• 2000-01 Schedule
  

In all, there are 13 games against NCAA Tournament teams and a potential for several others, depending on how things play out in the Maui tournament and UA's own Bank One Fiesta Bowl Classic.

After exhibition games against the California All Stars and Marathon Basketball, UA joins host Chaminade and six NCAA teams in the Maui Invitational Nov. 20-22 to open the regular season. The Cats return briefly before traveling to Indianapolis to meet Purdue, which played in the NCAA West Regional final, in the Wooden Tradition at Conseco Fieldhouse on Nov. 25. Four days later, the Cats are at home against Gonzaga, which lost to Purdue in the regional semifinal at Albuquerque last March.

After a home date against St. Mary's on Dec. 2, the next two weekends in December find the Cats on the road at Connecticut Dec. 9 and at Illinois Dec. 16, before returning home for a Dec. 20 contest against LSU. The Illinois game will be played in Chicago at the United Center.

Former UA assistant coach Jessie Evans brings his Louisiana-Lafayette NCAA team to Tucson for the Fiesta Classic in late December, though Arizona will meet Butler in a first-round match up while Evans' team plays Mississippi State.

Pacific-10 Conference action commences Jan. 4 and 6 with home games against California and Stanford. UA plays its last non-conference game Jan. 27 in McKale Center against Texas. The UA's league schedule will conclude with road games in the Bay Area March 8 and 10 against Stanford and Cal..

"The non-conference schedule will be a big test for us because of a couple of early stretches," Arizona head coach Lute Olson said, "but it's the way we've been scheduling since the late 1980s. I have always felt you only get better by playing the best teams you can play."

"The field in Maui speaks for itself -- UConn, Dayton, Illinois, Louisville, Maryland, UNLV and host Chaminade. Then we play Purdue in Indianapolis, about 65 miles from its own campus. That will be four games which should give us a pretty good idea about the ball club." he said.

(NOTE: At this date, a complete list of tip-off times and the television schedule have not been established. When completed -- which is expected to be in about a month -- they will be released.)