What to watch for when Arizona men’s basketball hosts Norfolk State

Arizona began November in thrilling fashion, beating defending NCAA champion Florida in Las Vegas to open the 2025-26 season. Since then it has also beaten UCLA in Los Angeles and won at UConn.

The Wildcats (6-0) have climbed to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see them drop a spot after how Michigan dominated the Players Era Festival this week.

The first month of the season concludes for Arizona on Saturday when it hosts Norfolk State at McKale Center. A win would mark the fourth perfect November in five seasons under Tommy Lloyd.

Here’s what to watch fo when the Wildcats host the Spartans:

More ‘at-bats’ for the freshmen

Saturday’s game marks the start of the second half of nonconference play for Arizona, which also means it’s only the seventh career game for the Wildcats’ many first-year players.

Sure, this isn’t your normal freshman class. Tommy Lloyd said as much after Monday’s 103-73 win over Norfolk State when the five freshmen who played combined for 72 points, with four scoring in double figures, which last happened in 2017.

But despite their pedigree, there’s going to be some early growing pains. That’s been especially the case with 5-star guard Brayden Burries, who is averaging 9.8 points but is shooting only 34.8 percent.

Burries had a career-high 20 against Denver, and in his home debut scored 18, but in the three games against ranked opponents he’s averaged 4 points and is 4 of 19 from the field.

“He just needs at-bats,” Lloyd said. “He just needs to continue to take at-bats and take swings and he’ll figure it out. I’m sure there’s adjustments, for sure. But I think the one thing we got to understand is, he’s a freshman, and experience is a great teacher.”

Koa Peat has been the most consistent of the freshmen, but even he had a down game against UCLA, while Ivan Kharchenkov’s career-high 20 against Denver came after only 14 total points over the previous four games. And Dwayne Aristode has 18- and 17-point efforts but also three scoreless outings.

Long distance difficulty?

Arizona was 12 of 27 from 3-point range in the last game, the makes and attempts both season highs. For the season the Wildcats are shooting 39.2 percent from outside, which is very good, but they’re still near the bottom nationally in attempt rate with only 28 percent of their shots coming from 3.

These are the kind of games where Arizona can hunt for more shots from deep, like it did against Utah Tech (11 of 26) and Denver. But Norfolk State has been fairly stingy in defending the 3 this season, allowing only 30 percent from deep.

The team to do the best from 3 against the Spartans is NCCAA school Virginia University-Lynchburg, which was 14 of 29.

Aristode has been the biggest threat from 3, hitting 11 of 21, including a freshman school record-tying six against NAU.

The best the MEAC has to offer

Norfolk State (4-4) is the preseason favorite to win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, which it won the previous two seasons. But the MEAC is ranked by KenPom as the lowest-rated league in Division I, and at No. 231 the Spartans are the highest-ranked team. Everyone else is 313th or below, which three of eight schools ranked among the bottom five in Division I.

The Spartans are 1-4 against D-I opponents, their win coming by two at home over Hampton. Their four losses are all by 10 or fewer points, including a 75-67 loss at Wyoming last weekend.

Senior guard Anthony McComb III is Norfolk’s leading scorer, at 16.8 per game, one of three in double figures. He’s also the leading rebounder at 5.5 per game, the product of a team with no rotation player over 6-foot-8.

Norfolk, which made the NCAA Tournament last season but lost by 26 to Florida, is seeking its first win over a power-conference school since shocking Missouri as a No. 15 seed in the 2012 NCAA tourney.