Injuries and absences are part of the grind - every team deals with them eventually. For Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona Wildcats, that moment came Saturday. After cruising through most of the season with a clean bill of health, Arizona hit its first real snag in the form of two key losses: Dwayne Aristode sat out the overtime defeat to Texas Tech due to illness, and Koa Peat exited at halftime with a lower-body injury.
It’s the kind of adversity that tends to hit hardest when you’re not used to it. Arizona had been riding high with a tight, effective eight-man rotation during its 23-0 start. But Saturday’s loss was a reminder that depth isn’t just a luxury - it’s a necessity.
“If you think you’re going to go through a season unscathed, you’ve never done this before,” Lloyd said after the game, his team now riding a two-game skid. “The season’s been long.
You can see injuries and illnesses are starting to pile up a little bit. We’ll bounce back.
Hopefully we’ll be fully loaded when we need to be.”
That bounce-back may need to happen quickly. No.
22 BYU is coming to Tucson on Wednesday, and if Aristode and Peat can’t go, the Wildcats will be forced to shuffle their starting five for the first time all year. That’s more than just a cosmetic change - it could mean stretching the rotation thinner than ever or rolling the dice on players who haven’t seen meaningful minutes.
Arizona got a taste of that new reality in the final 25 minutes against Texas Tech. With Peat sidelined, Tobe Awaka stepped into the starting lineup, and all five starters ended up logging at least 21 minutes. Freshman Sidi Gueye even saw the floor for a brief 87-second stint - just long enough to knock down a layup and give a glimpse of what he might bring if called upon.
Lloyd acknowledged that both Gueye, a 6-foot-10 forward, and senior guard Evan Nelson could see increased roles depending on how long Aristode and Peat are out.
“This kind of fell on us pretty fast, these last few days,” Lloyd said. “If we have a little more lead time, I think we’ll definitely want to look at Evan and Sidi - some roles that can give us a little more depth.”
The hope, of course, is that neither Aristode nor Peat is dealing with anything long-term. Arizona’s recent history under Lloyd offers a few cautionary tales, though.
Back in 2022, Kerr Kriisa’s sprained ankle in the Pac-12 Tournament lingered into the NCAA tourney, where he never quite looked like himself. That same season, Azuolas Tubelis missed a game at Cal, then came off the bench in a blowout loss at UCLA after re-aggravating an ankle injury.
The 2022-23 squad avoided any missed games due to injury, but Oumar Ballo played through a broken hand during the Pac-12 Tournament - a factor that may have contributed to Arizona’s shocking early exit against Princeton in March Madness.
Last year, it was Henri Veesaar who never got off the ground. A dislocated elbow in a freak preseason golf cart accident led to surgery and a redshirt year. The Wildcats managed to plan around his absence and still won the Pac-12 regular-season crown, but it was a reminder that even preseason setbacks can shape a season.
Then came the Krivas injury. Motiejus Krivas went down with a foot injury just eight games into last season, forcing Lloyd and his staff to rework the rotation on the fly.
Arizona lost its first game without him to UCLA, dropping to 4-5, but then caught fire - winning seven straight and 13 of 14. The timing helped; that stretch came during a softer part of the schedule.
This year? No such break.
BYU is the third of four straight ranked opponents for Arizona, with a road trip to Big 12 leader Houston looming after that. There’s no easing into this next phase - it’s trial by fire.
“I guess it’s just the next man up mentality,” said freshman Ivan Kharchenkov. “Of course, we wanted to have them out on the floor, but something happened.”
Arizona’s not alone in this. North Carolina just lost star freshman Caleb Wilson to a fractured hand. BYU, meanwhile, will be without senior Richie Saunders for the rest of the year after he tore his ACL against Colorado.
So the Wildcats now find themselves in a familiar but uncomfortable spot - navigating the late-season stretch with questions about health, depth, and resilience. The names change, the circumstances vary, but the challenge remains the same: adapt or get left behind.
Arizona’s season has been defined by cohesion and consistency. Now it’s about survival - and seeing whether the pieces around that 23-0 start can hold strong when tested.