1. Don't expect Tommy Lloyd or an opposing coach to get a technical foul in the tournament. In Arizona's 100-game tournament history, no coach has been T'd up. But Wildcat players have been called for eight technical fouls: Channing Frye (two), Loren Woods, Richard Jefferson, Solomon Hill, Kaleb Tarczewski, Kadeem Allen and KJ Lewis. Only one opposing UA coach, North Carolina legend Dean Smith, has been called for a foul in an NCAA Tournament game against Arizona, in the 1997 Final Four.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd looks on from the sideline against Oregon during the first half in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, March 23, 2025 in Seattle.
2. No Arizona player has slumped the way point guard Kerr Kriisa slumped in his Wildcat NCAA Tournament history. In three games, Kriisa went 1 for 10 against TCU, 1 for 7 against Houston and 1 for 7 against Princeton. All of those shots were from 3-point range. Kriisa's 3-24 shooting career in the Big Dance means he shot 12%, Caleb Love shot 0 for 9 on 3-pointers in a 2024 Sweet 16 loss to Clemson. But the real crusher in UA tournament history was Steve Kerr's 2-for-13 shooting performance in the 1988 Final Four loss to Oklahoma. Kerr set the NCAA record for 3-point shooting that season, at 58.3%.
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3. The largest crowd to watch Arizona basketball in history — regular season or postseason — was predictably 47,028 at the 1997 national championship game against Kentucky in the old RCA Dome. That edged the 2001 championship game against Duke that drew 45,997 at the old Metrodome in Minneapolis. The smallest crowds? In a 1997 first-round game against South Alabama in the old Pyramid in Memphis, a small crowd of 8,328 attended. In the UA's first-ever NCAA Tournament game, a 61-59 loss to Kansas State in 1951, attendance was 9,500 at the KC Municipal Auditorium.
Luke Walton drives around Wyoming's Marcus Bailey in the first half of the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque on March 16, 2002.
4. The most unbreakable Arizona record in the NCAA Tournament is probably Luke Walton’s 60 assists from 2000-03. That's an unexpected number since Walton was a 6-7 power forward, but an unselfish player who always seemed to find the open man. Another UA record that is likely to last forever is the 260 points scored by Miles Simon from 1994-97. (Simon's total is 20th all-time in tournament history; No. 1 is Duke's Christian Laettner with 407). Because so few players spend four years at the same school now, it is highly unlikely a future Wildcat will score even 200 points in the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona men's basketball a Selection Sunday regular
