Arizona–UCLA men's basketball rivalry

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Arizona–UCLA men's basketball rivalry
Sport College Basketball
First meetingFebruary 19, 1923
Arizona 30 – UCLA 43
Latest meetingDecember 14, 2024
UCLA 57 – Arizona 53
Next meeting2025
T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Statistics
Meetings total114
All-time seriesUCLA leads, 64–50
Largest victoryUCLA by 53 (March 10, 1983)
Longest win streakUCLA, 11 (February 17, 1979–March 8, 1984)
Current win streakUCLA 1 (December 14, 2024–present)
Arizona-UCLA men's basketball rivalry
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200miles
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Arizona
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UCLA
Locations of Arizona and UCLA

The Arizona–UCLA men's basketball rivalry is a college basketball rivalry between the University of Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins.

Contents

Series history

Men's Basketball Comparison
Arizona UCLA
First Season19041919
NCAA Championships111
NCAA Final Fours418*
NCAA Tournament Appearances37*49*
Conference Championships3137
Conference tournament Championships94
All-Americans3139
Consensus 1st Team All-Americans821

The rivalry dates from the first games in 1923, but the true intensity of the series would not occur until the addition of Arizona to the Pac-10 in 1978. Since becoming conference foes, the game is played typically twice per season. The Wildcats and Bruins have faced off 10 times in conference tournament games.

Before the arrival of Lute Olson at Arizona, the Bruins had won 21 of 24 games against the Wildcats. UCLA had been seen as the dominant college basketball program in the west, with few teams able to challenge UCLA for the throne beyond a few wins. The rivalry did not gather steam until Lute Olson's arrival in 1984, who compiled a 28–23 record against the Bruins during his tenure as Arizona's head coach.

Since then, the two schools competed for the Pac-10 (now Pac-12) Championship every year, with the two teams winning 23 out of the 31 conference titles, and 9 of 18 conference tournament titles. Arizona clinched their first conference title in 1986, when they won on the road at UCLA in Olson's third season. [1] [2] The UCLA-Arizona basketball rivalry is still seen as the match up of the two premier teams in the conference. [3] Also, the performance of the two schools influences the national opinion of the conference. Mike Montgomery, former head coach at both Cal and Stanford has stated, "...If those two are not good, the conference is not perceived as being good. People don't give credit to the schools across the board in the league."

After the end of the 2023−24 season, Arizona moved to the Big 12 Conference and UCLA moved to the Big Ten Conference, there was speculation if the rivalry would continue. The two teams agree to a three game series in neutral site locations. The 2024 game will be played at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, the 2025 game will be played at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the 2027 game will be played at a location TBD in Los Angeles. [4]

Results

Arizona victoriesUCLA victoriesTies

Future Games

20252027
T-Mobile Arena
Las Vegas, NV
TBD
Los Angeles, CA

Ranked meetings

Arizona & UCLA have played 35 games when both programs were ranked. UCLA holds the overall advantage 20–15.

DateHomeAwayResultSignificanceStanding
1March 20, 1976No. 5 UCLANo. 15 Arizona †82−66 1976 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament 1−0
2December 29, 1977No. 8 UCLANo. 15 Arizona85−632−0
3January 13, 1990No. 19 UCLANo. 18 Arizona73−671st match up in series history while members of the same Pac-10 conference & both teams were ranked 3−0
4January 12, 1991No. 6 ArizonaNo. 7 UCLA82−773−1
5February 10, 1991No. 14 UCLANo. 5 Arizona105−94OT3−2
6January 11, 1992No. 6 ArizonaNo. 2 UCLA89−87First match up between both programs ranked inside the top 10. Ended Arizona's 71 game home winning streak, 10th longest streak in NCAA history. [5] 4−2
7March 12, 1992No. 8 UCLANo. 2 Arizona89−815−2
8January 7, 1993No. 15 UCLANo. 20 Arizona82−80 5−3
9January 20, 1994No. 2 UCLANo. 9 Arizona74−666−3
10February 19, 1994No. 15 ArizonaNo. 8 UCLA98−74Largest margin of victory (24 points) by either program while both programs were ranked6−4
11January 19, 1995No. 11 ArizonaNo. 4 UCLA71−61 7−4
12February 18, 1995No. 6 UCLANo. 12 Arizona72−70 8−4
13January 20, 1996No. 18 ArizonaNo. 13 UCLA88−798−5
14February 15, 1996No. 18 UCLANo. 13 Arizona76−759−5
15February 13, 1997No. 11 ArizonaNo. 24 UCLA66−6410−5
16January 3, 1998No. 8 ArizonaNo. 9 UCLA87−7510−6
17January 2, 1999No. 10 UCLANo. 6 Arizona82−75 11−6
18March 6, 1999No. 13 ArizonaNo. 12 UCLA87−70 11−7
19January 20, 2000No. 25 UCLANo. 2 Arizona75−61 11−8
20February 15, 2001No. 24 UCLANo. 8 Arizona79−77 12−8
21January 19, 2002No. 15 ArizonaNo. 9 UCLA96−86 12−9
22February 14, 2002No. 20 UCLANo. 9 Arizona77−76 13−9
23January 5, 2006No. 21 ArizonaNo. 17 UCLA85−79 14−9
24January 20, 2007No. 3 UCLANo. 11 Arizona73−69 15−9
25February 17, 2007No. 19 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA81−66Lute Olson's final game against UCLA, would finish with a 28-23 record all-time versus UCLA 16−9
26March 15, 2013No. 24 UCLANo. 21 Arizona†66−64 2013 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 17−9
27January 21, 2017No.3 UCLANo. 14 Arizona96−85 17−10
28February 25, 2017No. 4 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA77−72First meeting with both programs ranked in the top 5. First meeting on College GameDay & 4th College GameDay meeting overall (UCLA 3−1) 18−10
29March 10, 2017No. 4 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA †86−75 2017 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 18−11
30January 25, 2022No. 7 UCLANo. 3 Arizona75−59 Tommy Lloyd first Arizona/UCLA game 19−11
31February 3, 2022No. 7 ArizonaNo. 3 UCLA76−66 19−12
32March 12, 2022No. 2 ArizonaNo. 13 UCLA †84−76 2022 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 19−13
33January 21, 2023No. 11 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA58−5219−14
34March 4, 2023No. 4 UCLANo. 8 Arizona82−7320−14
35March 11, 2023No. 2 UCLA†No. 8 Arizona61−59 2023 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 20−15

Notes: † Denotes game was neutral site

Notes


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References

  1. Rivera, Steve (February 20, 2015). "Arizona-UCLA rivalry still burning hot as Pac-12 clubs set to face off". FoxSports.com. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015.
  2. Dodds, Tracy (March 4, 1986). "Arizona Climbs Over the Top at Pauley Pavilion : Wildcats Beat UCLA, 88–76, to Clinch a Share of Pacific 10 Championship". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015.
  3. Yoon, Peter (January 23, 2013). "As usual, UCLA-Arizona is 'must-win' game". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014.
  4. "Arizona, UCLA Agree To Multi-Year Series Starting in 2024".
  5. "Longest NCAA Homecourt Win Streaks, Page 88" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-28.