HONOLULU, Hawai'i – Friday marks the official start to the 2016-17 Arizona Basketball season with the Wildcats taking on a nationally-ranked opponent in a primetime national television affair. No. 10/11 Arizona will face No. 12/9 Michigan State for the first time in over a decade in the opening game of the 2016 State Farm Armed Forces Classic on ESPN. The College GameDay crew of ESPN will be on site for the opening day of the season and will be on ESPN 30 minutes prior to the tip of the Arizona game.

No. 10/11 Arizona vs. No. 12/9 Michigan State
Friday, November 11 at 5:00 p.m. (MST)
TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas & Molly McGrath)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Stats: www.ArmedForces.StatBroadcast.com
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 

• Arizona opens its 2016-17 season ranked tenth in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 and faces Michigan State in its season opener, ranked 12^th in the AP preseason poll. The Spartans are the Wildcat's highest ranked AP opponent in a season opener since the 2001-02 season when they faced No. 2 Maryland Terrapins.
• UA is no stranger to Hawaiian Islands with a history that goes back to 1968 Rainbow Classic in Honolulu. The Wildcats have an all-time record of 22-9 (.710) in Hawai'i with a mark of 7-2 under head coach Sean Miller. Miller's record includes a current six-game winning streak after winning the 2012 Diamond Head Classic and the 2014 Maui Invitational. Arizona will return to the Aloha State for the 2018 Maui Invitational.
• Arizona and Michigan State's last head-to-head meeting was ironically in Hawai'i in the 2005 Maui Invitational. The Spartans walked away with the 74-71 victory in overtime behind 20 points from Maurice Ager. Hassan Adams tallied 21 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats in the loss.
• Junior Parker Jackson-Cartwright will look to carry over his red-hot three-point shooting from the second half of last season to the start of 2016-17. The point guard led all Pac-12 players in three-point field goal percentage in league play, connecting on 48.6 percent of his attempts (18-37) from deep. This came after he shot 9 of 35 (.257) from beyond the arc in non-conference play.
• In addition to holding one of the highest home court winning percentages in the nation, Arizona has shown a knack for continuing its winning ways outside of Tucson. Since Sean Miller's arrival prior to the 2009-10 season, the Wildcats have posted a record of 80-49 (.620) away from the McKale Center. That mark improves to 33-18 (.647) at neutral site locations. UA's records in the last three seasons are 40-17 (.702) outside of Tucson and 18-6 (.750) in neutral sites.
• After losing his first five games against ranked teams in non-conference play as Arizona's head coach, Sean Miller has won his last six consecutive games versus nationally-ranked foes prior to Pac-12 play. These six victories have all been nail biters with an average Arizona margin of victory of 3.0 points.