Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd discussed the lack of Wildcats' fans in Kansas City for the Big XII Tournament after the win over Central Florida in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Arizona and Central Florida played in the second quarterfinal on Thursday after Iowa State beat Texas Tech.
When Arizona was in the Pac-12, the various arenas where the conference tournament was played were nicknamed McKale North. Arizona would annually pack the arenas in Las Vegas and make the Pac-12 Tournament a pseudo Wildcats home game, frequently for three days.
The Big XII was always going to be different against some Arizona fans that the fan base would travel to Kansas City in high numbers. Even Lloyd has stressed that Arizona has to focus on the game, no matter what the venue is or what floor it is played on.
The 2025-26 Arizona schedule should harden the Wildcats for the Big XII and NCAA Tournaments. Arizona played non-conference games on neutral sites against Florida, UCLA and Alabama. Arizona had the bigger crowd against Florida, were about truly neutral against UCLA and played Alabama in Birmingham.
"These early round games, it can be kind of a sterile environment....Unless you're playing in your backyard and you have your entire fan base there....I think our fans all waited to buy tickets. They all assume we're going to San Diego and so they're making a lot of assumptions now and I think they saved all their money and they're they're go there because it just didn't feel like we had a great presence in the arena today... then it needs to become all about us. We need to internalize...band together and become a stronger unit and we need to create energy for each other...It's a great lesson learned for our guys."Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd
Arizona added an elite non-conference road win at Connecticut, won at likely NCAA teams BYU, Central Florida, Houston and TCU. Home wins over BYU, Iowa State, Kansas and Texas Tech give Arizona one of the most impressive resumes in college basketball.
The mix of playing their 2025-26 schedule at home, difficult road environments and in front of varying neutral courts should help Arizona. With the NCAA Tournament beginning next week, Lloyd stated that Arizona fans are aiming for a trip to San Diego for the first and second rounds.
Arizona is a near lock to play in San Diego next weekend. If they win two games in San Diego, Arizona will advance to the West Regional in San Jose in two weeks. Getting to San Diego and San Jose and in the past Las Vegas is much easier logicially and cheaper than a flight to Kansas City from Tucson.
Arizona fans can even drive to San Diego in about six hours next weekend. Lloyd has accepted that Kansas City and being in the Big XII is the new reality for Arizona. The Big XII Tournament is under contract to the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City through at least 2031.
When asked about the glass court at the Big XII Tournament on Thursday after the win over Central Florida, Lloyd firmly stated he doesn't care where the games are played. Lloyd is instilling that mentality in his team. Creating their own energy will be critical if Arizona is going to win its first Big XII Tournament title and advance far in the NCAA.