The last time Arizona men’s basketball took a foreign exhibition trip under former coach Sean Miller, many of the Wildcats were milling around Barcelona within blocks of where a terrorist drove a van down a famed boulevard and killed 14 people.
“Yeah it’s time to go,” then-UA guard Allonzo Trier posted on that August 2017 afternoon, when the Wildcats ultimately decided to cut their trip short. “Praying for the world. We need so much help right now.”
On their way to Tel Aviv after bobbing around the Dead Sea during their next exhibition trip, a 2023 swing through the Middle East, the Wildcats rode a bus that crept within 15 miles of the Israel-Gaza border. They were just minutes away from where attacks eight weeks later led to the Hamas-Israel war that continues today.
Arizona's Keshad Johnson floats in the Dead Sea during the Wildcats' 2023 summer exhibition tour through the Middle East.
On that trip, which also took them through the United Arab Emirates, the Wildcats also watched machine-gun-carrying Israeli guards step aboard their bus and look around before clearing them to head back into Jerusalem after a day trip to Bethlehem and the West Bank.
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The world keeps spinning. This time, just a week before the Wildcats left for Lithuania on their current exhibition tour Thursday, that country’s defense minister said Russia could use Ukrainian drones in a “false flag” attack on infrastructure in Baltic countries while the Russia-Ukraine war goes on.
Also, for what it’s worth, one of the three games the Wildcats will play in Lithuania will be against the Ukrainian national team --- in an arena that sits just 90 miles from the border of the Russian region of Kaliningrad.
Still, there is perspective. Statistically, the Wildcats have actually been safer away from home on most of their foreign journeys.
Lithuania ranks among the world’s safest countries in several metrics, including No. 24 in the Global Peace Index and No. 23 in US News and World Report’s Public Safety rankings. The Institute for Economics and Peace, an international think tank that produces the Global Peace Index, also has Spain at 27, the United Arab Emirates at 33 and the USA at 134, with Israel at 159.
Meanwhile, US News and World Report's Public Safety rankings also have Spain at 25, the UAE at 39… then the USA at 64 and Israel at 72.
“I think we're going to a really safe country,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said before the Wildcats left for Lithuania on Thursday. “But there's a lot going on in the world, and I don't think we should make light of the situation. I mean, we’re playing the Ukraine. These guys are out representing their nation while a war is literally going on inside their country, and it's a neighboring country to Lithuania.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd huddles his team together after a summer basketball practice inside Richard Jefferson Gymnasium, July 31, 2026.
“So we understand what part of the world we're going to. But obviously, if we felt like this wasn't a safe situation, we would never put our team at risk.”
The Wildcats are scheduled to be within Lithuania for their entire 10-day trip, staying in the capital city of Vilnius through Sunday night, making a day trip to the coastal resort town of Palanga on Monday and then venturing on to Kaunas, the epicenter of the basketball-mad country.
In arenas outside of Kaunas, they will play their three exhibiton games, against the Lithuanian “B” team on Aug. 19, against Ukraine on Aug. 20 and against the Lithuanian national team on Aug. 22.
When asked if the world conflicts were on their minds heading into the trip, guard Derek Dixon and forward Cameron Holmes indicated the court was actually where their focus was.
“We’re just worried about playing basketball,” Dixon said. “Just focused on the main goal.”
Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe
Bruce Pascoe
Reporter
