Freshman Koa Peat leads Arizona State past NCAA champion Florida.
LAS VEGAS — Arizona freshman Koa Pitt had a chip on his shoulder before making his college debut Monday.
After feeling a bit neglected in Switzerland while playing for the USA Under-19 team, the three-time Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year said he’ll remind people he’s one of the best new players, despite not playing in the McDonald’s All-American Game or at the Nike Hoop Summit.
“I feel like I kind of forgot,” Pete said during a previous interview with Hoops HQ. “I’m just trying to remind people and show people what I do.”
And that’s exactly what he did Monday, making his college basketball presence known in force during No. 13 Arizona’s 93-87 win over No. 3 and champion Florida in the Hall of Fame Series inside a jam-packed T-Mobile Arena.
“It was a coming out party for him, so to speak,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Everyone knows about him, but no one has really studied him and watched him, and he is a special player.”
The 18-year-old defied his freshman status in his nationally televised collegiate debut, leading all scorers with 30 points and adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He became just the second Big 12 freshman to debut with 30 or more points, joining Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, who had 32 points in his debut in 2007.
Jaden Bradley was also impressive, scoring 27 points, including 11 of Arizona’s final 18, to help seal the win. He added five assists, making him and Pete the second pair of Arizona teammates in the past 30 seasons to each have at least 25 points and five assists in the same game. They join Chase Budinger and Nick Wise, who did so against Stanford on March 7, 2009.
Peat is part of a family that has produced seven Division I athletes. He is the son of Todd Peat, a guard in the NFL for nine seasons, and his brother, Andros, is a three-time Pro Bowl selection who spent most of his time in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Koa Peat’s athleticism was on full display late in the second half as the score was tied at 70 points when he hit back-to-back thunderous layups, sending the crowd of 16,704 into a frenzy and giving Arizona a 74-70 lead. It gave the Wildcats the momentum to end the game 23-17 to make the difference.
Pitt said spending the summer playing for Lloyd while representing Team USA with the U19 World Cup team that won gold in Switzerland helped prepare him for his first season at the collegiate level.
“He ran some of the same groups at USA, so it was pretty easy to adapt to those groups when he came to the U of A in the fall,” said Pitt, who was the national team’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder. “I think that’s what really helped me [tonight] It was just practices. We trained hard all week, leading up to this match. And I’m grateful to have coaches and teammates who put me in a position to be good, esp [Bradley]. He makes my game so easy…He’s one of the best point guards in the country, if not the best point guard in the country.”
Thomas Huff led Florida with 27 points, Xavien Lee scored 14 points, and Alex Condon and Micah Handlugten scored 11 points each.
Ivan Kharchenkov, who recovered from an injury late in the first half that sent him to the locker room, finished with 12 points for the Wildcats.
Arizona shot 49.2% (30 of 61) from the field, while Florida’s poor shooting in the second half (14 of 38, 36.8%) sealed its fate to become the first champion to lose a season opener since Syracuse in 2003-04.
The Gators opened the game strong, pushing their lead to 12 points by making 11 of their first 16 shots. But the Wildcats tightened their grip on defense and held Florida to 5-for-16 shooting the rest of the half while going 32-16 by hitting 11 of 18 shots down the stretch.
ESPN Research and the Associated Press contributed to this report.