LAS VEGAS — Arizona freshman Koa Peat had a chip on his shoulder before making his college debut Monday.

Feeling a bit neglected in Switzerland while playing for the USA 19-and-under team, the three-time Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year said he was going to remind people that he was one of the best incoming freshmen, despite not playing in the McDonald’s All-American Game or at the Nike Hoop Summit.

“I feel like I’ve been kind of forgotten,” Peat said during an earlier interview with Hoops HQ. “I’m just trying to remind people and show them what I’m about.”

And that’s exactly what he did Monday, announcing his presence in college basketball with authority during No. 13 Arizona’s 93-87 win over third-ranked and reigning champion Florida in the Hall of Fame Series inside the jam-packed T-Mobile Arena.

“It was a coming out party for him, so to speak,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Everyone’s known about him, but no one’s really, really studied him and watched him, and he’s a special player.”

The 18-year-old defied his freshman status in his nationally televised collegiate debut, leading all scorers with 30 points and adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He became the second Big 12 freshman to debut with 30 or more points, joining Kansas State‘s Michael Beasley, who had 32 in his debut in 2007.

Jaden Bradley was also impressive, scoring 27 points, including 11 of Arizona’s final 18 points, to help seal the win. He added five assists, making him and Peat the second pair of Arizona teammates in the past 30 seasons to each have at least 25 points and five assists in the same game. They join Chase Budinger and Nic Wise, who did it against Stanford on March 7, 2009.

Peat is a part of a family that has produced seven Division I athletes. He’s the son of Todd Peat, a guard in the NFL for nine seasons, and his brother, Andrus, is a three-time Pro Bowl selection who spent much of his time in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Koa Peat’s athleticism was on full display late in the second half with the score tied at 70-all when he delivered back-to-back thunderous dunks, sending the crowd of 16,704 into a frenzy and giving Arizona a 74-70 lead. He gave the Wildcats momentum for a game-ending 23-17 run to provide the difference.

Peat said spending his summer playing for Lloyd while representing Team USA with the 19-and-under World Cup team that won gold in Switzerland helped prepare him for his first season at the collegiate level.

“He ran some of the same sets at USA, so coming to U of A in the fall, it was pretty easy to adapt to those,” said Peat, who was the national team’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder. “I think what really helped me [tonight] was just the practices. We practiced really hard throughout the week, leading up to this game. And I’m just grateful to have coaches and teammates that put me in positions to be good, and especially [Bradley]. He just makes my game so easy … he’s one of the best point guards in the country, if not the best point guard in the country.”

Thomas Haugh led Florida with 27 points, Xaivian Lee scored 14, and Alex Condon and Micah Handlogten each had 11.

Ivan Kharchenkov, who shook off an injury late in the first half that sent him to the locker room, finished with 12 points for the Wildcats.

Arizona shot 49.2% (30-of-61) from the field, while Florida’s poor second-half shooting (14-of-38, 36.8%) sealed its fate in becoming the first reigning champion to lose its season opener since Syracuse in 2003-04.

The Gators opened the game strong, pushing their lead to 12 points after hitting 11 of their first 16 shots. But the Wildcats clamped down on defense and held Florida to 5-for-16 shooting the rest of the half while going on a 32-16 run by hitting 11 of 18 shots down the stretch.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The NCAA sent a letter to Kalshi, a company that offers prediction markets on college basketball and football, expressing its concern about the company’s “commitment to contest integrity and the protection of contest participants,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by ESPN.

In the letter, dated Oct. 30, NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby asked Kalshi how it monitors collegiate sports markets for integrity concerns and activity by prohibited customers, who it considers a prohibited customer, whether it will report integrity concerns to the NCAA and whether the company will cooperate with NCAA investigations.

“We welcome Kalshi’s stance on its efforts to protect the integrity of NCAA competitions and to reduce instances of abuse and harassment directed at student-athletes and other participants,” Bearby wrote.

The NCAA also asked if Kalshi would ban prediction markets similar to prop bets, which the company began offering this fall.

Prop betting markets, Bearby noted in the letter, heighten “the risk of integrity and harassment concerns.” In March last year, NCAA president Charlie Baker called for a ban on prop bets on college athletes in states with legal sports wagering.

The NCAA also asked Kalshi in the letter to review language on its website that the NCAA says implies a relationship between them.

“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” a Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “We value the NCAA’s feedback and are working on adjusting the language on our site. We are currently reviewing and addressing their additional requests.”

Prediction markets like Kalshi have emerged over the past year and are competing with traditional sportsbooks in the betting market. Kalshi is battling multiple lawsuits by state gambling regulators, who allege that the company is violating state laws by offering event contracts that mimic sports bets. Kalshi argues that it does not fall under state jurisdiction and is instead regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.

In March, Kalshi announced a partnership with IC360, an integrity monitor used by many collegiate and professional leagues.

The NCAA has faced an increasing number of alleged betting violations by players in recent years. In September, the NCAA announced that a Fresno State men’s basketball player had manipulated his performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two other players in a prop betting scheme. In total, the association has opened investigations into potential betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men’s basketball players.

As the NFL trade deadline was approaching, legendary quarterback Tom Brady revealed an interesting personal piece of news about his dog being a clone.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and current FOX Sports broadcaster said in a statement Tuesday from a company he has invested in that his dog, Junie, is a clone of his late dog, Lua.

Colossal Biosciences, a biotech startup, announced the acquisition of animal cloning company Viagen Pets and Equine. Colossal is venture-capital backed, and among its goals is to “fix” extinction.

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Tuesday’s move marks the company’s first major acquisition, and Brady was involved in it through his statement revealing Junie’s origin.

“I love my animals,” Brady said in the statement. “They mean the world to me and my family. A few years ago, I worked with Colossal and leveraged their non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw of our family’s elderly dog before she passed.”

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Lua was the late dog of Brady and his ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen. Lua died in December 2023, after the couple’s divorce was finalized in 2022.

Tom Brady at a local playground with his son, Benjamin Brady, and dog Lua Jan. 12, 2014, in Boston.  (Stickman/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

However, as Brady mentioned in the statement, Colossal’s genetic engineering and cloning technology led to Junie being born. Brady’s dog is a pit bull mix.

While Brady’s cloned dog is a feat in itself, Colossal said its cloning and gene-editing technology also led to the birth of three dire wolf pups — a species previously thought to be extinct.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as other groups, disputed Colossal’s claim.

Former NFL quarterback Tom Brady before a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Los Angeles Rams at M&T Bank Stadium Oct. 12, 2025, in Baltimore. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)

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“Combining the science of genetics with the business of discovery, we endeavor to jump-start nature’s ancestral heartbeat. To see the woolly mammoth thunder upon tundra once again. To advance the economies of biology and healing through genetics,” Colossal’s website states. 

“To make humanity more human. And to reawaken the lost wilds of Earth. So we, and our planet, can breathe easier.”

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