The long-awaited 2024-25 season's Big 12 conference schedule for the Arizona women's basketball team is finally here.
With 16 teams in the Big 12, the conference settled on an 18-game slate. Times of these games will be announced at a later date and most games will be played on the ESPN+ streaming service — though its likely a few (Sunday games seem most likely) will end up on traditional ESPN cable channels.
The Wildcats only play three teams home and away this season: Arizona State, Utah and BYU. UA will play six teams only at McKale Center: Baylor, Cincinnati, Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia. Arizona will see the remaining opponents — Colorado, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, UCF and Oklahoma State — on the road only.
While this is the first conference schedule for Arizona in the Big 12 after the UA joined the league in August, the differences go beyond just new teams to face. For one, teams like Arizona will also see a number of games on different days of the week than they, or their fans, are likely used to.
Arizona’s Jada Williams passes the ball as Colorado’s Tameiya Sadler defends during the second half of the teams’ matchup last season in Tucson. The No. 5 Buffaloes held off the Wildcats 75-74 in early January in the teams’ final Pac-12 season. They’ll square off again in 2024-25 as members of the Big 12.
Also, the Wildcats are rarely far from home for too long. In one such occasion, the Wildcats host Utah on Dec. 31 (a Tuesday) then they hit the road to play UCF on Saturday. But the UA is right back home the next Wednesday, hosting Baylor.
It's definitely a change from situations like the back-to-back road weekends in the Pacific Northwest against the Oregon and Washington schools during the Wildcats' final Pac-12 slate; it didn't help that those games came in the middle of a winter storm, leaving the Wildcats delayed in returning to Tucson after the games in the state of Oregon.
Gone are the seemingly-traditional Friday-Sunday matchups. For the upcoming season, Arizona plays games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each week the Wildcats have three days between games instead of playing again within 36-48 hours.
Arizona has what looks to be only a few weeks with consecutive games on the road. The Wildcats play Kansas State on Thursday, Jan. 16 and Kansas on Sunday, Jan. 19. The only other road series is a little quirky. The Wildcats' mountain trip crosses over into two weeks as they play Utah on Saturday, Jan. 31 and Colorado on the following Wednesday, Feb. 5.
UA tips off its Big 12 season at BYU on Dec. 21 and it concludes with the home part of the rivalry series in Tempe against ASU on March 1.
Arizona guard Jada Williams (2) and forward Esmery Martinez (12) defend Utah guard Ines Vieira (2) in the second half of the Wildcats’ 71-70 overtime victory over the Utes last season on Jan. 7 at McKale Center.
Arizona's 2024-25 women's basketball schedule
Oct. 25 | WEST TEXAS A&M (exh.) | McKale Center
Oct. 29 | CAL STATE LA (exh.) | McKale Center
Nov. 4 | UT-ARLINGTON | McKale Center
Nov. 7 | TARLETON ST. | McKale Center
Nov. 10 | at UC San Diego | San Diego
Nov. 12 | UNLV | McKale Center
Nov. 16 | at Chicago St. | Chicago
Nov. 20 | at NAU | Flagstaff
Nov. 23 | GRAMBLING ST. | McKale Center
Nov. 26 | Vanderbilt | Palm Desert | California
Nov. 27 | Cal or Michigan St. | Palm Desert | California
Dec. 2 | SEATTLE | McKale Center
Dec. 6 | GCU | McKale Center
Dec. 10 | CSU BAKERSFIELD | McKale Center
Dec. 16 | WEBER ST. | McKale Center
Dec. 21 | at BYU | Provo | Utah
Dec. 31 | UTAH | McKale Center
Jan. 4 | at UCF | Orlando | Florida
Jan. 8 | BAYLOR | McKale Center
Jan. 11 | IOWA ST. | McKale Center
Jan. 16 at Kansas St. | Manhattan | Kansas
Jan. 19 | at Kansas | Lawrence | Kansas
Jan. 22 | CINCINNATI | McKale Center
Jan. 25 | W. VIRGINIA | McKale Center
Jan. 31 | at Utah | Salt Lake City
Feb. 5 | at Colorado | Boulder | Colorado
Feb. 8 | ASU | McKale Center
Feb. 12 | at Oklahoma St. | Stillwater | Oklahoma
Feb. 16 | TCU | McKale Center
Feb. 19 | BYU | McKale Center
Feb. 22 | at Houston | Houston | Texas
Feb. 25 | at Texas Tech | Lubbock | Texas
March 1 | at ASU | Tempe
March 5-10 | Big 12 Tournament | Kansas City | Missouri
• All times TBA
• Bold, ALL CAPS = home game in Tucson
