BERKELEY, Calif. – After a 13-game non-conference slate that saw the Wildcats win 11 games, Arizona begins the 18-game Pac-12 portion of its 2016-17 schedule on Friday night. UA's Pac-12 opener will be at California at 9 p.m. Friday before a Sunday evening trip to Stanford. The Wildcats and Golden Bears split their two games a year ago with Cal winning by one point in Berkeley and Arizona earning a three-point victory in McKale Center.

No. 18/18 Arizona at California
Friday, December 30 at 9:00 p.m. (MST)
TV: ESPN2 (Roxy Bernstein & Sean Farnham)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Stats: www.arizonalivestats.com
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 

• Arizona opens Pac-12 play with a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, starting first with the California Golden Bears. UA has not opened conference play in the bay since the 2008-09 season. The Wildcats are 6-1 in conference openers under head coach Sean Miller and 2-1 on the road in Pac-12 openers.
• The Wildcats closed out non-conference play with a convincing 77-46 win over long-time rival New Mexico on Tuesday, Dec. 20 in McKale Center as Arizona's non-conference record in the Sean Miller era (2009 to present) advanced to 88-17 (.838). UA was led by sophomore Chance Comanche who had the best game of his career with 14 points, eight rebounds on a perfect six-of-six shooting night. Comanche was supported by freshman Rawle Alkins who became the first Arizona guard since Nick Johnson in 2013-14 to record a double-double as Alkins tallied 13 points and 11 rebounds versus the Lobos.
• UA head coach Sean Miller enters the weekend in search of his 200^th win as the head coach of the Wildcats. Miller enters the 2016-17 Pac-12 season with a record of 199-63 (.759) as Arizona's head coach.
• Coach Sean Miller and the Wildcats will look for a win in Haas Pavilion in what has been an even series in Berkeley after dropping a one-point decision there last season. The two teams have primarily alternated wins each trip to the Bay Area. Since 2000, six of Arizona's eight losses in Berkeley have been by single digits.
• The Wildcats dunked their way to their 31-point victory over the New Mexico Lobos in their non-conference finale on Dec. 20. Arizona tallied seven dunks (five from Comanche alone) in that game after recording 33 total dunks in the 12 games prior (2.8 per game).
• The last time these two teams met was yet another ESPN Classic worthy game. Arizona earned a 64-61 victory following a trio of three-pointers from Gabe York in the final two and a half minutes, including a pair in the last 60 seconds of the game. York finished with 19 points as all of his scoring came in the second half of the games. The UA victory helped spur York to a Pac-12 Player of the Week award in the final week of the regular season as he averaged 25.5 points per game with a red-hot 60.7 shooting percentage from beyond the arc.