MBB news: Arizona receives votes in preseason AP Top 25 Poll
Arizona will begin the 2021-2022 season outside the Associated Press Top 25, but the Wildcats are one of the teams outside the top group that received the most votes in Monday's release of the preseason poll. The Wildcats received 26 points to finish in the 29th spot on the list.
Michigan State, Indiana and USC are the three programs that received more points than UA among teams not listed in the top 25. UCLA will begin the season ranked No. 2 overall while Oregon is the other Pac-12 team on the list at No. 13.
Colorado received four points as the only other team from the conference represented on the list.
The Wildcats are in the first season under new head coach Tommy Lloyd, whose former team, Gonzaga, will enter the season as the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
Lloyd has retooled the Arizona roster this season adding several transfers including Gonzaga big man Oumar Ballo and Utah guard Pelle Larrson. Still, UA's success could largely depend on the continued development of its returning players, namely wing Benn Mathurin and power forward Azuolas Tubelis.
Both players were recently selected as members of the Pac-12's preseason all-conference teams.
The Wildcats will have their first opportunity to play against a different team as Lloyd's squad will face St. Mary's in a private scrimmage in Phoenix this weekend. After that, Arizona will host Eastern New Mexico in an exhibition Nov. 1 before officially opening its season Nov. 9 against Northern Arizona.
Between now and then Lloyd continues to focus on having his team prepared with plenty of work still being done to install elements of his system.
The UA head coach is looking forward to the opportunity to see his team face some adversity, however.
"I think we gotta get out and tested agains somebody else," he said Friday evening after hosting reporters for a practice. "Get a feeling what it's like to go back and forth for long stretches. ... To be honest, last week I created a little bit of adversity for the guys, and I wanted to see how we reacted when things got a little bit tougher.
"I was a little bit more critical, and that's part of the learning process. I want us to struggle before we compete against somebody else, because you don't want your first struggles to come under the lights."
The Wildcats were picked to finish in a tie with Oregon State for fourth in the Pac-12 preseason media poll last week behind UCLA, Oregon and USC.
> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona fans Inside McKale
> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel
> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattGOAZCATS, @THutch1995)
> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)
> LIKE us on Facebook
> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)