Moments after he was formally introduced as Arizona’s new coach last month, Tommy Lloyd began backing away from a scheduled road trip to Gonzaga early next season.
“Obviously,” the longtime former Zags assistant coach said, “that would be a really emotional deal.”
But Lloyd wasn’t shying away from the competition itself. So on Monday, Arizona confirmed that it will instead essentially replace Gonzaga with a road game at Tennessee on Dec. 22 next season, the first in a two-year series that will also have the Volunteers visiting McKale Center on Dec. 17, 2022.
TJ Benson, who now handles scheduling as Arizona’s special assistant to the head coach and recruiting coordinator, said UA and Tennessee have agreed to the series although it is not yet under contract.
Meanwhile, Benson said the Gonzaga game will be bumped ahead for a second time, probably to 2024-25. It is return game of a two-year "home-and-home" series that brought the Zags to McKale Center in 2019-20, having been first scheduled to be played at Gonzaga in December last season but then moved to next season by mutual agreement because of the pandemic.
Until Sean Miller was fired on April 7, the Wildcats and Zags were expected to play in Spokane on Nov. 12 or 13 next season, while Arizona left open a spot for a home guarantee game (a one-time game likely against a mid- or low-major opponent who is paid a fixed fee) before Christmas. Now, the Wildcats will play at Tennessee in that spot, and move the guarantee game to Nov. 11 or 12.
Benson said the Tennessee series came together quickly thanks in part to a connection between Lloyd and Volunteers coach Rick Barnes.
“They’ve kind of had a long-standing relationship, and probably a couple of weeks ago we got into conversations,” Benson said. “With us pushing the Gonzaga game back to a later date, it made a lot of sense to get the series started this season.”
Tennessee is expected to be nationally ranked entering next season, returning four players with at least double-digit starts from a team that finished 19-8 and picked up a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, before being upset by Oregon State in the first round.
Playing Tennessee at Knoxville also means the Wildcats will have to play both of their marquee nonconference series on the road next season while taking three trips overall in December before Christmas.
After playing in the Main Event at Las Vegas before Thanksgiving, Arizona will travel the first week of December for a Pac-12 game to be named, then play at Illinois on Dec. 11 and at Tennessee on the 22nd.
The Illinois game is also part of a home-and-home series; the Illini visited McKale in 2019-20 but the return game last season in Champaign was postponed to 2021-22.
In the future, Benson said Arizona will try to arrange its home-and-home nonconference series so that one is played on the road and one is played at home each season.
Arizona’s 2021-22 nonconference schedule, which is now complete except for the Nov. 11 or 12 home game, also includes three one-time opponents who were rolled over from last season: Wyoming (Dec. 8), Northern Colorado (Dec. 15) and Cal Baptist (Dec. 18).
The Wyoming game was moved to next season when it could not be played on its originally scheduled Nov. 20 date because of the NCAA’s delayed start while both Northern Colorado and Cal Baptist ran into COVID issues that prevented their games at McKale last season.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats also added home games next season with North Dakota State (Nov. 16) and Sacramento State (Nov. 27).
The North Dakota State game is an add-on to the MGM Main Event, a two-game bracketed event in Las Vegas on Nov. 19 and 21 in which UA will join UNLV, Michigan and Wichita State. The bracket has not yet been announced.
Rim shots
- New UA commit Pelle Larsson may not arrive in Tucson anytime soon. His father, Christian, said via direct message that Pelle is aiming to play for Sweden in the FIBA U20 European Championships in July if the event is played or with the Swedish national team in August.
- Five-star 2021 guard TyTy Washington told Rivals around the Iverson Classic event last weekend that Lloyd has shown him video from Gonzaga “and how he wants to use me in that offense. He likes to let his offense flow — a lot like a European offense,” Washington said, adding that he has also built relationships with UA assistants Jack Murphy and Jason Terry. Washington says he will announce his choice Saturday between UA, Kentucky, LSU, Kansas, Oregon and Baylor.
