TUCSON - The third year of the Tommy Lloyd era at Arizona begins on Friday with an exhibition game against Lewis-Clark State. The game starts at 7:00 p.m. and will only be available to watch via live stream at ArizonaWildcats.com/Live. The stream is free for everyone and does not require a login or subscription.
SETTING THE SCENE
- • The 2023-24 season marks the 119th year of men's basketball for the University of Arizona, and the Wildcats have an all-time record of 1,862-977.
- • Entering this season, Arizona's 1,862 all-time wins rank 19th among all schools in NCAA history while the .656 winning percentage is 10th in NCAA history.
- • In the preseason poll released by the Associated Press on Oct. 16, Arizona checked in at No. 12, and they are No. 11 in the Coaches Top 25 poll. The Wildcats are the highest ranked of the two Pac-12 teams included in the AP poll, ahead of USC at No. 21.
- • The 2023-24 non-conference schedule ranks as one of the most challenging the in country, with five games against teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 poll. The only other team in the nation to have that many games vs. Top 25 teams is Gonzaga. The gauntlet includes:
- - No. 2 Duke (road)
- - No. 3 Purdue (neutral)
- - No. 4 Michigan State (neutral)
- - No. 10 Florida Atlantic (neutral)
- - No. 24 Alabama (neutral)
- - (rv) Wisconsin (home)
- • Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season leading the Wildcats and has a record of 61-11. He set the all-time NCAA record for most wins by a coach in his first two seasons and is the only Power 5 head coach to ever win his conference tournament in each of his first two seasons.
- • The preseason All Pac-12 teams featured four Wildcats: senior Oumar Ballo (first team), senior Caleb Love (second), sophomore Kylan Boswell (second) and senior Pelle Larson (honorable mention).
- • The Wildcats return 42% of the minutes played from the 2022-23 season and 41% of the scoring from last year's squad.
- • Offensively, UA has just 26% of the 3-pointers made and 27% of the 3-pointers attempted a season ago back on the roster this year.
- • Arizona has six returning scholarship players and seven new players - three transfers and four freshmen - on the 2023-24 team.
- • Redshirt senior Oumar Ballo was named a preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Magazine and College Hoops Today. Blue Ribbon along with ESPN.com also named him the preseason favorite to earn Pac-12 Player of the Year.
- • Back in August, Arizona got a jump on the 2023-24 season by taking a Summer Tour to Israel and Abu Dhabi for 10 days. The travel party was able to visit countless historic landmarks in both countries and play three exhibition games as part of the trip. It was the first international trip for Arizona since a 2017 trip to Spain.
RED-BLUE SHOWCASE RECAP
The annual Red-Blue Showcase took place on Sept. 29 in front of a sold-out crowd of 14,688. It's the event that signals the unofficial start to basketball season in Tucson.
Former Wildcats Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye served as hosts along with Allie Clifton from the "Road Trippin'" podcast. They were joined by Arizona legends Miles Simon, Mike Bibby, Andre Iguodala and Steve Kerr and Luke Walton via Zoom.
Sophomore
Filip Borovicanin won the 3-point contest and freshman
KJ Lewis captured the dunk contest by jumping over 7-foot center
Oumar Ballo.
WORLDWIDE WILDCATS
Eight different countries, including the United States, are represented on Arizona's 18-man roster. The countries include Serbia, Sweden, Mali, Estonia, Lithuania, England, Spain and the United States.
BALLO'S BUSINESS
Redshirt senior
Oumar Ballo is back for his third year in Tucson. He was a First Team All Pac-12 honoree last year and was named to the 2023 Pac-12 Tournament All-Tournament team as well. He garnered MVP honors at the Maui Invitational a season ago on his way to setting new career highs in nearly every statistical category. He shot 64.7% from the floor during the 2022-23 season, which ranked eighth nationally and is the second-best single-season percentage in Arizona history.
His development has been off the charts over the last three seasons, dating back to the 2020-21 season when he played at Gonzaga:
PPG RPG Min/G
2020-21 2.5 1.5 6.2
2021-22 6.8 4.4 15.2
2022-23 14.2 8.6 27.5
BRADLEY IN FROM BAMA
Sophomore guard
Jaden Bradley transferred to Arizona over the offseason after spending his freshman season at the University of Alabama. With the Crimson Tide, he appeared in 37 games and made 22 starts, averaging 6.4 points and 3.1 assists per game with a 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio. Arizona was heavily involved in his initial recruitment out of high school before he eventually chose Alabama. A native of Rochester, N.Y., he was a McDonald's All-American as a senior at IMG Academy.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP EXPERIENCE
Senior transfers
Caleb Love (North Carolina) and
Keshad Johnson (San Diego State) have both played in the national championship game of the NCAA Tournament.
Love helped UNC get there in 2022 before falling to Kansas in the title tilt. He scored 30 points against UCLA in the Sweet 16 of that tournament and 28 points against Duke in the national semifinal game.
Johnson scored 14 points for the Aztecs in the 2023 championship game against UConn back in March.
BOROVICANIN BUMP
Sophomore
Filip Borovicanin appeared in 14 games as a freshman, averaging 1.3 points and 0.9 rebounds in 3.8 minutes per game.
But after watching the Serbian wing in Arizona's games on its Summer Tour and in the Red-Blue Showcase, it appears he could be primed to make the signature freshman-to-sophomore year jump.
He averaged 10.0 points and 5.7 rebounds over the three games in Israel and Abu Dhabi and connected on 7 of 13 from behind the 3-point line. At the Red-Blue Showcase, he out-dueled
Caleb Love to win the 3-point contest.
LOOK OUT FOR LEWIS
Freshman
KJ Lewis was a Top 100 recruit in his class, but Coach Lloyd has commented that he may have been underrated. He won the dunk contest at the Red-Blue Showcase and averaged 13.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in two games on the Summer Tour.
LITHUANIAN IMPORTS
After consensus All-American
Azuolas Tubelis decided to pursue his professional career in the offseason, Arizona added two more Lithuanian players to the roster for 2023-24 roster in 7-foot-2 center
Motiejus Krivas and 6-9 wing
Paulius Murauskas.
Both players have extensive experience in Lithuania and should be competing for minutes the Wildcats right away.
