If you had never heard of Arizona freshman Koa Peat before last night, consider yourself introduced now.
Peat came into his collegiate debut with quite the resume. According to the 247 Sports Composite, Peat was a five-star prospect ranked as the #1 player from the state of Arizona, the #4 power forward in the country and the nation’s #9 overall player in the 2025 class.
Peat was a three-time winner of the Arizona state Gatorade Player of the Year award and a four-time gold-medal winner with Team USA at the FIBA World Cup. Furthermore, the 6-foot-8, 235-pounder had led Perry High School (Gilbert, AZ.) to four consecutive state championships, which were the first state titles in program history.
Peat’s family has plenty of athletic history. In fact, they’re produced seven Division I athletes. He’s the son of Todd Peat, who played offensive guard in the NFL for nine seasons, and the younger brother of Andrus Peat, a three-time Pro-Bowl offensive guard who is currently playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers after spending most of his career with the New Orleans Saints.
Peat wasted zero time in making his impact at the collegiate level, either. The 18-year-old stuffed the box score with 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and one blocked shot to lead the Wildcats to a 93-87 win over third-ranked Florida as three-point underdogs at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Peat made 11-of-18 field-goal attempts and 8-of-12 from the free-throw line. He also played a large role in sending UF’s Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu to the bench early with five fouls apiece.
Oh, and Peat did all of that work against the Gators, the defending national champions who returned their entire frontcourt.
“It was a coming out party for him, so to speak,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Everyone’s known about him, but no one’s really, really studied him and watched him, and he’s a special player.”
Arizona senior guard Jaden Bradley enjoyed an outstanding performance as well. He finished with 27 points, five assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals, hitting 9-of-14 FGAs and 9-of-10 free throws. Ivan Kharchenkov had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards.
UF buried 11 of its first 16 shots and took a 24-12 lead on a 3-pointer by Urban Klavsar, who is poised to take on a much larger role this season after the departures of Will Richard, Walter Clayton and Alijah Martin, with 12:41 remaining in the first half.
The Gators were still up by double digits until Peat knocked down a jumper with 9:13 left to make it 32-24. Peat’s bucket ignited a 28-14 run that gave Arizona a 50-46 halftime lead.
Florida tied the game twice in the second half, but it was never able to take the lead back. Chinyelu fouled out with 5:30 left and Condon was sent packing at the 2:20 mark.
UF’s Thomas Haugh tipped in his own miss to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 88-85 with 44 ticks remaining. Then Boogie Fland got a steal in the backcourt and had a clean look at a tying trey from the corner, but it was off the mark.
After Arizona’s Anthony Dell’Orso made a pair of free throws, Haugh’s dunk brought UF back to within three with 29 seconds left. From there, Peat made three of four free throws, and the Gators missed two 3-pointers to seal their fate.
Florida became the first reigning national champion to lose its season opener since Syracuse during the 2003-04 campaign.
Haugh paced UF with 27 points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and one blocked shot. Princeton transfer guard Xaivian Lee finished with 14 points, six boards, five assists and one steal, while Condon had 11 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Fland had nine points, four rebounds, three steals and three assists without a turnover. The Gators made only 7-of-27 from downtown (25.9%) while Arizona knocked down 2-of-5 launches from 3-point range.
Florida will host North Florida on Thursday. Arizona will take on Utah Tech on Friday night in Tucson.