Bethune-Cookman (3-8) at No. 1 Arizona (11-0) | McKale Center | 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | 1290-AM, 92.5-FM (Spanish)
Probable starters
ARIZONA
0 G Jaden Bradley (6-3 senior)
5 G Brayden Burries (6-4 freshman)
18 F Ivan Kharchenkov (6-7 freshman)
0 F Koa Peat (6-8 freshman)
13 C Motiejus Krivas (7-2 junior)
Key reserves
3 F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 senior)
30 F Tobe Awaka (6-8 senior)
2 F Dwayne Aristode (6-8 freshman)
BETHUNE COOKMAN
1 G Arterio Morris (6-4 junior)
2 G Rickey Mitchell (6-4 junior)
5 F Quentin Heady (6-6 junior)
0 F Jakobi Heady (6-6 senior)
23 C Daniel Rouzan (6-8 senior)
Key reserves
11 G Jordan Johnson (6-4 junior)
4 F Ariel Bland (6-7 senior)
25 G Tyler Andrews (6-6 senior)
After Arizona beat San Diego State 68-45 on Saturday at Mortgage Matchup Center in what was their third nonconference game played in Phoenix over the past three seasons, UA coach Tommy Lloyd continued to say he would like to play regularly in Phoenix. He also noted that people were "drinking beer out of their shoe."
How they match up
The series: Arizona beat Bethune-Cookman 78-45 at McKale Center in 2010-11, the only time UA has faced the Wildcats of Florida.
Game agreement: Arizona is contracted to pay $125,000 to promoter Game Inc., which says it entered into the agreement on behalf of Bethune-Cookman.
Bethune-Cookman overview: Former UNLV and NBA star Reggie Theus, who earlier coached New Mexico State and Cal State Northridge, is leading the Wildcats of Florida through a rough stretch so far this season. B-CU has played six teams in the Top 50 Kenpom ratings, and lost to all of them: Auburn, Miami (Fla.), Dayton, Indiana, Missouri and Saint Louis.
B-CU runs a below-average tempo and hasn’t been efficient on either side of the ball, just ranking 10th-to-last in two-point percentage shooting (43.9%). The Wildcats of Florida are an average 3-point shooting team (33.5%,) though they take them about as seldomly as Arizona does, just 29.8% of the time out of all their shots.
Defensively, the Wildcats of Florida will record a steal on 10.3% of opponents’ possessions, though teams are highly efficient shooters against them, at 57.1% from two-point range and 36.6% from 3.
Key players
BETHUNE-COOKMAN
Jakobi Heady
Arizona guard Addison Arnold (2) fights for a rebound with Central Michigan guard Jakobi Heady (0) and teammate Emmanuel Stephen (34) in the second half of their non-conference game in Tucson, Dec. 21, 2024.
After becoming a second-team SWAC pick in 2023-24 at Bethune-Cookman, and boomeranging back to the Florida school from Central Michigan this season, Heady will actually be returning to McKale Center for the second straight season. He averaged 15.5 points and 6.5 rebounds at Central Michigan last season but had just nine points on 2-of-12 shooting at McKale.
ARIZONA
Dwayne Aristode
Arizona guard Dwayne Aristode (2) shields the ball from San Diego State guard Reese Dixon-Waters during the second half Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Phoenix.
UA’s eighth man scored only four points against San Diego State but had four offensive rebounds and two assists while hitting a 3-pointer without committing a foul in 15 minutes. He's likely to get more opportunities in the Wildcats' final two nonconference home games to prepare for Big 12 play.
Sidelines
Long time coming
During his fifth season associated with the Arizona men's basketball program, Addison Arnold’s career is taking off.
Literally.
First, Arnold dunked over former NFL star Rob Gronkowski during the Red-Blue Showcase in October. Then he established himself as the first walk-on off the Wildcats’ bench, playing in seven of their first 10 games.
Leading up to Arizona's game Saturday, Arnold was given a scholarship from UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, as shown in a video of a team meeting UA posted to social media on Friday.
“There’s only one guy in your chairs who has been with us since Day 1,” Murphy said. “Addison Arnold gives it up for you guys each and every day. This dude has had each of our backs.”
Teammates then mobbed Arnold, who addressed them later, saying “I've been working for this for a long time so it’s pretty cool to see it come to fruition but I couldn’t do it without you guys.”
The son of former Hawaii coach Gib Arnold, Addison Arnold redshirted in 2021-22, then went on a Latter-day Saints mission to Argentina during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons before returning to play in 11 games last season.
Arnold is still just a redshirt sophomore, meaning he could play two more years with the Wildcats, though UA coach Tommy Lloyd said they haven’t discussed anything past this season.
“I mean, I hope so. We love having Addison as part of our program,” Lloyd said after UA beat San Diego State on Saturday. “To be honest with you, that was the motivation speech at halftime. I told the guys, 'If we don't win this game, he's back off scholarship, so bring it home.'"
Hometown stopover
Chandler’s Koa Peat made the first of two scheduled stops in his home area on Saturday, when UA beat San Diego State in downtown Phoenix.
But probably more so than he will during UA’s Jan. 31 game at ASU, Peat had reason to feel especially at home. The Suns' home hosted an overwhelmingly pro-UA crowd.
“It felt great when they announced my name starting lineup. Got goose bumps with the crowd, the cheering and all that,” Peat said. “It’s great to come back to Phoenix and come out victorious like that, and just to see the U of A fans in the stands like that, them cheering us on, getting us hype. It was really cool to see them.”
Calm before storm
Before Arizona beat San Diego State 68-45 on Saturday, Stanford held off Colorado 77-68 in a matchup of former Pac-12 teams to improve to 10-2.
Not surprisingly, the game was the first one the Cardinal has played outside of California during the nonconference season. Because its conference is the Atlantic Coast Conference, Stanford predictably went just 1-8 away from home last season.
“We don't want to travel a lot in the fall for obvious reasons, and we're still kind of an emerging group of young guys,” Stanford coach Kyle Smith said. Last year, “we had the really hard draw on the road — Louisville, Clemson, Duke, Carolina — it was a little bit of a gauntlet on the road. But I just think we'll all be a little more adjusted to it, and hopefully we'll be able to find a way to get some wins on the road.”
Numbers game
0.52: Average rebounds Tobe Awaka collects for every minute he’s on the floor.
3: Coaching challenges Lloyd has won in three tries so far this season, after challenging an out-of-bounds call against Awaka in the second half that was reversed after replays indicated the ball did not touch Awaka.
6: Straight games Arizona has won by 20 or more points, the first time the Wildcats have done that since 1942-43.
— Bruce Pascoe
