Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd leads his focused team into the program’s 39th Men’s NCAA Tournament appearance, where they draw a first-round matchup Friday against Akron. (File photo by Hayden Cilley/Cronkite News)
PHOENIX – In their inaugural Big 12 season, the Arizona Wildcats showed they belong among the best in the conference. Now the Wildcats hope to show the nation they can be the best in the country.
Arizona’s men earned their 39th NCAA Tournament appearance and were rewarded the East Region’s No. 4 seed. The Wildcats will play their first game Friday against 13-seed Akron at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
The Wildcats finished the year with an overall record of 22-12, 14-6 in the Big 12, earning the conference tournament’s third seed. They advanced to Saturday’s championship, where they fell 72-64 to Houston, making a strong case to the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee, which made Houston a No. 1 seed.
Last year, Arizona went into the tournament as a No. 2 seed, ultimately falling to Clemson in the Sweet 16, 77-72. The Wildcats, who reached the Final Four four times and won the national championship in 1997, haven’t advanced to the Elite Eight since 2015.
“We moved them into the tournament fairly early,” said Bubba Cunningham, the director of athletics at the University of North Carolina who chairs the selection committee. “We scrubbed them against everyone else.
“They did have a great year. They were consistent most of the year. One of the better offenses in the country. I think they’re in a great spot, and I think they’ll have a great tournament.”
The Wildcats were led this season by veteran guard Caleb Love, who averaged 16.6 points, and Jaden Bradley, who averaged 11.8 points a game and led the team in assists (3.7) and steals (1.8).
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd aims for a deep run in a highly competitive East Region of the 2025 Men’s NCAA Tournament. (File photo by Bennett Silvyn/Cronkite News)
Now the team’s focus shifts to Friday. The Zips finished with a 28-6 record, including a 17-1 mark in the Mid-American Conference. Akron, which has never won an NCAA Tournament game, went undefeated at home and beat Miami (Ohio) in the conference tournament finale.
“We’re one hundred percent focused on Akron,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. “No one knows that more than us.”
Akron coach John Groce has led the Zips to back-to-back conference titles behind guard Nate Johnson, who averaged 14 points and five rebounds this season and led the team with 1.8 steals a game.
“It’s no different than the MAC tournament,” Groce said. “I think it’s (one) third, you have to play well and be talented. I think it’s a third preparation and I think it’s a third luck and fortune. That’s a third of it. You got to have a guy miss a shot.”
The East Region is stacked with incredible talent from top to bottom, with No. 1-seeded Duke, No. 2 Alabama, Oregon, Wisconsin and BYU among the teams competing for the region’s crown and a trip to the Final Four.
This year’s tournament has a record 14 SEC teams, including three in the East.
“The SEC has really come on strong this year, this year in particular,” Cunningham said. “They won 88 percent of their non-conference games. They were hard to play against. They beat almost every league they played against. It was unique … it’s certainly something that we’re taking a look at.
“The conferences are expanding. The bigger conferences are a bigger challenge for us now, as well. So hats off to the SEC for having such an outstanding year.”