No. 5 Arizona gets its first chance to reset at home Thursday night, taking on Cal Poly in Tucson after a season-opening stumble against rival UCLA in Las Vegas.
The Wildcats dropped that opener 84-75, but sophomore Ivan Kharchenkov gave them plenty to build around. He put up a career-best 38 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, carrying Arizona through long stretches of a game in which the Wildcats trailed 43-29 at halftime.
Arizona did make things interesting late. The Wildcats clawed back to within one at 71-70 before UCLA answered with a 3-pointer and finished off the win.
Tommy Lloyd isn’t treating one loss like a warning siren.
"There's no panic after one game," Lloyd said. "These seasons are long, and I know everyone has high hopes and wants everything to go perfect. But when you've been doing this for enough years, you know you're in a very imperfect business, so just get comfortable being challenged.
"I'm honestly really looking forward to seeing how we respond."
The challenge Thursday comes against a Cal Poly team that arrives with a win already in hand. The Mustangs opened their season Monday with a 78-62 victory over Cal State San Marcos, and they spread the scoring around in a way that showed off their depth.
Hamad Mousa led the way with 18 points, while Cayden Ward posted 15 points and 11 rebounds. Guzman Vasilic added 13, and five Cal Poly players finished in double figures. The Mustangs also controlled the glass, outrebounding Cal State San Marcos 59-36.
Mousa, a junior, was the Big West’s top scorer last season at 20.4 points per game. Ward is back after averaging 14.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Cal Poly also returns four starters and 13 players from its 2025-26 roster, bringing back 83.2% of its scoring production for third-year coach Mike DeGeorge.
That experience comes with a clear identity. The Mustangs live on the perimeter, averaging 10.8 made 3-pointers per game last season, which ranked 10th nationally.
"We're never going to be a dominant offensive or defensive rebounding team," DeGeorge said. "We've made a choice.
We're going to play these multipositional guys. We're giving something up to gain something.
So we just have to have what we gain be more valuable."
Arizona, meanwhile, needs more from the rest of the lineup if it wants to avoid another tight finish. Even with Kharchenkov’s huge night, the Wildcats shot just 36.7% from the field and 23.3% from 3-point range against UCLA.
Derek Dixon, the North Carolina transfer, gave Arizona a lift in the second half, scoring 16 of his 18 points after the break and hitting four 3-pointers. Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year selection Motiejus Krivas was quieter than expected early, not taking a shot in the first half before finishing with eight points on 2-for-4 shooting. He also added nine rebounds and six blocked shots.
UCLA’s edge on the boards mattered too, as the Bruins finished with a 19-9 advantage in second-chance points.
Kharchenkov said the locker room message after the loss was about keeping the bigger picture in view.
"A couple people started hanging their heads, and I'm like, 'It's not about how we start the season, it's about how we end the season,'" Kharchenkov said. "Obviously, it hurts when we're losing, just remember that feeling. We'll have a tough stretch in another game, and we'll need to dig deeper.
"The other team was cheering in the locker room. We could hear it through the walls. Just remember that, and then you will give an extra 10, 15% because we'll need it."
In Other News...
Arizona Recruiting Pressure Just Got Higher For Tommy Lloyd
Arizonas 2027 recruiting push has already run into some early headwinds, with Tommy Lloyd and his staff putting out seven scholarship offers in the class and watching six of those targets end up elsewhere. For a program that has built much of its recent momentum on landing elite talent, the early returns have made the next wave of evaluations feel a little more urgent than usual.
The spotlight now shifts to Adan Diggs, one of the top guards in the class and a player Arizona has been working hard to keep in play. His decision is coming soon, and the Wildcats are in the mix with Arkansas, Kentucky and USC, which makes this one a meaningful test of how much traction Lloyd can still generate as the recruiting board tightens around a handful of high-priority names. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona May Be Closing In On A Recruiting Win It Needs
A major local recruiting battle is nearing its finish line, and Arizona has positioned itself where it wants to be. Adan Diggs, the highly ranked Phoenix combo guard, is expected to make his college decision on Nov. 16, with Arizona in the mix alongside Arkansas, Kentucky and USC. For a program that always has to balance national ambition with in-state priorities, landing a player of Diggs profile would be a meaningful win.
The timing matters, too, because Arizonas 2027 recruiting class is projected to be light, which increases the importance of each high school target it can secure. The Wildcats are expected to lean heavily on transfers and international additions to round out the roster, so a commitment from a top local guard would help stabilize the long-term picture and keep the program from having to do too much roster building elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Gets An Early Defensive Test Fans Should Not Ignore
Arizonas first home test comes with a little more intrigue than the usual early-season matchup. Cal Poly arrives as the underdog on paper, but the Mustangs bring back almost all of last seasons group, including the key starters and top scorers that make continuity such a real weapon in November.
For a Wildcats defense still settling into its own rhythm, that matters. Cal Polys ability to space the floor and shoot from deep gives Arizona a very different kind of challenge than a typical nonconference tune-up, even if the history between the programs has gone the Wildcats way every time. The question is less about whether Arizona should win and more about how cleanly it can handle a team that already knows exactly what it wants to do. [Read more 🡒]