The season is still over four months away, but excitement for what comes next in Arizona’s journey to the Big 12 is building. The conference announced the 2024-25 season’s home and away pairings for men’s and women’s basketball on Thursday morning.
The women will play just 18 conference games. That’s not necessarily the preference of Arizona head coach Adia Barnes, who was a proponent of 20 conference games even in the Pac-12, but at least it’s familiar. With 16 teams, home-and-away games will be played against three opponents and either home or away against the other 12.
The Wildcats will play home and away against Arizona State, BYU, and Utah. The toughest of those opponents is fellow Pac-12 vagabond Utah. The Utes finished 23-11 last season including 11-7 in the Pac-12. They advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. However, Alissa Pili is now playing in the WNBA, so Utah has a big hole to fill to maintain its recent success.
Arizona will host Baylor, Cincinnati, Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech, and West Virginia. That group includes two teams that the Wildcats have interesting histories with. TCU features former Wildcat Madi Conner. While Arizona fans may be most interested in her, the bigger star on the Horned Frogs’ roster these days is Hailey Van Lith, who transferred for the second straight year this offseason.
West Virginia will also be an interesting matchup. The Wildcats dismissed the Mountaineers from the NCAA Tournament in the first round two years ago. The team still features prolific scorer JJ Quinerly and a strong defense.
Baylor and ISU should be strong competitors that test the Wildcats’ new interior depth. The Bears have former Wildcat Aaronette Vonleh, who transferred for the second time in three years this offseason. The Cyclones have star center Audi Crooks.
Arizona will visit UCF, Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State. The toughest of the group should be Kansas State, which will return 6-foot-6 center Ayoka Lee after she missed last year with an injury.
ESPN’s second “way too early top 25” list published on May 6 included five Big 12 teams: Baylor (9), Iowa State (10), Kansas State (14), West Virginia (16), and Utah (22). Arizona is on the list of four teams that were also considered.
