The Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team is a Division I program for the University of Arizona. The team is located in Tuscon, Arizona and plays their home games at the McKale Center. The McKale Center has a capacity of 14,545 people and opened in 1973. The team plays in the Pacific 12 Conference. The team is currently coached by Sean Miller. In Miller’s tenure at Arizona, he has compiled a record of 187-79, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2011.
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The team played its first game in 1904, defeating the Morenci YMCA, and since that time, has gone on to be one of the preeminent programs in college basketball. In the 1930s, winning conference titles in 1932, 1933, and 1936 under coach Fred Enke. Under Enke, who coached from 1925 through 1961, the team racked up 509 wins, as well as three NIT appearances and the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance. After Enke, the team hit a period of mediocrity under Bruce Larson before hiring Fred Snowden, the second African-American coach in the NCAA. Snowden led the team to two NCAA Tournaments, including a trip to the Elite Eight. Arizona’s ascension to national powerhouse was under the reins of Lute Olson. Under Olson, the team made the NCAA tournament every year after his first season. Olson won the team’s first and only NCAA National Championship, as well as led the team to the Final Four four times. Olson finished with a record of 589-188, winning Pac-10 Coach of the Year seven times and two separate National Coach of the Year honors.
The team has featured four different National Player of the Year award winners, most recently Jason Gardner in 2003, as well as nine different Consensus All-Americans. Arizona, along with Duke and Kentucky, hold the highest number of players selected in the NBA Draft since 1988, and have featured 63 total players that have gone on to be drafted. They have also featured eleven lottery selections since 1988.
Arizona’s biggest rivalry game each season is with the Arizona State Sun Devils. The Wildcats other major rival is UCLA, after years of battling for dominance in the Pac-10 (now the Pac-12). Outside of their conference, the Wildcats have maintained rivalries with New Mexico and Texas Tech due to their past affiliation in the BIAA (Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association).
