No. 4 Arizona is positioned to enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, based on a resume that includes victories over Florida, UConn and Alabama prior to taking down Houston on Saturday.
Now comes the hard part. Maintaining.
How the Wildcats respond in their most difficult stretch of the season will determine the landing spot, and their situation is made more perilous because of an injury to forward Koa Peat.
The Wildcats got off to a good start Wednesday, improving to 24-2 with a 75-68 home victory over BYU, completing a season sweep of the ranked Cougars and rebounding from close losses at Kansas and home to Texas Tech.
It will not get easier. The BYU game was simply the next in the series of pivotal tests that the UA will face before selection Sunday on March 15.
No. 2 Houston, No. 8 Kansas (again) and No. 6 Iowa State remain on the unforgiving Big 12 regular-season schedule, and a rematch or two seems inevitable in the Big 12 tournament.
Along the way, the Wildcats will have a chance for revenge against the Jayhawks, whose 82-78 victory in Lawrence on Feb. 9 snapped Arizona’s school record, 23-game winning streak
The Wildcats must find a way around the injury to freshman Peat, who is among the best players to come out of metro Phoenix since Mike Bibby and Jalen Williams.
Peat, who has started since Day 1 and is averaging 13.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists, did not play against BYU after suffering what Arizona called a muscle strain in a “lower leg area” early in the Texas Tech game.
The Wildcats are averaging 88.2 points per game with an offense built around creating guards Brayden Burries (15.5 points, 4.6 rebounds) and Jaden Bradley (13.3 points, 4.7 assists), and perimeter reserve Anthony Dell’Orso stepped up with an Arizona career-high 22 points and four 3-pointers against BYU.
But they are not the same without 6-foot-8 Peat solidifying a relentless front line that includes 7-2 center Motiejus Krivas (10.8 points, 8.7 rebounds) and 6-8 Tobe Awaka (9.7, 9.6).
Arizona is third in Division I with a plus-12.5 rebounding margin, and Peat is part of that. Both Arizona and Houston average more than 13 offensive rebounds per game.
Houston was giving up 61.6 points per game, before Arizona’s 73-point showing Saturday night.
