Arizona basketball opened conference play with an electrifying win over TCU; the Wildcats are back.
Arizona played its Big 12 conference opener against a strong TCU team and came out with a fiery 90-81 win.
Arizona basketball was on a slow start to their season, barely clinching a winning record heading into conference play.
Strong connections from valuable players that have been struggling to find their momentum sparked again for the Wildcats. The KJ Lewis, Caleb Love effect is back and better than ever.
McKale Center was on fire tonight for the Wildcats performance, this is the Zona Energy that was missing during the preseason.
“We’ve had a tough season so far but right now it feels great to win the first game,” said Henri Veesaar in a post-game interview.
Takeaway #1: The Wildcats are back
With a slow start to the season a few valuable players for the Wildcats were struggling to find their momentum until the Big 12 season opener. Maybe they were just saving themselves for the conference play.
Caleb Love had a tremendous night with 33 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 0 turnovers. For the majority of the season thus far Caleb Love’s biggest struggle has been hitting threes. Against TCU, Love made 11 of 17 shots from the field, 5 of those 11 were from the three-point line. He was on fire alongside standout KJ Lewis. Their offense-defense connection was simply unstoppable and made a huge impact on their win.
The Wildcats as a whole shot 56.9% against a strong TCU defense. TCU showed up to put up a fight but nothing could match the energy in McKale.
Henri Veesaar had a season high too with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists in just 18 minutes of playtime. Veesaar has put his name out there and has become a crucial big man for the Wildcats.
Jaden Bradley has been a silent but deadly threat for the Wildcats adding 10 points and 6 assists to his statistics against the Horned Frogs.
This is the Arizona team spectators expected to see from the beginning. Hearing the crowd roar in McKale showed hope for the Wildcats in conference and tournament play moving forward.
Takeaway #2: Motiejus Krivas is out for the season
How big of a loss is this for Arizona? Krivas was projected to be a core piece for Arizona’s starting lineup, however, he suffered a leg injury, and the sophomore will be waiting to recover for the Wildcat’s 2025-26 season. The loss drastically decreased the height of the Arizona basketball team, they will be relying more than ever on their big men to succeed.
Takeaway #3: Frogs nationally ranked defense couldn’t pull through
The TCU Horned Frogs entered this season with a nationally ranked defense but against the true potential of this Arizona team, the Horned Frogs defense didn’t cut it. TCU never caught themselves ahead of the Wildcats; although, they were a close second away trailing by just one point, seven different times in the second half alone.
TCU did not make it easy for the Wildcats and took advantage of the seven turnovers the Wildcats put on the board. The performance of the Wildcats in their home court would be hard for any team to match, nationally ranked defense or not.
Next up for Arizona (7-5, 1-0): at No. 16 Cincinnati (10-2, 0-1) – Jan. 4 at 2:30 p.m. EST
Next up for TCU (7-5, 0-1): vs. Kansas State (7-5, 1-0) – Jan. 4 at 4 p.m. EST