KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Big 12 Men’s Basketball Media Day took place on Wednesday where 16 teams took the podium to preview their upcoming season.
For the Big 12, there are four new teams coming to the conference from the Pac-12, with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah joining the league.
Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd was the first head coach to speak as part of the afternoon session at Big 12 Media Day and was asked about the biggest difference in coming to the Big 12 from the Pac-12.
Lloyd said, “I think the low-hanging fruit is people will talk about the physicality. One of the other things, it sounds to me, most of these road games are going to be a sold out, excited crowd, and to be honest with you we didn’t always get that in the Pac-12.”
The Arizona coach noted that his Wildcats would often go into road games where, “Half the fans would be Arizona [fans],” before wrapping up his comments by saying, “The road games will be very challenging.”
Related: Arizona Basketball 2024-25 Prediction, Preview, Players to Watch and Odds
Lloyd was also asked if there was a specific road game or two that stood out to him and his players, to which he deflected, saying he’s focused on, “What’s now? What’s next?” However, he then added, “I’m not surprised one bit that Arizona is at Kansas to finish up the regular season on the road their first year [in the Big 12].”
Arizona basketball enters the Big 12 picked to finish 5th in the conference, according to the Big 12 preseason poll. The Wildcats were picked behind Kansas, Houston, Iowa State and Baylor, giving them the top spot of the four new teams in the league.
Arizona’s road match ups include trips to Cincinnati, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, BYU, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas.
Those final five road trips in particular are as difficult of a five road games in a row that any college basketball team in the country will have.
Arizona’s 2024-25 basketball season begins on November 4th vs. Canisius, with tip off at 8:00 p.m. local time on ESPN+.
Related: How to watch the Big 12 on ESPN+
