Arizona Wildcats Freshman Leads Team USA To Basketball Victory

Koa Peat, an incoming freshman at the University of Arizona, scored 17 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had two steals Saturday as Team USA defeated Australia 88-73 at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Switzerland.

The former Perry High School star is expected to get a good look by Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who also happens to coach Team USA.

Peat was in foul trouble early which got him a seat on the bench. After opening the game with 11 points, he cooled off once he picked up his fourth foul. He was second on the team in scoring and was one of four Americans to score in double figures.

BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa led Team USA with 18 points in the win.

Lloyd coached the U18 team to a gold medal at the FIBA AmerCup last year. The U19 team finished fourth in the World Cup in 2023, the last time the games were played.

Peat and Lloyd will look to continue their winning ways on Sunday against the French team, which advanced in the tournament by defeating Cameroon on Saturday.

Speaking of Lloyd, he has a record of 112-33 after his first four seasons at Arizona. It is the second most wins of any first-time coach to begin his head coaching career. He started out with a bang and the wins got less and less every successive season. However, the Wildcats did reach the Sweet 16 for the third time in his four seasons in 2025.

Arizona has been consistent. For that consistency, Lloyd was rewarded with a contract which pays him an annual average salary of $5.8 million per year through the 2028-2029 season. His contract also includes provisions where he can sign assistant coaches to long-term deals and he can submit his own budget for revenue sharing under the House settlement.

The House settlement adds a new layer of fighting for Lloyd. He has to petition athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois on how big a piece of the pie the basketball prograkm will get on the $20.5 million in revenue sharing under the settlement.

“I don’t form hard opinions on this stuff,” he said recently to Brian J. Peterson of azdesertswarm.com. “I’m a coach, and not that I’m not smart enough to figure it out or think about it. I’m somebody who, let me know what the rules are, and I’m going to figure out how to work with the rules and within the rules to make our program successful. So I just want to know what the parameters are. That’s all I care about.

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