Show Me My Opponent, 2022-23: Arizona

up on the sun where it never rains or snows

The University of Arizona’s men’s basketball program is located in Tucson, Arizona. They have a long and storied tradition of always winning in the Elite Eight and always sending extremely talented guys to the NBA and watching them produce, such as…uh…Andre Iguodala! Yeah, Andre Iguodala, we’ll go with that.

I’m kidding, this is just me stalling for time because I’m not sure how to sell this better than the game should sell itself. Arizona lost a lot of their roster to the NBA last year after a shockingly great first season under Tommy Lloyd, in which one of their only four losses was to Tennessee in a pretty badly officiated match.

Wildcat fans have spent a lot of time arguing that the result would be different if played somewhere other than Knoxville; I imagine that they have good reason to think so, but I prefer to think of this game as what it is: two top-10 teams that are very likely legitimate top-10 teams who we’ll be talking about all season long. And it’s a true road game! More of this in college hoops, please.

BELOW THE LINE ($): closet goths