Arizona has reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament 21 times, tied for ninth-most of any Division I program. It it one of seven schools to get to the second weekend of March Madness in at least three of the last four seasons.
But that’s as far as the journey has gone for the Wildcats over the past decade. The last trip to the Elite Eight was in 2015—the longest drought for the program since the 12 years between its first (1976) and second (1988) Elite Eights—and the UA’s last of four Final Four appearances came in 2001.
Getting to the Sweet 16 remains a notable accomplishment, though the average UA fan will be quick to tell you otherwise since they’ve been chasing that Final Four dragon for almost a quarter century. And back in November and December just making the NCAA tourney felt like a stretch when the Wildcats sat at 4-5.
“For us to hang in there and give ourselves a chance to make a run in the NCAA Tournament really says something about the character of these guys that we had in the locker room, and honestly the character of our coaching staff,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said after Thursday’s Sweet 16 loss to No. 1 Duke. “When you’re at a place like Arizona and you hit some rough waters, it can be tough. But we persevered, and we’re better for it and our program is better for it.”
The 2024-25 season marked a transition for one of the top college basketball programs in the country, moving from the Pac-12 after 40-plus years into the Big 12. Arizona was picked to finish fifth in its new league but ended up tied for third, then reached the conference tournament final, and earned a No. 4 seed despite 12 losses.
It was the first time Arizona had earned a No. 4 seed or better in a fourth straight NCAA tourney since Lute Olson did so eight years in a row from 1996-2003.
Lloyd has won 112 games in his first four seasons as a head coach, second-most in NCAA history. What’s in store for his fifth year in charge? He’s a breakdown of what’s to come in Wildcat Nation:
The departures (certain and possible)
Caleb Love and Trey Townsend played their final college games on Thursday, one going out with a bang and the other a whimper. Love scored 35 points, most by a UA player in NCAA Tournament history, including 15 straight at one point to help cut a 19-point deficit down to two scores, while Townsend had five points in 19 minutes but didn’t score in the second half.
Love played the second-most minutes in NCAA history, and in his two seasons with Arizona scored nearly 1,300 points. His 60-foot shot against Iowa State to force overtime will go down as one of the greatest moments at McKale Center, and despite some very bad games along the way he’ll be inducted into the UA Ring of Honor in short time thanks to his Pac-12 Player of the Year award from 2023-24.
He and Townsend, who started 30 of 37 games and averaged 8.2 points, are the only certain departures. But they are unlikely to be the only ones.
Freshman Carter Bryant didn’t have the kind of season that screams one-and-done NBA player, averaging 6.5 points and 4.1 rebounds in 19.3 minutes per game, but he’s on most mock drafts as a first round pick. He’ll most certainly put his name into the draft and if his camp gets the feedback it’s looking for he’ll be gone.
Guards Jaden Bradley and KJ Lewis both went through the draft process last year and could do so again, though neither is likely to stay in. Retaining Bradley is a priority for Arizona, which could probably offer him more to stay than he’d earn as an undrafted free agent, while Lewis’ versatility remains very valuable to the Wildcats.
The wild card is Henri Veesaar, who outside of Bryant is the best pro prospect on the roster. The injury to Motiejus Krivas opened the door for him to take on a much bigger role and he ran (and jumped) with it, averaging 9.4 points and 5.0 rebounds in just 20.8 minutes per game. Multiple opposing coaches referred to Veesaar as an NBA player in their postgame comments, as did ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, and it would make sense for the 7-foot Estonian to at the very least go through the draft process to get some feedback.
The returners
Unlike previous years under Lloyd there isn’t a surefire player on the roster who is likely to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Kylan Boswell’s departure a year ago felt certain, and it wasn’t surprising at all that Kerr Kriisa opted to go elsewhere after the 2022-23 season.
That means the Wildcats could be returning as many as eight players, nine if Bryant doesn’t turn pro, though a safer prediction would be six or seven. The lure of the portal can’t be ignored, and seeing someone like Lewis seek out a change of scenery wouldn’t be a complete shock.
