No. 1 Arizona will look to continue its best start in more than a decade as it faces TCU on Saturday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Wildcats (15-0, 2-0) are off to their best start since winning 21 games to open the 2013-14 season. Saturday marks the first trip to TCU for Arizona, which is in its second year as a Big 12 member.
The Wildcats have impressed early on in conference play, opening with a 19-point victory at Utah on Jan. 3 and then rolling to a 25-point victory over Kansas State on Wednesday. Brayden Burries is leading the team with 15.1 points per game with Koa Peat (14.4), Jaden Bradley (13.4) and Motiejus Krivas (11.3) also averaging double figures.
It’s a contrast from last season when the Wildcats started 4-5, something coach Tommy Lloyd addressed after the K-State victory.
“I can say this now, I’m thankful for what I went through last year,” Lloyd said. “I think it made me a better coach.”
Arizona is leading the Big 12 in scoring at 91.5 points per game and in rebounding at 44.3 per game. The Wildcats have also won by an average of 23.8 points per game, which is sixth-best in the country.
Arizona has fared well against TCU under Lloyd. The Wildcats knocked off the Horned Frogs in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and also had a 90-81 home victory last season.
But Lloyd is expecting a challenge from TCU, which blew a late lead in an overtime loss to Kansas on Tuesday night.
“Let’s prepare like the game’s going to start at 0-0 and prepare like they’re going to come out and play great at home,” Lloyd said. “We’ll navigate the game possession by possession. I’m not a big believer in momentum from a previous game, positive or negative.”
The Horned Frogs (11-4, 1-1) were riding a six-game winning streak before the meltdown at Kansas. Despite the loss, TCU had positives coming out of the game, including Liutauras Lelevicius scoring 23 points and knocking down five 3-pointers, and David Punch matching his career high with 20 points.
“Proud of how we played, how we competed, how we out-rebounded them,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “Disappointed by the loss, disappointed how it happened, but we’ve got to learn from it, be better for it and get ready for Arizona. I took responsibility for the loss. Whatever we tried to do, we didn’t do well enough and that’s on me.”
Punch leads TCU in scoring with 14.4 points per game and rebounding with 7.8 per game. Brock Harding has established himself as one of the best facilitators in the league, too, averaging 6.2 assists per game. Harding had 10 assists against Kansas and 10 in TCU’s victory over Jackson State on Dec. 29.
Saturday will be the third time TCU hosts the No. 1 team in the country. Baylor was the top-ranked team when it defeated TCU on Jan. 8, 2022, and Kansas won a nonconference game in December 2003.
TCU has defeated the top-ranked team only once in program history, knocking off No. 1 Kansas 85-82 in the 2017 Big 12 tournament in Kansas City. Against top-10 opponents at home, TCU has won six of the last eight meetings with Dixon at the helm.
–Field Level Media
