By Joel Herrera
Photo of CohenJ Gonzalez
With how dominant and successful Pima Men’s Basketball was during the 2024-2025 season, it’s impossible to not talk about starting point guard and Arizona native CohenJ Gonzalez. The 5’9’ sophomore out of Gilbert, Arizona made his name known nationally in his second year of action with the Aztecs.
Gonzalez averaged 18.4 points per game, 3.4 rebounds per game and 5.1 assists per game, while also shooting a shade over 46% from the floor. These numbers earned Gonzalez All-ACCAC First-Team honors and led him to being named as region player of the year.
The secret behind Gonzalez’s accolades is simple: “I definitely like to take naps on game days…I’m not very superstitious so I don’t have a set routine,” Gonzalez said.
He additionally recorded over 1000 career points in his two seasons at Pima, shouting out his teammates who helped him achieve this accomplishment.
“As a team we definitely get along really well off the court … just having that chemistry off the floor, it translates onto the floor,” Gonzalez said. “Kota [Benson] is a great guy, being on the court with him was definitely a blessing … whenever I needed the ball out of my hands we could give it to him and trust him.”
Gonzalez then brought up the culture that Pima basketball has, along with what Head Coach Brian Peabody expects from his players.
“The culture that Peabody showed me, everyone was just good teammates … and he [Peabody] just wanted to win, he was competitive,” Gonzalez said. “If I was going to play for him he would just want me to compete no matter what.”
The entire Pima Men’s Basketball roster and coaching staff following their third place national finish in the 2025 NJCAA Men’s Basketball National Tournament. Photo provided by Pima Athletics
“I’ve been a coach for 33 years and I don’t think I’ve ever coached a kid like CohenJ,” said Peabody in an interview with KGUN9’s Jason Barr. “He competes all the time and I’ll take a kid like that over a seven-footer who doesn’t compete any day of the week.”
The competitiveness that Gonzalez learned from his time with the Aztecs, along with his skillset earned him a Division 1 offer from Iona University. The Gaels of Iona are a historically great mid-major program throughout the history of college basketball, with hall of famer and current St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino coaching there most recently in 2023. Iona has made the NCAA Tournament, more commonly known as March Madness, six of the last 10 seasons, most recently also in 2023.
“To have a program like that want me to play for them and trusts me to go play for them is definitely a blessing,” said Gonzalez. “It shows that my work is finally paying off.”
The Pima Aztecs finished their 2024-2025 season with an overall record of 35-1, the best record in the program’s history. Gonzalez will be remembered as the focal point of this historic team.
“When you take a step back and look at this whole season, we really went 34-0 before losing a single game, it’s insane and doesn’t happen all the time,” Gonzalez said. “Being the leader for this team this year, it’s been awesome.”
With his time at Pima now at its end, the accomplishments that Gonzalez was a part of in his two years here will be remembered and used as a standard for Pima basketball.
“I’m definitely not the same player I was when I got out of high school, Pima and Peabody did a great job at helping me evolve my game as a point guard so that I can go to one of the bigger universities,” Gonzalez said. “It’s just been such a blessing to be here with coaches that care about us.”