TUCSON, AZ – Kicking off the 2021-22 season, Kim Aiken, Jr. helps lead the Blue team to victory in the annual Arizona Basketball scrimmage.
Arizona Basketball is finally underway in Tucson as the Wildcats unofficially kicked off the 2021-22 season with the Arizona Red-Blue game scrimmage on Saturday afternoon.
Coming in, there was plenty of hype, especially as the Wildcats kicked off the Tommy Lloyd era of Arizona Basketball, but also returned fans to McKale Center for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
The event opened with Arizona’s Adaptive Athletics wheelchair basketball team holding its own Red-Blue game, then it was the Dunk Contest where Dalen Terry won convincingly!
Lastly, it was the highly-anticipated Arizona Basketball scrimmage in which the Red team took on the Blue team.
Competing with split squads, the two teams battled in some of their final preparations for the 2021-22 season.
And leading the Blue team on Saturday afternoon with 20 points on 8-10 shooting, including 4-4 from three in his highly-anticipated debut, was Eastern Washington transfer, Kim Aiken, Jr.
For those that recall, Kim initially committed to Sean Miller back in April, but after Sean was let go, Kim decided to commit to Washington State.
Well luckily for us, that didn’t up working out for him, and Kim decided to recommit to Arizona, and he looks to be a solid contributor to the Wildcats this season.
Outside of Kim, Azuolas Tubelis was dominant once again, scoring 14 points on 7-7 shooting with seven rebounds, while Christian Koloko added with 10 points, four rebounds, and four blocks all for the Blue team as well.
Sophomore wing Ben Mathurin had a dominant performance of his own, scoring 16 points on 6-12 shooting as he led the Red team, however, it wasn’t enough as the Blue team would go on to win by a 53-39 final.
Arizona Basketball won’t return to action until November 1 when they take on Eastern New Mexico in an exhibition game.
Listen to the team following the Red-Blue game…