The Arizona Wildcats nodded to the military, cancer-fighting efforts and their home state when introducing a series of seven new basketball uniforms Monday.
Apparel partner Nike updated UA’s traditional four uniform sets — red, blue, white with blue lettering and white with red lettering — while adding three specialty uniforms. It’s the program’s first uniform update since the beginning of the 2014-15 season.
One speciality uniform, called “State Pride,” is red with copper lettering and striping while another called “Desert Ops” is white with what appears to be sand color lettering.
There’s also a black jersey with pink lettering and striping entitled “Kay Yow,” in honor of the late former N.C. State women’s basketball coach and her foundation to fight women’s cancers.
The four standard uniforms also took on new looks:
• “Dawn”: White with red lettering and red stripes, plus thick gray horizontal stripes along the bottom of the shorts.
• “Desert Fog:” White with blue lettering and a white stripe that is faintly visible until meeting with gray stripes at the bottom of the shorts.
• “Sunset:” Red with dark blue lettering and white stripes. The red darkens toward the top and bottom of the uniforms.
• “Twilight:” Blue with red lettering and white stripes. The blue turns redder toward the top and bottoms of the uniforms.
All uniforms have the block “A” on one side of the shorts and the word “CATS” on the other. They also all feature V-cuts in the neckline and at the bottom of shorts, similar to those worn by USA Basketball at the Rio Olympics.
“Nike wanted to be more aggressive with a couple of their schools with their jerseys,” said Ryan Reynolds, UA’s director of basketball operations.
“I don’t know how they picked us but they picked us, and Nike’s always been great to us.”
Reynolds said Arizona has only been sent one of the white jerseys in so far, but said images of them have been well received.
“Our current players all really like them and we’ve shown them on recruiting visits and the recruits all really like them, too,” Reynolds said.
“That is as important as anything. I’m sure some people want us to have a more traditional look, and that’s why we have ‘CATS’ on the shorts, and the Block A is important because that’s what the university as a whole is going with in branding.”
It’s unknown when the speciality uniforms would be worn, Reynolds said, but UA usually allows its players to decide what colors to wear for games other than special occasions.
While the Wildcats will open the regular season against Michigan State on Nov. 11 in the Armed Forces Classic at Honolulu, Reynolds said a special uniform will be worn and not the “Desert Ops” set. The UA football team wore gray “U.S.S. Arizona” jerseys against Hawaii last month, and the basketball team may follow in similar fashion on Nov. 11.
Similarly, it’s unclear if the Kay Yow sets will be worn for the Coaches vs. Cancer week in late January; the Yow set is in a road blue color and UA is home that weekend, though dark colors can be worn at home as long as the Pac-12 office is notified in advance.
Reynolds said he didn’t know if UA would receive any more uniforms in time for Friday’s Red-Blue Game but the team is hoping to have at least one red set and one blue set. If not, it will probably wear reversible practice jerseys.
