The 2024-25 men’s college basketball season has not gone according to plan for Arizona Wildcats.
They entered the campaign with some high expectations. Many considered them among the legitimate championship contenders given how much talent the roster was loaded with.
The Wildcats were successful in filling gaps in the transfer portal, coming away with Oakland Golden Grizzlies star Trey Townsend, Tennessee Volunteers big man Tobe Awaka and Campbell Fighting Camels sharpshooter Anthony Dell’Orso.
Highly touted high school product Carter Bryant, who has NBA lottery potential, was also added to the mix.
The cherry on top was guard Caleb Love, the 2023-24 Pac-12 Player of the Year, deciding to return to Tuscon to exhaust his college eligibility and forgo the NBA draft.
Alas, Tommy Lloyd has not yet ironed out some of the kinks with his team, still seeking the right combination of players to produce on the court. With a 6-5 record, they have been selected as one of the losers in the early going by Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report.
And it is hard to argue against that assessment.
They entered the season as the No. 10 ranked team in the country and reached as high as nine. While they have handled business against all of the lower-echelon teams on their schedule, they have struggled mightily against stronger opponents.
Arizona is currently 0fer on the season against Quad 1 opponents, losing to the Wisconsin Badgers, Duke Blue Devils, Oklahoma Sooners, West Virginia Mountaineers and UCLA Bruins.
Putting together a complete game against strong competition has been a struggle. One night their offense is clicking but they cannot get stops. On another night the defense is stingy and the offense goes ice cold.
If there is one positive to take away from this start, it is that they are still held in high regard by metrics that are used to determine the NCAA tournament field.
“The good news for all the #BearDown fans in the audience is that the predictive metrics still adore the Wildcats. They’re 26th in the NET, 24th on KenPom, 14th on Torvik and seventh in BPI. Couple that with the fact that they have suffered no remotely bad losses and they could skyrocket comfortably back into the at-large mix with just a few quality wins,” Miller wrote.
While they don’t have catastrophic losses, they need to start picking up quality wins to bolster their resume. There will be ample opportunities to do that in the Big 12, which is loaded with championship-caliber teams.
Of course, that is a double-edged sword for Lloyd’s group.
It is nice to have a chance to play against tough competition all season, preparing them for late-season challenges. But, they haven’t shown capable of getting over that hump, which could lead to a very disappointing winter.
