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

Series history + Men's Basketball Comparison First Season 1904 1919 NCAA Championships 1 11 NCAA Final Fours 4 19* NCAA Tournament Appearances 39* 51* Conference Championships 31 37 Conference tournament Championships 9 4 All-Americans 32 39 Consensus 1st Team All-Americans 8 21

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. 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. 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.

Results

Results by location CityGamesArizona victories UCLA victoriesYears playedMcKale Center4628181923–presentPauley Pavilion5315381923–presentNeutral Site16881951–present

Future Games T-Mobile Center Paradise, Nevada

Ranked meetings Arizona & UCLA have played 36 games when both programs were ranked. UCLA holds the overall advantage 20–16. Date Home Away Result Significance Standing1March 20, 1976No. 5 UCLA† No. 15 Arizona † 82−66 1976 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament 1−02December 29, 1977No. 8 UCLA No. 15 Arizona 85−63 – 2−03January 13, 1990No. 19 UCLA No. 18 Arizona 73−67 1st match up in series history while members of the same Pac-10 conference & both teams were ranked 3−04January 12, 1991No. 6 Arizona No. 7 UCLA 82−77 – 3−15February 10, 1991No. 14 UCLA No. 5 Arizona 105−94OT – 3−26January 11, 1992No. 6 Arizona No. 2 UCLA 89−87 First match up between both programs ranked inside the top 10. Ended Arizona's 71 game home winning streak, 10th longest streak in NCAA history. 4−27March 12, 1992No. 8 UCLA No. 2 Arizona 89−81 – 5−28January 7, 1993No. 15 UCLA No. 20 Arizona 82−80 5−39January 20, 1994No. 2 UCLA No. 9 Arizona 74−66 – 6−310February 19, 1994No. 15 Arizona No. 8 UCLA 98−74 Largest margin of victory (24 points) by either program while both programs were ranked 6−411January 19, 1995No. 11 Arizona No. 4 UCLA 71−61 7−412February 18, 1995No. 6 UCLA No. 12 Arizona 72−70 8−413January 20, 1996No. 18 Arizona No. 13 UCLA 88−79 – 8−514February 15, 1996No. 18 UCLA No. 13 Arizona 76−75 – 9−515February 13, 1997No. 11 Arizona No. 24 UCLA 66−64 – 10−516January 3, 1998No. 8 Arizona No. 9 UCLA 87−75 – 10−617January 2, 1999No. 10 UCLA No. 6 Arizona 82−75 11−618March 6, 1999No. 13 Arizona No. 12 UCLA 87−70 11−719January 20, 2000No. 25 UCLA No. 2 Arizona 75−61 11−820February 15, 2001No. 24 UCLA No. 8 Arizona 79−77 12−821January 19, 2002No. 15 Arizona No. 9 UCLA 96−86 12−922February 14, 2002No. 20 UCLA No. 9 Arizona 77−76 13−923January 5, 2006No. 21 Arizona No. 17 UCLA 85−79 14−924January 20, 2007No. 3 UCLA No. 11 Arizona 73−69 15−925February 17, 2007No. 19 Arizona No. 5 UCLA 81−66 Lute Olson's final game against UCLA, would finish with a 28-23 record all-time versus UCLA 16−926March 15, 2013No. 24 UCLA† No. 21 Arizona† 66−64 2013 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 17−927January 21, 2017No.3 UCLA No. 14 Arizona 96−85 17−1028February 25, 2017No. 4 Arizona No. 5 UCLA 77−72 First meeting with both programs ranked in the top 5. First meeting on College GameDay & 4th College GameDay meeting overall (UCLA 3−1) 18−1029March 10, 2017No. 4 Arizona† No. 5 UCLA † 86−75 2017 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 18−1130January 25, 2022No. 7 UCLA No. 3 Arizona 75−59 Tommy Lloyd first Arizona/UCLA game 19−1131February 3, 2022No. 7 Arizona No. 3 UCLA 76−66 19−1232March 12, 2022No. 2 Arizona† No. 13 UCLA † 84−76 2022 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 19−1333January 21, 2023 No. 11 Arizona No. 5 UCLA 58−52 − 19−1434March 4, 2023 No. 4 UCLA No. 8 Arizona 82−73 − 20−1435March 11, 2023 No. 2 UCLA† No. 8 Arizona† 61−59 2023 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament 20−1536November 14, 2025 No. 5 Arizona† No. 15 UCLA† 69−65 Hall of Fame Series − Los Angeles 20−16 Notes: † Denotes game was neutral site

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