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The Wildcats aren’t just the best team in the most rugged conference in the country; they’re the toughest.

Arizona proved it again Monday night against Iowa State, easily winning the type of game recent UA teams might have struggled to capture.

The scoreboard beneath the video screens at McKale Center didn’t work all night, but it hardly mattered — it took almost 2½ minutes for anyone to make a basket. The Wildcats finished with more turnovers (15) than assists (14) for only the third time this season.

“They're a pain in the ass to play against,� Tommy Lloyd said after Arizona’s 73-57 victory in front of a “White Out� crowd of 14,688. “You can't run your offensive stuff. They pressure you out of everything.�

Yet the Wildcats won anyway. And they did it convincingly.

Monday’s result — and others like it this season — shows how far the program has come over two campaigns in the Big 12. used the perfect word to describe that transformation: “Evolution.�

Of course, Lloyd bristles at the notion that Arizona was ever anything other than the rough-and-tumbleweed outfit that it is today.

“This team’s built that way, but I think the narrative that we were soft is lazy,� Lloyd said. “Look at our stats. Look at our analytics. We've always been a great rebounding team. We've always pounded the paint.

“If you want to just be lazy and not pay attention and say we're soft because we’re on the West Coast, be lazy. I'd love to play against you because we know we got dudes, and we love this game. And I'm OK (with) this style of game. I have no problem with how it played out.

“If you want to compete at the highest level of college basketball, you better be able to go toe to toe with somebody. That's how we're built, and I think we've always been built that way.�

Battle-tested

I asked the question that prompted that response. I didn’t use the word “soft.� But Lloyd undoubtedly has heard it used it in reference to his program, at least in the before times. It was a popular question when Arizona was making the transition from the Pac-12 to the Big 12: Could the Wildcats handle the level of physicality they’d face every night against the likes of Houston, Kansas, Texas Tech and Iowa State?

I posited last February that the 2024-25 Wildcats were Lloyd’s toughest and grittiest team. This squad has taken it to another level.

Want proof? How 'bout this: Arizona has scored 73 or fewer points five times this season (and hit that number on the nose vs. the Cyclones). The Wildcats have won all five games.

In Lloyd’s first four seasons, Arizona was 10-20 when scoring 73 or fewer points. The Wildcats were 1-7 a year ago.

If you played Arizona a certain sort of way — slowing the game to a crawl and turning it into a rock fight — you’d probably prevail. Not so with this year’s team, which is showing it can win any type of game — a great trait to have once the calendar flips to March.

The Wildcats can thank the Big 12 gauntlet for that.

“This league forces you to test yourself day in and day out,� said forward Tobe Awaka, one of five seniors honored on Senior Night.

“That's the whole sort of thing about playing in the Big 12: It does get you ready for March. During this last stretch, we played some pretty aggressive teams that try to get you rattled in the beginning of the game — trapping the ball screen, super handsy on defense. I think that bodes well for March, when we’re in high-level environments, both teams’ crowds are going crazy.

“We've been tested. We’ve been trapped before. We've been swarmed before. We’ve been doubled in the post before. So I think, again, we're just building a repertoire to make our best push in March.�

Defense travels

Iowa State made it hard for Arizona at times Monday night. How did the Wildcats respond? By making it even harder for the Cyclones on the other end.

Iowa State shot 29.2% from the field. The Cyclones hadn’t shot under 30% in a game since a 59-41 NCAA Tournament loss to Pittsburgh on March 17, 2023.

Iowa State was the third opponent Arizona has held under 30% this season. The Wildcats hit that mark only once last season — and it wasn’t against a league foe. They’ve done it twice this season in Big 12 play.

Arizona doesn’t get the credit it deserves for, well, being a pain in the ass to play against. The analytics tell the tale: The Wildcats are No. 3 in the nation in defensive-rating stat (points allowed per 100 possessions, adjusted for opponent).

Duke and Michigan are Nos. 1 and 2. The Blue Devils, Wolverines and Wildcats are the only high-major teams with only two losses. They’re 1-2-3 in °­±ð²Ô±Ê´Ç³¾â€™s overall ratings. They also comprise the top three in the .

“That is as good of a team as we've played against in the time I've been the head coach at Iowa State,� said Cyclones coach T.J. Otzelberger, who’s in his fifth season in Ames. “Obviously, things didn’t go the way we wanted from an offensive standpoint. A lot of that had to do with their defense and their length and their physicality.�

With Koa Peat guarding him most of the time, Iowa State senior forward Joshua Jefferson had one of the worst games of his career. Jefferson shot just 2 of 17 from the floor and had four turnovers. He entered Monday shooting 47.5% and averaging 16.8 points per game.

Peat finished with a career-high three blocked shots. Teammate Motiejus Krivas had only one, but he continued to provide an outsize presence in the paint. The 7-foot-2 Krivas might be the best rim protector in college basketball — an unexpected development and as big a reason as any for Arizona’s defensive leap. (The Wildcats were 38th in defensive rating last season, when Krivas barely played because of a foot injury.)

“When I first recruited him, I thought he was going to be a dominant offensive center,� Lloyd said. “So I really talked to him this offseason about ... the offense is going to come. But can you make yourself into a consistent defensive force and a defensive guy on the glass? And he's done that.�

They say defense travels, and that’s also a good thing for Arizona: The Wildcats won’t play at McKale again this season.

The way they’re playing — tough, physical, defensive-minded, ready for anything — will take them places. Maybe even Indianapolis.