Although we are only 10 games into the college basketball season, it has been clear that as of right now, No. 1 Arizona has been the top team in the country with marquee wins over Florida, UCLA, UConn Auburn and Alabama giving the Wildcats five ranked wins to start the year.
In Arizona’s recent game against then-No. 12 Alabama, the Wildcats throttled the Tide 96-75, thanks to a dominating second half and guard Brayden Burries scoring a career-high 28 points.
So far this season, the Wildcats (10-0) have avoided a letdown game following a massive win and have been able to keep the team engaged with the game from start to finish despite having five key contributors that are underclassmen.
Tuesday night, Arizona was able to keep the train moving with an easy 96-62 win over Abilene Christian with Burries leading the way with his 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field.
As a team, the Wildcats managed to shoot 66.7% from the field and going 6 of 14 from the 3-point line with five different Wildcats hitting a deep ball.
In comparison, Arizona shot 10 of 26 from the 3-point line against Alabama.
Coming into the season, there were skeptics that questioned if the Wildcats could shoot the deep ball at any kind of effective rate.
As of right now, that question is still up in the air for the Wildcats but we have seen progress in big moments from deep for Arizona.
Like most nights, Arizona saw its bread buttered in the low post with the Wildcats dominating 44-22 in the paint. Leading the way for the frontcourt was Motiejus Krivas, who scored 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field while grabbing just two rebounds.
Over the last two games, Burries has scored 48 points while shooting 67% from the field. This marks the first time in his early college career that he has recorded back-to-back 20-plus point performances.
Against Alabama, Arizona managed to limit its turnovers to just four despite the high number of possessions and the uptempo style of play in that game. But against ACU, the Wildcats got a little sloppy with the ball and turned it over 19 times.
Still, Arizona was able to roll and keep its early-season winning streak alive in a game where it would’ve been very easy not to give ACU its full attention.
Now, Arizona will head to Phoenix to take on San Diego State (5-3) in the Mortgage Matchup Center for a neutral-site game with the game tipping off Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN2. It is the team’s last game for the Hall of Fame Series.
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