SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Amid the chaos and delirium pouring down on the court at SAP Center on Saturday night, Koa Peat made his way to where his father, Todd, was waiting in his motorized wheelchair. The standout freshman forward had stayed remarkably unflustered while pushing the Wildcats to a win over Purdue in the Elite Eight. Now, wearing a backward hat with both the Final Four and Arizona logos, Koa finally let his emotions flow. He bent over, embraced his father, put his left hand on top of his hat to keep it in place and wept on Todd’s right shoulder.
After a few seconds, Koa stood up, composed himself and rejoined the Wildcats’ celebration. His father was at a loss for words.
“I just love him,” Todd said. “Just love him.”
There was indeed a lot of love for Peat and his teammates in SAP Center, which Wildcats fans turned into a sea of red and then pumped up the volume as Arizona put Purdue away in a dominant second half in the West Regional final. Trailing by seven points at intermission, the Wildcats cranked up their vaunted defense, attacked the rim as only they can, and thanks to a team effort led by Peat’s 20 points and 7 rebounds, dispatched the gritty, experienced Boilermakers 79-64. The win sent Arizona to its first Final Four since 2001. The Wildcats will play the winner of Sunday’s Midwest Regional final between Michigan and Tennessee.
“Making the Final Four is big,” said senior point guard Jaden Bradley, who had 10 of his 14 points in the second half while clamping down on Purdue senior point guard Braden Smith. “We appreciate Tucson, the supporters and everybody behind the scenes. We just are happy that we get to reward them with this.”
The Wildcats played an uncharacteristic first half. They repeatedly lost Purdue’s guards as they came off screens, which allowed the Boilermakers to shoot 7-of-14 from three. Purdue also grabbed eight offensive rebounds to Arizona’s four in the half, negating what has been a primary advantage for the Wildcats all season. The Boilermakers packed the paint and dared the Wildcats to shoot more threes than has been their custom. Arizona obliged by launching six and making just one.
When the Wildcats got to their halftime locker room trailing 38-31, there was no panic, but there was concern. Associate head coach Jack Murphy, who was in charge of scouting Purdue, showed the players some video clips. Coach Tommy Lloyd made a few comments, but then told the players the coaches were going to step out and they should talk among themselves about how to dig their way out of the hole.
Lloyd said later that he has done that four or five times this season. “Every time it’s worked,” he added. “The most powerful thing in a team sport is a player-led program. The coach has to help them navigate it, but when you can get the players to kind of own these moments, you are just so much better.”
What followed was a spirited group discussion with multiple players having their say. “Everyone talked,” senior guard Anthony Dell’Orso told Hoops HQ. “That’s the best thing about this group. There’s not one person that leads the way. It was probably the opposite of what everyone thinks. It was, ‘Let’s go, we’re gonna win this, yeah yeah yeah.’ That’s all we talk about, is winning.”
The Boilermakers still led by seven just over three minutes into the second half, then five different Wildcats contributed to a 16-3 run that was capped by a three-pointer from Dell’Orso. Purdue never threatened again. Arizona’s defense clamped down, forcing the Boilermakers to shoot 32.1 percent from the floor in the last 20 minutes and 1-of-8 from three-point range.
Trey Kaufman-Renn, the Boilermakers’ outstanding senior forward, picked up his third foul with 19:21 to play and never got into the flow, finishing with 10 points (on 14 shots) and 2 rebounds, well below his season average of 8.5 per game. Another Arizona freshman, 6-foot-4 guard Brayden Burries, knocked in three timely three-pointers and scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half. And any hope of a comeback was squelched at the foul line, where Arizona was 20-of-22, compared with Purdue’s 8-of-13.
When the game was over, Arizona moved to 5-0 this season in games it trailed at halftime. “They wear you down,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “They get in transition and they kill you. They get on the glass and kill you. If you would have told me that they would have outrebounded us by one and we would have had four more offensive rebounds, I would take that any day of the week. … But they have a great team.”
It was fitting that the West Regional’s Most Outstanding Player Award went to Peat, a native of Chandler, Ariz., who won four state titles for Perry High. “They call him Mr. Arizona,” Lloyd said. “The dude, he’s amazing. His ability to perform the way he did in these moments, he’s been in a lot of them. I told our guys, don’t make too much out of this. It’s like a state championship game. You guys have all played in them.”
Moments after the win was secured, Lloyd paid homage to Arizona’s legendary, longtime coach Lute Olson, who coached the Wildcats to the 1997 NCAA championship and passed away in 2020. (“There’s a good-looking guy with white hair looking down on us that’s happy!” he said to the crowd during his postgame interview with TBS reporter Allie LaForce.) Lloyd later recognized his predecessor, Sean Miller, who took the Wildcats to three Elite Eights in his 12-year tenure. “When I got the job, I was like, ‘Wow, people in Tucson really want to like their basketball coach,’” he said. “I have no problem sharing the success of this team with the coaches that came before me.”
Lloyd also revealed that when he woke up Saturday morning, he was briefly confused as to whether his team was playing in the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight. It didn’t take long for him to shake off the cobwebs, but he wanted his players to carry over that same relaxed feeling to the game. “I know externally there’s a lot of pressure, but we just wanted to get in the ball game,” Lloyd said.
Now the Wildcats get to go to Indianapolis, where they will be the choice of many fans and prognosticators to emerge as the national champions. They have been arguably the best team in the country all season, and fortunate to avoid the injury bug that has bitten a few of their competitors. Their comeback win Saturday was another piece of evidence that this team doesn’t just have talent; it has an identity that it can call upon when things are getting wobbly. As long as the Wildcats stay true to who they are and who they’ve been, they have a great chance to win two more games.
“You know what I’m really looking forward to? A day off tomorrow and then practice on Tuesday,” Lloyd said. “I don’t know if these guys love practice, but I love practicing with them. I can’t wait to get out there Tuesday and get back on them. We’re still fighting to get better and see if we can get a little bit better before next Saturday.”
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