Racing through their second straight undefeated November under Tommy Lloyd back in 2022, the Arizona Wildcats took home the prestigious Maui Invitational trophy, spent Thanksgiving day snorkeling in the Pacific, then returned to the mainland to watch themselves elevate into the No. 4 national ranking.
Then, after a full week off, they went to Salt Lake City. To play a game against a Utah team that had lost twice already, including a home date with Sam Houston State.
Final score: Utah 81, Arizona 66.
It wasn’t even close. The Wildcats shot 35.2%, hitting just 4 of 28 3-pointers, and trailed from start to finish.
“We didn’t have a great approach,” Lloyd said after that game. “Whether it’s the guys being intoxicated off their success or listening to the things people are saying about them, I don’t know, but we’re definitely going to address it.”
Things were barely better, and much more exhausting, for the Wildcats when they visited Utah’s Jon Huntsman Center the next season. They needed three overtime periods to put away a Utah team that became just 9-11 in the Pac-12 that season.
Utah players celebrate a victory over Arizona in an NCAA game Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, in Salt Lake City.
In that one, Arizona kicked away a 16-point lead early in the second half and outlasted Utah only in the third overtime when Caleb Love hit a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 99-93 lead during a stretch when they kept the Utes scoreless for over three-and-a-half minutes.
Also, while Lloyd’s 33-win first Arizona team beat the Utes by 20 in 2021-22, it also might be noted that Lloyd’s predecessor, Sean Miller, lost his final two games at the Huntsman — and needed overtime for his Elite Eight team in 2013-14 to beat Utah there.
So, for all the talk about the rough Big 12 venues the Wildcats faced in their inaugural year in the conference — Kansas, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State and Texas Tech, etc. — there’s another one that came with them from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 last season.
The Big 12 didn't schedule Arizona to play at the Huntsman Center last season, but this time has it opening league play at Utah. Lloyd didn’t blink when asked about all that history, even if the Utes don’t appear to pose that significant of a threat this time under first-year coach Alex Jensen.
“It's got my full attention,” Lloyd said. "Utah's a Big 12 team. They've got a great basketball tradition there. They've got a new head coach who I'm sure is trying to figure this college basketball thing out, and I'm sure he's learning fast. So we expect Saturday to be a knock-down, drag-out game.
A piece of trivia that might be worth noting here: Jensen is the same guy who, while playing for Rick Majerus at Utah during the 1997-98 season, pulled down a double-double during the Utes’ shocking upset of Arizona’s defending national champions in the NCAA Elite Eight.
But that game was played in Anaheim, Calif., a long time ago. And Jensen is now trying to rebuild a program that has long lost its mojo on the national scene, having reached only four NCAA tournaments since Majerus left Utah permanently over two decades ago.
“When I finished playing 25 years ago, I know we were in the top 10 of all-time winning programs, which is a pretty impressive list,” Jensen told the Star and Blue Ribbon Yearbook last summer.
Utah Jazz acting head coach Alex Jensen, who is now the head coach at the University of Utah, looks on in the first half during an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets on Feb. 2, 2022, in Salt Lake City.
“There’s still a lot of people that remember the days when I played. We’re trying to bring back a little bit of it,” he said.
That hasn’t really happened yet. Jensen inherited zero starters other than forward Keanu Dawes, who started the last two games last season, and the Utes have averaged just 6,192 fans at the Huntsman Center so far this season.
They have lost five of their past eight games, including a Nov. 20 date with Cal Poly at home, though they blew out Eastern Washington at home on Dec. 20 and held their own in a 74-65 loss at Washington on Monday.
“I don't think the numbers reflect who they are,” said UA assistant coach Ken Nakagawa, who has watched the Utes all season as the Wildcats’ game scout. “They're playing really well right now.”
But their improvement has drawn only more challenges to a team that lacks significant depth and high-major experience. Washington limited Utah guard Don McHenry to 3-for-12 shooting and kept him scoreless in the second half, while leading scorer Terrence Brown had just four of his 21 points after halftime.
Both Utah guards are transfers from lower-level programs.
“We’ve been telling T.B. and Don as the schedule goes on and we play better teams, especially when you get into conference, guys are going to really make a concerted effort to stop you from scoring,” Jensen said on his postgame radio show Monday in Washington.
Jensen said Washington has an interior that isn’t going to make it easy on drives to the basket, as, of course, does Arizona.
“They're the No. 1 team for a reason,” Jensen said. “They're big and strong, and they’re kind of a better version, I think, of what we saw (at Washington).”
Also, maybe unlike they did early in that 2022-23 season, the Wildcats this year so far have shown a steady maturity to their approach so far in building a 13-0 record, with five wins over ranked teams.
So, even while they don’t need to have the same sense of urgency they had a year ago, when they entered the Big 12 at just 6-5, the Wildcats might have it anyway.
Arizona Wildcats forward Ivan Kharchenkov yells out after making a basket and a foul called against South Dakota State in the second half during a game at McKale Center on Dec. 29, 2025. Arizona won 99-71.
“It’s our second year in the Big 12 and we definitely need to go in and prove (ourselves) and earn our respect,” Bradley said. “It's a very physical league … so just it’s going in there, being a tougher team and try to win the Big 12 for the first time in Arizona history.”
