No. 10 Arizona had two exhibitions to prepare for the season ahead of its season opener Monday against Canisius, while the Golden Griffins will head into the meeting in Tucson, Ariz., facing an opponent for the first time under a new coach.
Canisius did not renew the contract of eight-year coach Reggie Witherspoon, who guided his team to a 14-18 mark in his final season and a 108-130 record overall. Jim Christian, a head coach with a total of 19 years of experience at Kent State, TCU, Ohio and Boston College, was hired after spending the past two years as an assistant at Kent State. His career record is 320-286.
Christian said he and his team welcome the challenge of being together for the first time in a contest against a program such as Arizona. "Those are the games that kids want to play, which is part of recruiting," Christian said. "We will not play a bunch of non-D-I schools to build some fake momentum.
We will see what Arizona can expose and then learn how we can get better and do what we need to do at the right time." Arizona, in its fourth season under Tommy Lloyd, utilized its exhibitions against Eastern New Mexico (117-54 win) and Point Loma (113-64) to develop chemistry, work on a rotation and further hone the off-guard skills of preseason All-American Caleb Love. Love attended the NBA Draft Combine after last season and decided to return for his fifth year of eligibility after three years at North Carolina (including the COVID-19-impacted season of 2020-21) and l.