Arizona Basketball Talk: Previewing UA’s Non-Conference Schedule This Season
In this story:
Welcome! To another edition of the Arizona Wildcats Insiders Podcast featuring your host Troy Hutchison, who will be delivering a daily podcast discussing everything happening surrounding Arizona athletics giving you an inside look at all the programs on campus.
Hutchison has been covering Arizona for the last seven years with his coverage spanning all-across UA’s campus from football and men’s basketball to Title IX sports. Plus, with so many former Wildcats playing at the next level in their prospective sports there will be moments where he will take a deep dive into the Cats excelling outside of Tucson.
Since taking over Arizona, head coach Tommy Lloyd has been one of the most successful up-and-coming coaches in college basketball going 112-33 over the course of the last four seasons making the NCAA Tournament each season and leading the program to three Sweet Sixteen appearances.
This past season, Lloyd and his program entered a new era of Arizona basketball with the Wildcats leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big 12 Conference. In UA’s first season in a new conference, the team went 24-13 while finishing third in the conference standings.
In the Big 12 Tournament, the Wildcats made it to the conference title game and fell 72-64 to Houston, which would go on to play for the National Title.
Following the end of the season, Arizona lost star guard Caleb Love to graduation and forward Carter Bryant to the NBA Draft, where he went No. 14 overall to the San Antonio Spurs.
Plus, Arizona saw two key players in KJ Lewis and Henri Veesaar leave the program and transfer to Power 4 programs.
Despite that, Arizona will be fully loaded again with four key returners in Jaden Badley, Tobe Awaka, Anthony Dell’Orso and Motiejus Krivas. Plus, Lloyd and his staff signed the No. 2 recruiting class, according to 24/7 Sports.
We are inching closer to the start of the college basketball season, with Arizona tipping off its schedule against defending national champions in the Florida Gators, in Las Vegas 48 days from now.
As we get closer to the start of the year, we will see multiple rankings released, watch lists for players heading into the season and experts giving their preseason predictions as to who will be dancing in March.
One poll that has been released is the Top 25 rankings from Field of 68, which has the Wildcats at No. 17 to begin the year.
The Big 12 is regarded as one of the top conferences in college hoops and the latest rankings show that with six teams from the conference making the rankings.
2025-26 𝙉𝙤𝙣-𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 Schedule 🐻⬇️ pic.twitter.com/AxgwcGR4G6
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) September 18, 2025
Right now, the rankings have the six teams ranked as No. 2 Houston, No. 9 Texas Tech, No. 11 BYU, No. 16 Kansas, No. 17 Arizona and No. 18 Iowa State, rounding out the list.
Arizona and Lloyd have set up one of the toughest non-conference slates of games in the country, with the Wildcats facing No. 3 Florida, No. 4 UConn, No. 13 UCLA, No. 14 Alabama and No. 15 Auburn all finding a spot in the rankings.
Now, the Wildcats have released their full non-conference schedule for the 2025-26 season, which features eight home games with Auburn headlining the McKale Center slate of games.
Above, we have listed the teams the Wildcats will play that will be in the AP Poll Top 25 when the preseason poll gets released.
There is a ninth game in the state of Arizona, with the Wildcats taking on San Diego State in Phoenix in a neutral-site game.
Please be sure to share your thoughts on Arizona’s non-conference schedule and tell us who you are excited to see UA play. To do so, follow us on our X account by clicking on the link.
Troy Hutchison grew up attending Arizona athletic events, which gave him a unique perspective and knowledge of the athletic department's rich history. He attended UA and began covering the Wildcats in 2018. As the Arizona Wildcats Beat Writer on SI, he is set to deliver wall-to-wall coverage to give fans an in-depth perspective.
Follow THutch1995