Why Last 2 Games Will Help Arizona in Long Run

The Arizona Wildcats have been battle-tested over their last two games. For the Wildcats, that will help them in the biggest games later this season.
Jan 31, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd prior to the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Desert Financial Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jan 31, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd prior to the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Desert Financial Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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The Arizona Wildcats have been tested over the last week. The Wildcats have gotten the best out of their recent Big 12 rivals. That is because right now, the Wildcats are the best team in College Basketball, and they are leading every poll and every projection to have the top overall seed in March Madness. When you are the top team in the Nation and in your conference, you're going to get the best out of your opponents, because they want to take you down.

Even more so when you are unbeaten. That is what this Arizona team is at right now. They are unbeaten and playing good basketball. Head coach Tommy Lloyd wants to be playing great basketball. Lloyd knows his team's last two games have not been their best, but he also knows that those types of games will help this team in upcoming games and will help them in the biggest games later this season. That is the most important thing: learning from these games.

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Jan 31, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Jaden Bradley (0) and forward Koa Peat (10) against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Desert Financial Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Arizona will get better because of last two games

"They're very important," Tommy Lloyd said. "These games are great. It's a great opportunity in these games to learn a lot of things, and you always respect competition. You always respect the other coach. I tell our guys, like, listen, that other coach has a right to tell his team to do whatever they want to do. We've got to be ready for all this stuff. We've got to be ready to make adjustments. They have as much time to prepare as we do, so they're going to throw things at us."

"We always respect that, and we want to learn from these situations. They did a few things differently, ASU did, in the first half of the game than they had done in our place, and then those are good adjustments, and then we kind of figured out what they were doing and figured out different ways we felt like we could find advantages."

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Jan 31, 2026; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Desert Financial Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Arizona will be back in action on Saturday and will look to remain unbeaten at home against its Big 12 rival, Oklahoma State. That is going to be another team that will give the Wildcats their best shot. It is going to be interesting to see if the Wildcats will improve and not let the Cowboys hang around and make them think they have a shot to win this game. Arizona has to handle its business and put this game out of reach early on and play well for 40 minutes.

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