Arizona has completed an amended contract with NAU in which the Lumberjacks will be the Wildcats' season-opening opponent on Nov. 25 at McKale Center.
NAU signed a three-year agreement in October 2019 to become UA's first opponent in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2023-24 but this season's game was pushed back from Nov. 10 to Nov. 25 to comply with the NCAA's mandate for teams to begin no earlier than Nov. 25.
UA and NAU agreed to move the date last month to Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, and the contract was finalized this week, UA basketball operations director Ryan Reynolds said. UA also has finalized nonconference games set against Grambling (Nov. 27) and Sam Houston State (Nov. 29).
Of UA's other four nonconference games, a Dec. 5 date with Northern Colorado has been agreed on but not yet fully contracted while previously scheduled dates with Bakersfield (Dec. 9), Cal Baptist (Dec. 16) and Montana (Dec. 22) have not changed.
Arizona was put at No. 38, fifth-highest in the Pac-12, in Kenpom's preseason rankings.Β
Kenpom put Oregon (21) as its highest-ranked Pac-12 team, followed by UCLA (28), Stanford (32) and ASU (36). After UA, Kenpom had USC fifth at 48, Utah at 52, Colorado 61, Washington 75, Oregon State 110, Cal 119 and WSU 136.
The Wildcats' updated roster includes heights and weights as of Nov. 1, and a few guys made big strength gains since the last roster was posted in September off measurements from when players reported to school in August.
Jordan Brown (to 235) and walk-on Grant Weitman (to 205) both were listed with 25-pound weight gains -- though Brown's gain is actually more of a reflection of what he's done since he arrived, since his September weight was not fully updated -- while Kerr Krissa went from 165 to 180 pounds on his 6-3 frame. Freshman Tautvilas Tubelis also gained 15 pounds, to 225 on a 6-7 frame.
Terrell Brown put on 10 pounds (to 185) while Daniel Batcho, Dalen Terry, Azuolas Tubelis, Ira Lee, and Christian Koloko all added five pounds each. Jemarl Baker was listed as losing five pounds, being now listed at 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds.
Most players "grew" an inch since their official weights now include shoes (and half-inch measurements are rounded up, too). Terrell Brown, 22, even "grew" from 6-1 to 6-3.
