Big 12 Basketball: Ranking all 16 programs after adding Arizona, ASU, Colorado and Utah
By Joey Loose
4. Arizona
Arizona has spent most of the last four decades as an NCAA Tournament contender and a very solid program, though all of that time came in the Pac-12. Former head coach Lute Olson won a national championship in 1997, but the program hasn’t sniffed the Final Four since 2001 despite being in great position on a regular basis. That was then, and this is now.
Current head coach Tommy Lloyd has already had a fantastic impact on the Wildcats in his first two seasons, leading them to 61 wins and a pair of Tournament bids, earning a 1-seed in 2022 and a 2-seed last season. While the Wildcats were upset in the Big Dance both times, Lloyd led Arizona to a pair of Pac-12 Tournament titles and reestablished the program as a national contender after a few mediocre seasons.
That’s exactly what the Big 12 is getting from their raid of the Pac-12’s collapse: a national contender. This isn’t even just about Lloyd, who has already proven to be extremely fantastic with the program. Arizona isn’t a Blue Blood program but would certainly fall into the next level of programs with long-term success in basketball. It’s a program that’s been dominant at times in the Pac-12 and has won a fair number of games against the Big 12’s members both new and old.
The hesitation is of course that lack of success in the Big Dance in recent years. After all, Lloyd’s squad was upset by 15-seed Princeton just six months ago. Transitioning to a new conference is never easy, and it’ll be interesting to see how Arizona deals with a much tougher conference schedule. It’s not as drastic a jump as a program like BYU or Cincinnati will endure, but the Wildcats (who are 32-8 in the Pac-12 under Lloyd) won’t be winning that many games in Big 12 play.