Purdue Basketball Know Your Enemy: Arizona Wildcats

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 26: Koa Peat #10 of the Arizona Wildcats gestures against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the second half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) | Getty Images The Arizona Wildcats and the Purdue Boilermakers will face off in the Elite Eight tomorrow night with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Let’s not sugarcoat it, Arizona is good.

Very good. It’s going to take Purdue’s A game to win this thing. Maybe even an A+ game.

It will take a game like Purdue had against Michigan, another team that no one thought Purdue could beat. And yet… So, with that in mind I reached out to Brian Pedersen from Arizona Desert Swarm part of SB Nation who I’ve worked with in the past on Q&As. We did a Q&A previously when these two teams met in Indianapolis two seasons ago when Arizona was #1 and Purdue was #3.

Brian agreed rapidly and we got this all done in about 12 hours. Go over there and say hi, introduce yourself, talk some (polite) trash, and learn more about the Wildcats from their own fans. With all the preamble out of the way let’s get into the Q&A!