Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star via Juan Serrano on X reported that Wildcats' star freshman guard Brayden Burries played through bronchitis in the win over Baylor on Tuesday night. Burries struggled through illness in Arizona wins over BYU and Houston that preceded the win over Baylor.
Burries scored 24 points on eight out of 13 from the field, made one of his three three-point attempts and seven out of 11 from the free throw line with five rebounds, four assists and two steals against Baylor. Burries had not performed up to his season level in the Arizona loss to Texas Tech and wins over BYU and Houston.
Burries averaged 11.3 points, shot 30.0 percent from the field, made four out of 13 three-point shots while posting 3.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game in the games against Texas Tech, BYU and Houston that preceded the Arizona win over Baylor.
As a true freshman, Burries leads Arizona, averaging 15.6 points per game while contributing 4.6 RPG, 2.6 APG and 1.6 SPG on 49.2 percent from the field, 37.2 percent on three-point attempts and 76.1 percent from the free throw line with a 56.5 eFG percentage.
Brayden Burries played through bronchitis last night against Baylor, per @BrucePascoe pic.twitter.com/HeWXncDAjG
— Juan Serrano (@Serrano_Sports) February 25, 2026
Logging heavy minutes
Despite battling the illness over at least the past three games, Burries has averaged 34.4 minutes over the past six games. Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd has been forced to utilize basically a six-man rotation with Dwayne Aristode out for the past four games and Koa Peat missing the last 3.5 contests.
Lloyd was optimistic that Aristode and Peat are making progress and could return when Arizona hosts Kansas on Saturday. Lloyd specifically said, "I think we hopefully have some reinforcements coming soon. d I think we hopefully have some reinforcements coming soon."
Arizona has a quick turnaround after hosting Kansas. Iowa State is at Arizona for the final ESPN Big Monday. Colorado hosts Arizona on March 7 in the final regular-season game. Lloyd has frequently stated the goal for Arizona is to get healthy for the postseason.