Arizona basketball 3 seed in latest ESPN bracketology released Tuesday
The Arizona basketball team is the third seed in the Midwest projected to play 14th-seeded Samford in Denver in the latest ESPN bracketology posted by Joe Lunardi on Tuesday. Samford was 29–6 overall and 15–3 in the Southern Conference during the 2023-24 season.
The Bulldogs won the Southern Conference regular season title by three games. Samford pushed Kansas in the NCAA Tournament before losing 93-89 to fourth seed and new Arizona Big XII rival Kansas. Samford added Mississippi State shooting guard Trey Fort and Vanderbilt combo guard Isaiah West as transfers for 2024-25.
Lunardi has the winner of Arizona and Samford playing either sixth seeded St. John's or a potential rematch for the Wildcats in the second round versus 10th-seed Dayton. Arizona eliminated Dayton 78-68 in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City.
Arizona will have a very different team in 2024-25. Pac 12 Player of the Year Caleb Love is the only returning starter for Arizona. Jaden Bradley who played more minutes than the departed Kylan Boswell in the final two games in the 2024 NCAA Tournament is a defacto returning starter.
Men's Bracketology: 2025 NCAA Tournament https://t.co/146SOUuyXo
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) August 27, 2024
Sophomore K.J. Lewis showed a lot of promise as a freshman last season and forms an exceptional backcourt for Arizona in 2024-25 with Bradley and Lewis. Arizona had to rebuild its frontcourt. Motiejus Krivas is the projected starting center in 2024-25 after averaging 5.4 points per game and 4.2 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per game last season.
Tobe Akawa from Tennessee, a 6'8, 250-pound forward and 6'6, 228-pound forward Trey Townsend will round out the top three in the frontcourt rotation for Arizona entering the season. Four-star freshman forward Carter Bryant is expected to be a part of the rotation for Arizona in 2024-25.
Next. Arizona left off Andy Katz's top 10 fan bases nationally. Arizona left off Andy Katz's top 10 fan bases nationally. dark
Small forward Anthony Dell'Orso transferred to Arizona from Campbell to provide the Wildcats with scoring and shooting off the bench. Arizona faces a much tougher road in the Big XII than they have had in the Pac-12 in recent seasons. The Big XII schedule should make Arizona more ready to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.