Having McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster is nothing new for Arizona. Three played for the Wildcats last season if you include transfers Jaden Bradley and Caleb Love. Even having two in the same recruiting class isn’t that unique, as it happened three times during the Sean Miller era.
But what does stand out about the arrival of Brayden Burries and Koa Peat is that, unlike previous freshmen under Tommy Lloyd, both are expected to start right away. In Lloyd’s first four seasons the only first-year player to start a game was Carter Bryant, who logged five starts in 2024-25 but otherwise ranked seventh on the team in minutes (19.3 per game).
Roster construction had a lot to do with how much Bryant played, the same with previous notable freshmen like Kylan Boswell, Motiejus Krivas, KJ Lewis and Henri Veesaar. The 2025-26 roster, though, has more freshmen on scholarship (seven) than sophomores through seniors (six), so simple math suggests either Burries or Peat (or both) will average more minutes than any other first-year player under Lloyd.
Not that either expects those minutes to just be given to them.
“I have no say in like, how many minutes I get,” said Burries, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who was ranked No. 10 overall in the 2025 recruiting class, per 247Sports. “Whether I get 30-some minutes or if I get five minutes, just making the best of your time, honestly, just being the best version of yourself, whether that’s being on the floor and playing great, or being on the bench and cheering for your teammates.”
Added Peat, a 6-foot-8 forward ranked No. 9 overall: “Coming in at Arizona I’m with a lot of good players. I’m kind of trying to find my niche, but also just like kind of having a balance of knowing that I’m a good player, but also I gotta fit the team concept. I’m just going into practice every day with the mindset to just get better and just whatever the team needs me to do I’m going to do.”
Burries and Peat were both part of the West Team for the 2025 McDonald’s All-American Game in April, though Peat sat out with a broken hand that he played with in leading Perry High School in Gilbert to a fourth straight state title.
Burries also led his high school to a championship, dropping 44 points in the California Open Division title game with Eleanor Roosevelt.
The similarities between the freshmen phenoms doesn’t stop there. Both are projected as first round picks in early 2026 NBA mock drafts, increasing the likelihood Arizona will have one or more one-and-done players in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2017-18.
Both also come from very athletic families, and each also has the luxury of having a family member on campus to help ease into the college experience.
Burries’ father, Robert, is in the Hall of Fame at Division II Cal State San Bernadino, while his mother, Hannah, played softball at Tennessee. He said his father helped instill in him at a young age a winning mentality.
“That’s helped me get to the point where I’m at today,” Burries said.
BJ Burries, Brayden’s older brother, holds the state career scoring record with 3,387 points from 2016-19 at Globe High School. He’s now a graduate assistant with the UA.
“It’s honestly great continuing to get to know each other, push each other,” Burries said. “Days I don’t feel like it, like say I don’t want to do something. He’s there to push me and make sure I get it done. And it’s great to have somebody like that.”
Peat is the youngest of seven children and all have excelled in sports. His father Todd played offensive line for nine seasons in the NFL and each of Koa’s siblings has played either football or basketball in college, with brother Andrus playing 126 games for the New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders.
Joining Koa in Tucson is brother Keona Peat, an offensive lineman who transferred from ASU in May. They live next to each other in an apartment complex a short walk from McKale Center.
“It’s great having a brother here with me,” Peat said. “I see him at Bear Down Kitchen every day, usually, and then I’ll come back home at night and he’ll be done with (preseason) camp and we’ll maybe watch a movie, play video games or something like that.”
The hype that each brought with them had to be checked at the door. Peat said his first practice, back in June, showed him how much more physical the college game can be, while Burries said senior forward Tobe Awaka took that up a notch during an early workout.
“We were doing this rebounding drill, and I came off the opposite block, he’s on the wing,” he said. “He was coming in. I had to box him out. And he bulldozed me all the way to the other side.”
Where Peat may have a leg up on Burries is his experience working with Lloyd, who was his coach on the Team USA U19 squad that won the FIBA World Cup last month in Switzerland. Peat, a veteran of USA Basketball, won his fourth gold medal while averaging 12.6 points and 6.9 rebounds with Lloyd on the sidelines.
“He kind of ran a little bit of the same type of concepts, but not as much,” Peat said. “Just learning him as a coach and stuff like that helped me a lot. How he coaches on the floor, how assertive he was. It was cool to see how locked in he was on everybody, and just how good of a coach he was. And just learning from him throughout that experience helped me when I got back to here as well. So it kind of kind of got a little bit more comfortable.”
The annual Red-Blue scrimmage on Oct. 3 will be the first opportunity for Arizona fans to see Burries and Peat in action, followed by a couple exhibitions including at least one against another Division I school. But the true collegiate debut from them comes Nov. 3 in Las Vegas against defending NCAA champion Florida.
“When I’m coming in here in the morning to work out, I’m thinking about that,” Peat said. “I’m thinking about that when I come in here to practice, thinking about our first game, and I’m excited for it. I’m going to work as hard as I can up to that day.”