Arizona is the second seed in the West in the initial 2027 NCAA Tournament bracketology by Joe Lundari of ESPN. Lunardi will continue to update his projections as rosters evolve throughout the spring. The transfer portal deadline closed on Tuesday night at 8:59 PM Mountain Standard Time.
Prospects have until Friday at 8:59 PM MST to enter their names into the NBA Draft. The deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft is May 27 at 8:59 PM MST. Forwards Ivan Kharchenkov and Koa Peat and center Motiejus Krivas could potentially enter the NBA Draft.
Current projections for Arizona in 2026-27 are with the expectation that Kharchenkov and Krivas will return and Peat will remain in the 2026 NBA Draft. A lot will depend on how any of them perform at the NBA Combine. Peat and Krivas would seem sure to earn NBA Combine invites if they choose to enter the draft.
Lunardi projects Arizona to play 15th-seeded Arkansas State in the first round of the 2027 NCAA Tournament in Sacramento. The other game in Arizona's pod would match the winner of Creighton and VCU as 10 seeds in the First Four in Dayton against seventh-seed Vanderbilt.
https://t.co/guOIkbAd1Y. 🏀🏀 A resounding championship run by Michigan is in the books, and with it, the end of a 26-year national title drought for the Big Ten. Now that the deadline for players to enter the transfer portal has passed, we can tentatively look ahead to the…
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) April 22, 2026
Potential Arizona opponents
Arkansas State finished 20-12 overall and 11-7 in second place in the Sun Belt Conference. Georgia Southern 80-77 in the Sun Belt Tournament. Creighton did not make the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Vanderbilt and VCU both advanced to the 2026 NCAA Tournament second round.
Three-seed Virginia and sixth-seed USC are the highest-seeded teams on Arizona's half of the West Regional Bracket. Michigan State is the top projected seed in the West Region. Texas is the fourth seed and Texas Tech is fifth as the highest projected seeds on the other half of the West Regional bracket.
Florida is the top overall seed nationally by Lunardi and could be the number one team in the preseason rankings for the second consecutive year. Duke in the South and Michigan in the Midwest are the other projected number one seeds by Lunardi.
Other teams of note for Arizona are East second seed Connecticut, who Arizona hosts next season, ninth-seeded UCLA in the West and South second seed Auburn. Lunardi projects BYU, Houston, Iowa State. Kansas and TCU are the projected 2027 Big XII NCAA Tournament teams with Arizona and Texas Tech.
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