TUCSON, Ariz. - Coming off a win at No. 2 Duke, the Arizona Wildcats are back in McKale on Monday to host Southern University in the first of three home games this week. Tip-off is slated for 6:00 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network with Jordan Kent and Ernie Kent on the call.  

 

FOLLOW ALONG
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Arizona Notes (PDF)		Series History

STARTING FIVE...AND ONE

1) 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 1,864-977.

2) Trailing by two with 2:00 left at Duke, Arizona was 7 of 7 at the free throw line down the stretch to get its first win under Tommy Lloyd when trailing with five minutes left (1-8)

3) Under Tommy Lloyd, Arizona is 12-4 against Top 25 opponents, including 5-1 vs. the top 5. Friday's win at then-No. 2 Duke is the highest ranked non-conference road win in program history.

4) Caleb Love enters tonight's game with 1,499 career points. He would be the 46th currently active player in the country to surpass 1,500 career points

5) Tommy Lloyd is the first D-1 head coach this century (men's or women's) to defeat an AP Top 3 team in each of his first three seasons.

6) Arizona's win at No. 2 Duke was just the third by a Pac-12 school at a Top 2 ranked non-conference opponent since Arizona joined the Pac-12 in 1978-79.

SERIES VS. SOUTHERN

• Arizona leads the all-time series with Southern, 2-0, and is 9-0 all-time vs. the SWAC

• Last year, UA defeated Southern, 95-78, in Tucson

• Only other meeting was a 69-43 win in 2013

NOTING THE WILDCATS
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season leading the Wildcats and has a record of 63-11. 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 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)

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).

Ballo was named to the preseason watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, Love is on the preseason list for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award and Keshad Johnson is on the preseason list for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award.

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. He was also tabbed for the Naismith Trophy and NABC national player of the year preseason watch lists.

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.

NOTING DUKE
The 78-73 win at then No. 2 Duke on Nov. 10 was Arizona's first true road win against a team ranked in the top 2 since defeating No. 1 Stanford in 2001.

LLOYD LOVES IT
Head coach Tommy Lloyd's record is 63-11 in his third season as a head coach. After setting the NCAA record for most wins in his first two seasons (61), the focus turns to the three-year record. The NCAA record for most wins through three seasons is 89 wins by Brad Underwood and Brad Stevens.

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

In his last 8 games against Top 25 opponents, Ballo is averaging 15.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and shooting 63.5% from the floor.

SEE LOVE
Senior guard Caleb Love arrived at Arizona this summer after three seasons at North Carolina. He has fit right in with Arizona's free flowing offense.

In the season opener against Morgan State, he dropped 12 points to go with three rebounds, four assists and zero turnovers. Then at Duke, he drilled four clutch free throws in the final minute to seal the Arizona win and improve to 4-1 in his career at Cameron Indoor Stadium. He's averaging 11.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists through two games for the Wildcats.


KYLAN KONTINUES
After finishing the 2022-23 season on a tear from the 3-point line, Kylan Boswell picked right up where he left off in Arizona's season opener. He finished with a career-high 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting and also added five rebounds and two steals against Morgan State. His line at No. 2 Duke was equally impressive, tying for game-high honors with eight rebounds and five assists to go with his 12 points and just one turnover.

Over the final six games of the 2022-23 regular season and first two games to start this season, Boswell has shot 28 of 40 (.700) from the floor and 17 of 27 (.630) from the 3-point line. Those six opponents last year included road games at USC and UCLA, three games in the Pac-12 Tournament and one in the NCAA Tournament.

Boswell also spent time over the summer playing for the USA Basketball U19 team at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. He was a starter for five of the seven games and averaged 6.4 points and 2.3 assists as Team USA went 5-2 at the event.