Arizona Basketball replaces Gonzaga with Tennessee

Making preparations for the 2021-22 season, Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Basketball team have replaced Gonzaga on their schedule with Tennessee. 

It has been a busy off-season for Arizona Basketball, especially as it has been a few weeks since the Wildcats replaced long-time head coach Sean Miller with former Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd.

Since coming to Tucson, Lloyd has had his hands full. From dealing with plenty of roster turnover to adding a few players for 2021-22, as well as adding opponents for next season and beyond, the first-time head coach has seen it all.

Arizona Wildcats

Coming into the season, Arizona was scheduled to face Gonzaga for 2021-22, as part of an ongoing series with the Bulldogs, but that has quickly changed.

With Lloyd now in Tucson, naturally, that series is postponed for the time being, and perhaps to our benefit too since the Zags are once again going to be a loaded group for this coming season.

However, for those worried about the Wildcats not adding enough big-time opponents, Arizona will replace their series with Gonzaga by adding Tennessee.

The news of the schedule change was announced on Monday afternoon as the Wildcats will travel to Knoxville for 2021-22, while the Volunteers will come to Tucson the following year.

Previewing the match-up with Arizona Basketball and the Tennessee Volunteers for 2021-22.

Led by legendary head coach Rick Barnes, the Volunteers had a decent season this past year finishing 18-9 (10-7) with a First Round loss to No. 12 seed Oregon State of the NCAA Tournament.

Historically, Barnes hasn’t had much success against Arizona, dating back to his days when he was a head coach at Texas.

While Tennessee did lose seven players from last years’ roster, this should be a very competitive group in 2021-22. John Fulkerson will return once again, and the Volunteers have a very good recruiting class that ranks No. 3 nationally.

Overall, this should be a nice addition to the Wildcats’ schedule and could help from a Strength of Schedule perspective, assuming Arizona will have eligibility for 2021-22.