TUCSON - The 12th ranked Arizona men's basketball team opens the 2023-24 season by hosting Morgan State on Monday inside the McKale Center. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised on Pac-12 Network with Jordan Kent and Matt Muehlebach on the call. The Wildcats defeated Lewis-Clark State, 110-70, back on Oct. 20 in an exhibition game and took down New Mexico Highlands, 94-65, in another exhibition contest.
STARTING FIVE
1) The 2023-24 season marks the 119th year of men's basketball for the University of Arizona, and the Wildcats have an all-time record of 1,862-977.
2) Entering this season, Arizona's 1,862 all-time wins rank 19th among all schools in NCAA history while the .656 winning percentage is 10th in NCAA history.
3) Arizona has won each of its last 16 season openers. The last time UA lost a season opener was 2006 at Virginia.
4) The Wildcats have one 22 straight season openers in McKale since a 86-80 loss to Arkansas to open the 1992-93 season.
5) Redshirt senior Oumar Ballo was named a preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Magazine and Jon Rothstein at College Hoops Today.
NOTING THE WILDCATS
- Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is in his third season leading the Wildcats and has a record of 61-11. He set the all-time NCAA record for most wins by a coach in his first two seasons and is the only Power 5 head coach to ever win his conference tournament in each of his first two seasons.
- In the preseason poll released by the Associated Press on Oct. 16, Arizona checked in at No. 12, and they are No. 11 in the Coaches Top 25 poll. The Wildcats are the highest ranked of the two Pac-12 teams included in the AP poll, ahead of USC at No. 21.
- The 2023-24 non-conference schedule ranks as one of the most challenging the in country, with five games against teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25 poll. The only other team in the nation to have that many games vs. Top 25 teams is Gonzaga. The gauntlet includes:
- No. 2 Duke (road)
- No. 3 Purdue (neutral)
- No. 4 Michigan State (neutral)
- No. 10 Florida Atlantic (neutral)
- No. 24 Alabama (neutral)
- (rv) Wisconsin (home)
- The preseason All Pac-12 teams featured four Wildcats: senior Oumar Ballo (first team), senior Caleb Love (second), sophomore Kylan Boswell (second) and senior Pelle Larson (honorable mention).
- Ballo was named to the preseason watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, Love is on the preseason list for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award and Keshad Johnson is on the preseason list for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award.
- The Wildcats return 42% of the minutes played from the 2022-23 season and 41% of the scoring from last year's squad.
- Offensively, UA has just 26% of the 3-pointers made and 27% of the 3-pointers attempted a season ago back on the roster this year.
- Arizona has six returning scholarship players and seven new players - three transfers and four freshmen - on the 2023-24 team.
- Redshirt senior Oumar Ballo was named a preseason All-American by Blue Ribbon Magazine and College Hoops Today. Blue Ribbon along with ESPN.com also named him the preseason favorite to earn Pac-12 Player of the Year.
- Back in August, Arizona got a jump on the 2023-24 season by taking a Summer Tour to Israel and Abu Dhabi for 10 days. The travel party was able to visit countless historic landmarks in both countries and play three exhibition games as part of the trip. It was the first international trip for Arizona since a 2017 trip to Spain.
TOP 100
Oumar Ballo checked in at No. 13 on CBS Sports list of the top 100 men's college basketball players entering the 2023-24 season. Caleb Love was No. 66 on the list.
LLOYD LOVES IT
Head coach Tommy Lloyd's record of 61-11 through his first two seasons as head coach are an NCAA record. The NCAA record for most wins through three seasons is 89 wins by Brad Underwood and Brad Stevens.
EXHIBITION EFFICIENCY
Through the two public exhibition games, Caleb Love and Keshad Johnson have shown remarkable efficiency.
Love shot 68% from the floor and 50% from the 3-point line while averaging a team-best 21 points. He also averaged 5.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds.
Johnson shot 67% from the floor to go with 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists over the two games.
KYLAN KONTINUES
After finishing the 2022-23 season on a tear from the 3-point line, Kylan Boswell picked right up where he left off in Arizona's first exhibition game. he was 3 of 5 from long distance and 5 of 7 overall from the floor for 15 points. In the second exhibition game, Boswell was 3 of 4 from the floor and 2 of 3 from long range.
Over the final six games of the 2022-23 regular season, Boswell shot 17 of 23 (.739) from the floor and 11 of 17 (.647) from the 3-point line. Those six opponents included road games at USC and UCLA, three games in the Pac-12 Tournament and one in the NCAA Tournament.
Boswell also spent time over the summer playing for the USA Basketball U19 team at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. He was a starter for five of the seven games and averaged 6.4 points and 2.3 assists as Team USA went 5-2 at the event.
