The Pac-12 on Thursday released weekend pairs for the 18-game portion of the season, announcing that Arizona will have the difficult task of opening the "traditional" portion of the conference season in Los Angeles over New Year's weekend.
Last season, UCLA reached the Final Four and USC reached the Elite Eight and both teams will have high expectations this season. The Bruins are expected to be a preseason top three pick.
The Wildcats, who will travel to ASU the first full week in January, will play their first home games of calendar 2022 against Colorado and Utah the weekend of Jan. 12-16.Β
Exact dates and times will not be released until at least next month, after television partners have chosen which games will fill their spots, but announcing the weekend pairs allow some planning for fans who expect to attend games.
Arizona's 2021-22 men's basketball schedule now looks like this:
Oct. 2 Red Blue Game 3 p.m.
Oct. TBD Closed scrimmage
Nov. 1 Eastern New Mexico (exhibition)
Nov. 9 NAU
Nov 12 Texas-Rio Grande Valley
Nov. 16 North Dakota State (Main Event)
Nov. 19 Wichita State at Las Vegas (Main Event), 8 p.m.
Nov. 21 Michigan or UNLV at Las Vegas (Main Event), TBD
Nov. 27 Sacramento State
Dec. 2 Washington*
Dec. 5 at Oregon State*
Dec. 8 Wyoming
Dec. 11 at Illinois
Dec. 15 Northern Colorado
Dec. 18 Cal Baptist
Dec. 22 at Tennessee
Dec. 29-Jan. 2 at USC/UCLA*
Jan. 5-9 at ASU*
Jan. 12-16 COLORADO/UTAH*
Jan. 19-23 at California/Stanford*
Jan. 26-Jan. 30 ASU*
Feb. 2-6 UCLA/USC*
Feb. 9-13 at Washington/Washington State*
Feb. 16-20 OREGON/OREGON STATE*
Feb. 23-27 at Colorado/Utah*
March 2-5 STANFORD/CALIFORNIA*
*Pac-12 games. Exact dates and times for final 18 Pac-12 games to be announced.