The 2015–16 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team represented the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

during the

2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 13. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and ended with the Final Four in Houston April 2–4. Practices officially began on October 2. Rule changes The followin ...

. The team was led by seventh-year head coach

Sean Miller Sean Edward Miller (born November 17, 1968) is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as head coach of the Xavier Musketeers men's basketball, Xavier Musketeers. He previously was in that position from 2004 to 2009, after whi ...

, and played their home games at

McKale Center McKale Memorial Center is an athletic arena in the Southwestern United States, southwest United States, located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. As the home of the university's Arizona Wildcats men's basketball, Wi ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

as a member of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. They finished the season 25–9, 12–6 in Pac-12 play to tie with

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for third place. They defeated

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament to advance to the semifinals where they lost to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Arizona received an at-large bid to the fourth-straight NCAA tournament, the program's 31st appearance, as a 6-seed in the South Region. They lost in the first round to

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

Previous season

The 2014–15 Arizona Wildcats finished the season with an overall record of 34–4 and a 16–2 conference record to win their second straight Pac-12 regular season championship (14th overall). Arizona claimed the longest active home winning streak in D-I men's college basketball (38th home win at 2nd all-time, 82nd home win at 5th all-time) after BYU defeated Gonzaga in the regular season finale, snapping the nation's longest active home winning streak of 41 games, as well as Gonzaga's school record 22-game winning streak. In the Pac-12 Tournament as a #1 seed, Arizona defeated #8 seed

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

; 73–51, and #4 seed

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). ...

; 70–64. The Wildcats then went on to beat

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conferenc ...

; 80–52 in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, and claimed their 5th Pac-12 tournament title for the first time since 2002, along with punching their 32nd ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Arizona entered the NCAA tournament as a #2 seed in the West region, and defeated #15 seed

Texas Southern Tigers The Texas Southern Tigers represent Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, in intercollegiate athletics. They field sixteen teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, and track and field; women's-only bowling, soccer, ...

93–72, then #10 seed

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

; 73–58, and #6 seed

Xavier Musketeers The Xavier Musketeers are the 16 teams representing Xavier University in intercollegiate athletics, including men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. The Musk ...

, to gain its third trip (2nd straight) to the Elite Eight, as well as

's first as head coach. The Wildcats then fell to #1 seed

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin). They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivisi ...

; 85–78 for the second time (from the

Elite Eight In the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight teams, representing the regional finals, or national quarterfinals. In Division I and Divis ...

's by 1 point overtime loss in last year).

Off-season

Departures

Incoming transfers

2015 recruiting class

Personnel

On April 13, assistant coach

Damon Stoudamire Damon Lamon Stoudamire (born September 3, 1973) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is currently an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) The , point guard was selected ...

left the team to rejoin the Memphis staff under head coach and former UA player

Josh Pastner Joshua Paul Pastner (born September 26, 1977) is an American college basketball coach, and the current head coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Pastner was a player on the 1997 Arizona Wildcats ...

. On May 22

Mark Phelps Mark Edward Phelps (born January 22, 1966) is an American basketball coach who is currently the head coach at Prolific Prep. Prior to his current job, Phelps was an assistant at the University of Arizona from 2015-2019. Phelps spent the 2013–14 ...

, joined the Arizona staff.

Roster

*Oct 24, 2015 – Freshman Ray Smith to miss entire 2015–16 season due to a torn ACL in his right knee. *Dec 1, 2015 – Senior Kaleb Tarczewski missed 8 games due to left foot injury. Returned for Pac-12 season play against Arizona State. *Jan 10, 2015 – Freshman Allonzo Trier missed 7 games due to a right hand injury. Returned Feb. 6 game at Washington. *Junior Elliott Pitts out since Dec. 9 game against Fresno State, due to an undisclosed personal issue.
After the Feb. 17 game against Arizona State, Sean Miller announced Pitts would not return for the remainder of the season.

Depth chart

Coaching staff

Schedule

, - !colspan=12 style=, Exhibition , - !colspan=12 style=, Non-conference regular season , - !colspan=12 style=";", , - !colspan=12 style=";", , - !colspan=12 style=";", NCAA tournament

Ranking movement

*AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings

Player statistics

*As of Mar. 21, 2016

Honors

Award Watchlists

* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award –

Kaleb Tarczewski Kaleb Tarczewski (born February 26, 1993) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for Arizona. He is a 2.13 m (7'0") tal ...

* Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 – Kaleb Tarczewski * Jerry West Award – Allonzo Trier * Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 – Ryan Anderson * Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame - 2016 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Finalist – Ryan Anderson * Lute Olson National Player of the Year Award Finalist – Ryan Anderson

Weekly Awards

Season Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team Arizona Wildcats men's basketball seasons

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Arizona Wildcats men's basketball The Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball program representing the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It competes in the Pac-12 Conference of NCAA Division I and is currently coached by Tommy Lloyd ...