Wisconsin basketball to face Arizona in home-and-home series

Wisconsin’s non-conference schedule is shaping up to be a nice challenge for the Badgers following the latest addition.

The school announced Monday it would play a home-and-home series against defending Pac-12 Tournament Champion Arizona. The Badgers will travel to Tucson on Dec. 9, with the Wildcats coming to Madison on Dec. 15, 2024.

“We’re really excited to get this great home-and-home series with Arizona,” head coach Greg Gard said in a release. “We’ve had some memorable matchups in recent years with the Wildcats, and we’re looking forward to adding on to what has been a great series.

“Part of what makes college basketball so great is having big-time games in on-campus venues and I love that we can schedule these for the fans in Tucson and Madison. We’ve always tried to challenge our team in the non-conference and facing a program like Arizona will certainly help prepare us for the rigorous Big Ten.”

Wisconsin leads the all-time series between the two schools having won five of the seven meetings. That includes the last two, which are some of the more memorable games in school history. The Badgers topped the Wildcats in overtime in the 2014 West Regional Final to advance to the Final Four, and then beat Arizona again the following year to win the West Region and return to the Final Four.

Arizona is projected to be a top 25 team this coming season under Tommy Lloyd. The Wildcats join potential top-10 teams Tennessee and Marquette as part of Wisconsin’s non-conference schedule. The Volunteers will come to the Kohl Center to open the season Nov. 10, while the Golden Eagles will likely make the trip down I-94 in early December. Wisconsin, which will return its starting rotation from last season, will go to Providence for the Gavitt Tip-Off games and could also see Virginia and/or West Virginia in the Fort Myers Tip-Off in late November.