: against Providence in the 1997 Elite Eight.
Breaking the Sweet 16 curse
While it’s been a painfully long 25 years since Arizona last made a Final Four, just getting within a win of that milestone has been out or reach for a while. Before Thursday, the Wildcats had lost four consecutive times in the Sweet 16, including three of the first four seasons underLloyd.
But if you were expecting this UA team to be nervous on Thursday, think again.
“I felt more nervous against LIU,” Motiejus Krivas said. “We try to play every game like it’s a normal game, we don’t look at it like, oh, if we lose it’s done. We just try to think that we’ll win every game. Of course it’s nice to win the Sweet 16, but we’re just focused on the next one.”
Krivas and Bradley had been a part of the 2024 team that was upset by Clemson, and both along with Tobe Awaka and Anthony Dell’Orso were on the losing end of last year’s Sweet 16 game against Duke. The other half of Arizona’s rotation hadn’t had to experience that disappointment.
“I don’t really believe in droughts or curses,” freshman Ivan Kharchenkov said. “It’s a new team, it’s a new year. It has nothing to do with what happened last year or the years before.”
This will be Arizona’s sixth Elite Eight appearance since last getting to the Final Four. Nobody on the UA roster was alive for that run to the national final in 2001, but they still know how important breaking through will be for Wildcat Nation.
“We’ll just go out and play our basketball and just do it for the fans,” Krivas said. “I know how much they want us to win, how much they want to get to the Final Four. So we’ll try to do it.”
Stats and such
Burries scored 23 against Arkansas, one shy of Marcus Williams’ school record of 24 by a freshman in an NCAA tourney game. Koa Peat had 21, making them the first UA freshmen teammates to score 20 in a postseason game.
This is only the seventh time a team has had multiple freshmen score 20 in the Sweet 16 or later. The last one was Duke last season, against Arizona.
Burries is up to 57 points in the tourney, tying Aaron Gordon in 2014 for second-most by a UA freshman. Mike Bibby holds the record, with 108 in six games in 1997. For the season he’s scored 599 points, second only to Deandre Ayton (704 in 2017-18) for the freshman school record.
* Arizona set the season school record for made (730) and attempted free throws (998) by going 30 of 39 against Arkansas. The previous records of 703 and 974, respectively, were set by the 2014-15 squad.
The 730 made foul shots are the most by a Division I team since Nevada had the same number in 2015-16, while Kentucky in 2013-14 was the last to attempt at 1,000 shots from the line.
* The UA topped 3,200 points for the season on Thursday, 26 shy of the school record from 1987-88. It’s also made the third-most field goals (1,130) and grabbed the third-most rebounds (1,582).