Arizona finished No. 5 in Alumni Tracker’s 2025-26 scoring rankings with 7,366 points, tucked just behind Villanova and UCLA. Their leaderboard has a lot more on it than Lauri Markkanen (Jazz). This was not one scorer dragging a school into the top five. Markkanen led the way with 1,123 points, but Bennedict Mathurin (Clippers) added 949, Deandre Ayton (Lakers) put up 897, Aaron Gordon (Nuggets) scored 582 in 36 games, and T.J. McConnell (Pacers) led the group with 287 assists. That is enough scoring, size, and experience to put a real Arizona stamp on this NBA season.
Lauri Markkanen Gives Arizona Its Headliner, and Bennedict Mathurin Gives It Another Real Scorer
Lauri Markkanen still gives Arizona the kind of name that changes the look of a page right away. He led the Wildcats in points, and when he was healthy he still looked like the same matchup problem Utah has built around for years. Around the break, he was sitting at roughly 27 points and seven rebounds and was playing at an All-Star level. He still scores like the modern seven-footer teams hate to guard. He makes defenses work before the catch and after it, flying off movement, stretching the floor, and cutting behind the action. A hip injury ended his season early, but Arizona still had a real top-line scorer sitting at the front of the board.
Bennedict Mathurin is why this thing does not flatten into a one-man story. He finished second on Arizona’s page with 949 points, and the shape of his game still makes sense in any rotation that needs juice on the wing. He gets downhill, gets to the line, and can change a second unit fast when he is playing with force. His stretch with the Clippers had rough nights in it, but the scoring talent never disappeared. He showed that again with 23 points in the Play-In against Golden State. Arizona did not just have one scorer up top. It had another wing on the board who still brings pressure when he gets rolling.
Deandre Ayton, Aaron Gordon, and T.J. McConnell Bring the Rest of the Alumni Page to Life
Deandre Ayton gives Arizona something different. He is not there to make the page look deeper. He is there because playoff teams still need centers who can rebound, hold their ground in the paint, and survive a switch when the possession gets messy. Against Houston, he gave the Lakers all of that. He opened the series with 19 points and 11 rebounds, worked on Alperen Sengun inside, and talked openly about wanting to show what he can do defensively when the games get serious. That showed up fast in the playoffs, and it gave Arizona a real center on a real stage.
Aaron Gordon belongs here for a different reason. He is not a scoring-column argument. He is a winning-player argument. Denver still leans on him because he does the work good teams need once the games get harder. He defends bigger wings, fills gaps, rebounds, talks, settles things down, and plays without needing the offense bent around him. That kind of forward brings a champion to Arizona’s alumni page. Arizona is stronger for having a player like that in the mix, especially this late in the season, when the difference between nice numbers and useful players gets a lot clearer.
T.J. McConnell rounds it out the right way. He led Arizona’s group in assists with 287 and finished second in Sportsmanship Award voting. In 17.2 minutes a night, he still gave Indiana 9.4 points, 5.1 assists, and 53.8% shooting from the floor. He is not flashy, and that is part of the point. Every good alumni board needs a guard who can settle a unit, speed a game up, and create easy offense without hunting shots. McConnell put a real floor general on Arizona’s page.
That is why Arizona finishing fifth means something. The Wildcats did not get there on brand alone, and they did not get there on one name. They got there with a scorer at the top, another scorer on the wing, a playoff center, a proven winning forward, and a veteran point guard who still changes pace. Kentucky and Duke had bigger boards. Villanova and UCLA finished a little higher. Arizona still belonged in that group, and the mix behind Markkanen is the reason it did.