Arizona’s final tune-up comes Friday night, and there’s a little bit of history attached to it.
The Wildcats will host Eastern Washington at 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 at McKale Center at ALKEME Arena, wrapping up their exhibition slate after already picking up wins over the University of San Francisco and San Diego State University. Arizona also enters the matchup coming off a strong preseason showing in the national picture, with the Associated Press slotting the Wildcats at No. 5 in its Top 25 poll this week.
Florida sits at No. 1, followed by Duke, Illinois and UConn. Illinois and UConn both reached the Final Four last season, and UConn played in the national championship game before losing to Michigan.
The Wildcats and Eagles haven’t crossed paths often, but when they have, Arizona has handled business at home. Friday will be the third meeting between the programs, with previous matchups coming in the 2004-05 season and again in 2020-21. In that most recent meeting, Arizona escaped with a 70-67 win.
There’s also a familiar connection on the sidelines. Eastern Washington coach Dan Monson and Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd go way back to their Gonzaga days.
Monson brought Lloyd onto his staff after the 1998-99 season, when Gonzaga reached the 1999 Elite Eight. Monson later departed for Minnesota, and Lloyd moved up to assistant coach at Gonzaga before eventually taking over as Arizona’s head coach.
On the floor, Motiejus Krivas has been one of Arizona’s most productive pieces in exhibition play. Against SDSU, the senior center led the Wildcats with 17 points, went 11-for-14 at the free-throw line, and added 15 rebounds and four blocks.
Freshman guard Caleb Holt has also made an early impression, finishing among Arizona’s top three scorers in both games. He scored 17 against USF, behind Ivan Kharchenkov and Krivas, then followed with 15 against SDSU, again behind Krivas.
Arizona’s most recent starting group against SDSU featured Krivas, Kharchenkov, Holt, Derek Dixon and Bryce James. Holt and Dixon are new additions this season, while James was a redshirt during the 2025-26 season.
Eastern Washington arrives with a win already in hand from its own exhibition schedule. The Eagles beat California State University, Bakersfield, 71-65 at home on Sunday, Oct. 18, in what was their second exhibition game of the season.
Graduate guard Andrew Cook led the way with 24 points, five rebounds and a 7-for-10 night at the free-throw line. Alton Hamilton IV added 8 points, and Eastern Washington finished just 5-of-18 from 3-point range. Sophomore guard Isak Homelius hit 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
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Arizona Still Has 3 Big Questions Before The Games Start Counting
Arizonas last tune-up comes Friday against Eastern Washington, and by then Tommy Lloyd should have a much clearer read on what this group looks like when the games start to count. The exhibition on ESPN+ follows a useful test against San Diego State, and it has already put a few of Arizonas new faces under the microscope, including freshman Cameron Holmes and Maksim Brnovic as the Wildcats try to sort out roles, spacing and overall shot-making before the opener against UCLA.
Brnovic in particular has been one of the more encouraging early signs, giving Arizona a glimpse of frontcourt scoring and some stretch ability in an otherwise still-forming rotation. The bigger roster issue is still hanging over the week, though, with the Wildcats having to plan around an important piece whose status remains unsettled, which makes this final exhibition less about the final score and more about how close Arizona can get to its preferred starting point. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Basketball Faces A New Pressure Tommy Lloyd Can't Ignore
Money has become a defining part of roster building in college basketball, and Arizona is projected to be in the middle of that conversation again for 2026-27. A CBS Sports report says the Wildcats are expected to devote roughly $15 million to $17.5 million to their mens basketball roster, a figure that would put them above the Big 12 average while still short of the sports biggest spenders.
The bracket matters because this is where the gap between ambition and expectation starts to show up in a very public way. Arizona would land in the third tier of spending, alongside programs such as Gonzaga, Houston and Michigan State, and behind a large group of schools operating at the top of the market. For Tommy Lloyd, that means the financial race around the program is only getting tighter, with the kind of pressure that does not always show up in the box score. [Read more 🡒]