Same goes for Tobe Awaka and Anthony Dell’Orso, both of whom started but with the incoming personnel might not want to risk getting squeezed out of playing time.
Arizona carried over six players from 2023-24, so next year could have the most continuity from one team to the next under Lloyd. There’s still a lot of scoring to replace from Love, but it shouldn’t be a major roster overhaul.
If everyone came back, Awaka, Bradley, Dell’Orso, Lewis and Veesaar would provide a nucleus of talent and experience to build around, while a healthy Krivas—who was limited to eight games in November and December before undergoing foot surgery—beefs up a frontcourt that also returns Emmanuel Stephen. Throw in Conrad Martinez and you have already have a solid to foundation to add to.
The additions
Arizona has one player signed for next season: 5-star prospect Dwayne Aristode, a 6-foot-8 forward who is ranked by 247Sports as the No. 24 player in the 2025 recruiting class, and two more committed that can sign in April.
The big fish just got hauled in out of the recruiting sea on Thursday. Five-star forward Koa Peat, the No. 8 player in the country and the highest-ranked recruit of the Lloyd era, committed to Arizona over ASU, Baylor, Houston and Texas Tech.
There’s also guard Bryce James, a 3-star prospect who is best known for being the youngest son of NBA star LeBron James.
— No Context Arizona Wildcats (@ContextFreeAZ) March 28, 2025
Of the three, Peat is the one that figures to make the biggest impact—he’s a projected lottery pick in 2026—and at a minimum would slide into Bryant’s spot in the rotation assuming he turns pro. Lloyd has shown he likes to bring his freshmen along slowly, but this could be the first one he ends up starting from the outset.
Arizona is still in the running for another 5-star recruit, guard Brayden Burries, who is ranked No. 11 by 247Sports. Burries was at the Prudential Center in Newark for the Sweet 16 and is deciding between the Wildcats, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and UCLA.
The UA will undoubtedly add a player or two from the portal, especially with the new roster limits for college basketball. Instead of 13 scholarship players and unlimited walk-ons (Arizona had nine this season) there’s a hard cap of 15 and everyone can be on at least a partial scholarship.
Lloyd only used 11 scholarships in 2024-25, and while he may keep one or two of the walk-ons and provide some aid the odds are he will seek depth—backup point guard, anyone?—from the portal that could lead to the rotation getting to 10 or more next season.
The schedule
The Big 12 Conference is expected to reduce its league slate from 20 to 18 games, a byproduct of the 2024-25 calendar. With one less week between Christmas and the end of the regular season, it would require playing conference games in mid-December or cramming three into a week here and there in January or February.
If this goes through it would mean Arizona has 13 nonconference games to play, up from 11, allowing it to continue to schedule tough matchups while also satisfying the athletic department budget’s need to play at least 18 games (including exhibitions) at McKale Center.
Arizona isn’t expected to participate in a multi-team event next season but won’t be lacking in stiff competition. Already confirmed are games against Auburn (Dec. 6) and Alabama (Dec. 13 in Birmingham), as well as a matchup with UCLA in Las Vegas. A home-and-home series with UConn is reportedly in the works, too.
The other nine would be mostly home games against mid- or low-major teams, but another neutral site game or two is also possible. In 2023-24, when the UA didn’t play an MTE, it played games in Palm Springs (Michigan State), Indianapolis (Purdue), Phoenix (Alabama) and Vegas (Florida Atlantic) in addition to the home-and-homes with Duke and Wisconsin that ended this season.
Lloyd has publicly expressed his desire to play a game in Phoenix every year, so expect this to happen again.
As for the Big 12 schedule, a reduction to 18 games would mean facing only three opponents home and away. ASU will be one of them, while it would make sense geographically for the others to come from the likes of BYU, Colorado and Utah but it’s anyone’s guess how the league decides that.
Teams Arizona played only once in 2024-25 that are again one-off foes should be at the opposite venue from last season. That would mean Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma StAte and West Virginia making their Big 12 debuts at McKale Center while Arizona would be heading to Colorado, Houston, TCU, UCF and Utah.