If anything could drag BYU basketball from its melancholy and infinite sadness, it would be a road win over the fourth-ranked powerhouse program known as Arizona. After all, the last time these two programs squared off, the home Cougars were essentially a Brayden Burries rejection away from stealing a win against the previously unbeaten 'Cats.
Now on a two-game losing skid, the alarms are blaring in Tucson, and Arizona won't take an opportunity to get back to business lightly, even against the hobbled and dejected BYU Cougars.
Kevin Young's flagbearer and the heartbeat of the BYU basketball program, Richie Saunders, went down early against Colorado and did not return from the locker room. Soon after the final result, Saunders announced that he wouldn't return at any point this season, having torn his ACL. That tear marks not just the end of the season for Saunders, it marks the end of his BYU career.
For a player as foundational as Saunders had become in his four years in Provo, his absence could drown the Cougars' hopes of a deep tournament run.
In the short-term, however, the Arizona Wildcats have flashed a weakness in their armor. An imperfection in their structure. Freshman phenom and projected top-10 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, Koa Peat, has been ruled out with a lower-body injury sustained in recent competition.
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.
Peat isn't alone on the injury report, as fellow rotation player Dwayne Aristode has been marked as out for BYU's visit to the McKale Memorial.
Look, Arizona is a deep basketball team capable of winning at the highest level in a variety of ways. Let us not forget that it was primarily Burries, not Peat, who manhandled the Cougars in their previous meeting. This is a team with its back against the wall, losing its first and second games of the season in the two contests leading up to Wednesday's against BYU. When backed into a corner, programs of Arizona's caliber do not lie down and wallow in self-pity; they let their anger loose on the opposition.
BYU basketball, damaged by a grocery list of season-ending injuries, will have to rely heavily on AJ Dybantsa and Robert Wright III for any chance of competing. The "others" will have to step up to fill the void left by Saunders, and Tucson will be the setting for the Cougars' first chance to prove the worth of their reserves.
But don't get your hopes up.