Arizona–UCLA men's basketball rivalry

American college basketball rivalry From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Arizona–UCLA men's basketball rivalry is a college basketball rivalry between the University of Arizona Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins.

FirstmeetingFebruary 19, 1923
Arizona 30 – UCLA 43
LatestmeetingNovember 14, 2025
Arizona 69 – UCLA 65
NextmeetingNovember 2, 2026
T-Mobile Center, Paradise, Nevada
Quick facts Sport, First meeting ...
Arizona–UCLA men's basketball rivalry
SportCollege Basketball
First meetingFebruary 19, 1923
Arizona 30 – UCLA 43
Latest meetingNovember 14, 2025
Arizona 69 – UCLA 65
Next meetingNovember 2, 2026
T-Mobile Center, Paradise, Nevada
Statistics
Total meetings115
All-time series
UCLA leads, 64–51
Largest victory
UCLA by 53 (March 10, 1983)
Longest win streak
UCLA, 11 (February 17, 1979–March 8, 1984)
Current win streak
Arizona 1 (November 14, 2025–present)
Close
About OpenStreetMaps
Maps: terms of use
240km
149miles
Arizona
UCLA
Locations of Arizona and UCLA

Series history

More information UCLA, First Season ...
Men's Basketball Comparison
Arizona UCLA
First Season 19041919
NCAA Championships 111
NCAA Final Fours 419*
NCAA Tournament Appearances 39*51*
Conference Championships 3137
Conference tournament Championships 94
All-Americans 3239
Consensus 1st Team All-Americans 821
Close

The rivalry dates from the first games in 1923, but the true intensity of the series would not occur until the addition of Arizona to the Pac-10 in 1978. Since becoming conference foes, the game is played typically twice per season. The Wildcats and Bruins have faced off 10 times in conference tournament games.

Before the arrival of Lute Olson at Arizona, the Bruins had won 21 of 24 games against the Wildcats. UCLA had been seen as the dominant college basketball program in the west, with few teams able to challenge UCLA for the throne beyond a few wins. The rivalry did not gather steam until Lute Olson's arrival in 1984, who compiled a 28–23 record against the Bruins during his tenure as Arizona's head coach.

Since then, the two schools competed for the Pac-10 (now Pac-12) Championship every year, with the two teams winning 23 out of the 31 conference titles, and 9 of 18 conference tournament titles. Arizona clinched their first conference title in 1986, when they won on the road at UCLA in Olson's third season.[1][2] The UCLA-Arizona basketball rivalry was seen as the match up of the two premier teams in the conference during their time in the Pac-12.[3] Also, the performance of the two schools influences the national opinion of the conference. Mike Montgomery, former head coach at both Cal and Stanford has stated, "...If those two are not good, the conference is not perceived as being good. People don't give credit to the schools across the board in the league."

After the end of the 2023−24 season, Arizona moved to the Big 12 Conference and UCLA moved to the Big Ten Conference, there was speculation if the rivalry would continue. The two teams agree to a three game series in neutral site locations. The 2024 game will be played at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, the 2025 game will be played at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA and the 2027 game will be played at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.[4]

Results

Arizona victoriesUCLA victoriesTies
More information No., Date ...
Close

Results by location

More information City, Games ...
City Games Arizona victories UCLA victories Years played
McKale Center 46 28 18 1923–present
Pauley Pavilion 53 15 38 1923–present
Neutral Site 16 8 8 1951–present
Close

Future Games

2025 2026
Intuit Dome
Inglewood, CA
TBD
TBD

Ranked meetings

Arizona & UCLA have played 36 games when both programs were ranked. UCLA holds the overall advantage 20–16.

More information Date, Home ...
Date HomeAwayResultSignificanceStanding
1 March 20, 1976 No. 5 UCLANo. 15 Arizona †82−661976 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament 1−0
2 December 29, 1977 No. 8 UCLANo. 15 Arizona85−632−0
3 January 13, 1990 No. 19 UCLANo. 18 Arizona73−671st match up in series history while members of the same Pac-10 conference & both teams were ranked 3−0
4 January 12, 1991 No. 6 ArizonaNo. 7 UCLA82−773−1
5 February 10, 1991 No. 14 UCLANo. 5 Arizona105−94OT3−2
6 January 11, 1992 No. 6 ArizonaNo. 2 UCLA89−87First match up between both programs ranked inside the top 10. Ended Arizona's 71 game home winning streak, 10th longest streak in NCAA history. [5]4−2
7 March 12, 1992 No. 8 UCLANo. 2 Arizona89−815−2
8 January 7, 1993 No. 15 UCLANo. 20 Arizona82−805−3
9 January 20, 1994 No. 2 UCLANo. 9 Arizona74−666−3
10 February 19, 1994 No. 15 ArizonaNo. 8 UCLA98−74Largest margin of victory (24 points) by either program while both programs were ranked6−4
11 January 19, 1995 No. 11 ArizonaNo. 4 UCLA71−617−4
12 February 18, 1995 No. 6 UCLANo. 12 Arizona72−708−4
13 January 20, 1996 No. 18 ArizonaNo. 13 UCLA88−798−5
14 February 15, 1996 No. 18 UCLANo. 13 Arizona76−759−5
15 February 13, 1997 No. 11 ArizonaNo. 24 UCLA66−6410−5
16 January 3, 1998 No. 8 ArizonaNo. 9 UCLA87−7510−6
17 January 2, 1999 No. 10 UCLANo. 6 Arizona82−7511−6
18 March 6, 1999 No. 13 ArizonaNo. 12 UCLA87−7011−7
19 January 20, 2000 No. 25 UCLANo. 2 Arizona75−6111−8
20 February 15, 2001 No. 24 UCLANo. 8 Arizona79−7712−8
21 January 19, 2002 No. 15 ArizonaNo. 9 UCLA96−8612−9
22 February 14, 2002 No. 20 UCLANo. 9 Arizona77−7613−9
23 January 5, 2006 No. 21 ArizonaNo. 17 UCLA85−7914−9
24 January 20, 2007 No. 3 UCLANo. 11 Arizona73−6915−9
25 February 17, 2007 No. 19 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA81−66Lute Olson's final game against UCLA, would finish with a 28-23 record all-time versus UCLA 16−9
26 March 15, 2013 No. 24 UCLANo. 21 Arizona†66−642013 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 17−9
27 January 21, 2017 No.3 UCLANo. 14 Arizona96−8517−10
28 February 25, 2017 No. 4 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA77−72First meeting with both programs ranked in the top 5. First meeting on College GameDay & 4th College GameDay meeting overall (UCLA 3−1) 18−10
29 March 10, 2017 No. 4 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA †86−752017 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 18−11
30 January 25, 2022 No. 7 UCLANo. 3 Arizona75−59Tommy Lloyd first Arizona/UCLA game 19−11
31 February 3, 2022 No. 7 ArizonaNo. 3 UCLA76−6619−12
32 March 12, 2022 No. 2 ArizonaNo. 13 UCLA †84−762022 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 19−13
33 January 21, 2023 No. 11 ArizonaNo. 5 UCLA58−5219−14
34 March 4, 2023 No. 4 UCLANo. 8 Arizona82−7320−14
35 March 11, 2023 No. 2 UCLA†No. 8 Arizona61−592023 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament20−15
36 November 14, 2025 No. 5 Arizona†No. 15 UCLA†69−65Hall of Fame Series − Los Angeles20−16
Close

Notes: † Denotes game was neutral site

Notes

References

Related Articles

Wikiwand AI