The official Arizona X account posted on Tuesday night that freshman forward "Koa Peat has a muscle strain in his lower leg area. He will be re-evaluated next week and will return to the court when cleared by the medical staff."
Peat's classmate, "Dwayne Aristode (illness) will also not be available Wednesday against BYU." Arizona has lost two consecutive games after beginning the season with 23 straight wins. Aristode missed the entire game against Texas Tech and Peat sat out the second half with an injury.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd only utilized a six-man rotation primarily in the second half in the loss to Texas Tech on Saturday. Tobe Awaka started the second half in place of Peat. Anthony Dell'Orso scored three points in 11 minutes in the second half against Texas Tech as the primary Arizona reserve.
Reserve freshman center Sidi Gueye scored two points in one minute. The second half starting five of Jaden Bradley and Brayden Burries at guard, forwards Awaka and Ivan Kharchenkov and center Motiejus Krivas played all five minutes in overtime against Texas Tech.
Koa Peat has a muscle strain in his lower leg area. He will be re-evaluated next week and will return to the court when cleared by the medical staff.
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) February 18, 2026
Dwayne Aristode (illness) will also not be available Wednesday against BYU.
Recalculating the rotation
Gueye and guard Evan Nelson could receive more playing time with Aristode and Peat out "we'll definitely want to look at Evan and Sidi, you know, and kind of...some roles that can kind of help, you know, give us a little more depth."
Gueye is still raw offensively, but provides Arizona length inside at 6'11. Gueye leads Arizona, averaging 3.8 blocks per 40 minutes played. Nelson averaged 9.1 points per game, 2.3 assists and shot 40.4 percent on three-point attempts in 22.0 minutes per game in his three seasons at Harvard.
Nelson could be a valuable player off the bench for Arizona with Aristode and Peat out. Lloyd also said after the loss to Texas Tech, "the plan was to play Delli more. I'm surprised he only ended up with 21 minutes...I'll have to look at that for sure."
Dell'Orso is averaging 8.0 PPG, 2.0 rebounds and 2.4 APG in 20.8 MPG. With Aristode out, Dell'Orso should receive an increase in minutes versus BYU. BYU also has its own injury problems with starting guard Richie Saunders tearing his ACL in the Cougars' win over Colorado on Saturday./