SAN JOSE—Arizona spent nine weeks this season at No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, the longest streak in school history. But it wasn’t the first time the Wildcats had been the top-ranked team in the country under Tommy Lloyd.
That was in December 2023, when it took a perfect record to Indianapolis to play a glorified road game against Purdue, which had been No. 1 before the UA. The Boilermakers would win that game, 92-84, but that’s not what Lloyd recalls most about that matchup.
“What I remember about that game two years ago was that … every bar in that city of Indianapolis must have been full for hours, because those fans came in there lit,” Lloyd said. “And in a good way, it was a lot of fun, and it was so loud in that place. Other than playing an Allen Fieldhouse, it’s probably one of the loudest venues I’ve ever been a part in. And saying something, when you’re in an NBA arena.”
That Purdue team went on to reach the NCAA title game, wiping out a 44-year absence from the Final Four. Now it’s Arizona’s turn to end its 25-year drought, and at the expense of the Boilermakers.
Top-seeded Arizona (35-2) takes a 12-game win streak into the West Region finals at the SAP Center against second-seeded Purdue (30-8). The UA is a 5.5-point favorite, per FanDuel Sportsbook. Tip off is at 5:49 p.m. PT on CBS and winner heads to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy for the national semifinals, where the UA last appeared in 2001.
“Winning the game would be great, but the collective joy it would give our community, it would be more special than just the win by itself,” Lloyd said Friday. I think that’s really powerful. If you get millions of people that can smile at the same time and cheer together, that’s powerful stuff. That’s the compound effect. And that’s what I would be most excited for.”
The UA is coming off one of its most impressive performances in a season full of them, a 109-88 beatdown of No. 4 Arkansas in which it shot 63.8 percent while getting 60 points in the paint and 30 at the line. Six Wildcats scored at least 14 points, the first team in NCAA Tournament history to do so.
But Purdue presents a completely different (and older) animal. Three seniors—forward Trey Kaufman-Renn and guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith—have been around for four years and each started in the 2023 NCAA final. Kaufman-Renn had the game-winning tip-in against Texas in the Sweet 16 and is shooting 63.7 percent in the tourney, while Loyer has hit 110 3-pointers at a 43.5 percent clip.
And Smith is the NCAA career leader in assists, breaking Bobby Hurley’s 33-year-old record.
“They just have depth to what they do,” Lloyd said. “I’m sure the way (coach Matt Painter) can coach them now, there’s a lot of reps that have already been done, so it can be a lot of conversations. And they have a vast database to draw from of experiences together.”
Purdue was the preseason No. 1 team but had an up-and-down regular season. The Boilermakers started 17-1 yet was blown out at home by Iowa State along the way, then after opening 7-0 in the Big Ten dropped three in a row and finished up the league slate losing four of six, dropping them to the No. 7 seed in the conference tournament.
That’s when a switch was flipped, with Purdue winning four games in four days including over regular season champ Michigan in the conference final. Improved play on the defensive end was key to that turnaround, Painter said.
“The struggles that we had, four of our five home losses, we were really good offensively,” Painter said. “So it wasn’t real hard to figure out, like, what we needed to shore up.”
Though it allowed 51.8 percent shooting and 11 3s against Texas, in the five games before that it held opponents to 44.3 percent shooting (30.3 from the line) and only yielded 41 trips to the foul line.
Said Lloyd: “They look like the team right now everyone thought they were going to be at the start of the year.”
With just over half its scoring coming from freshmen, Arizona will be the less-experienced team by a mile. Purdue ranks 16th nationally in roster experience, per KenPom, while the Wildcats are 145th.
But the UA already has wins over Iowa State (twice), Utah State, UConn and UCF, all of whom are in the top 30 in terms of experience. It also took out defending champion Florida to open the season and twice knocked off reigning Big 12 champ Houston including once on its home court.
The Wildcats have faced every test so far, so what’s one more?
“I’m not surprised we’re sitting here,” Lloyd said. “Not at all. And I think we’re exactly where we should be, and now we’ve got to go put in the work and probably have some good fortune on our side as well to hopefully take the next step.”
With an early evening tip in San Jose, Lloyd has an assignment for UA fans who made the trip.
“They’re going to have their hands full tomorrow because the bars in San Jose are going to be full of Purdue fans,” he said. “So our fans need to get up early and get to work and let’s have some fun in here tomorrow. It should be a great day.”