The Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team was founded in 1904 to represent the University of Arizona in intercollegiate competition and has participated in the sport all but one season since its inception. Over the course of the team's history, the Wildcats' performance has ranged from losing records to resulting in a national championship.
During periods of both ascendancy and mediocrity, individual Arizona players of exceptional ability have received various accolades. In total, Wildcats have been named to an All-America team 32 times, and All-Pac-12 Conference team 110 times. Of the All-America selections, thirty-seven players received first-team honors a total of fifty-eight times. Sixteen players were named consensus first-team All-Americans a total of twenty-five times.
Wildcats have won several nationally recognized individual awards, including the Bob Cousy Award, the Senior CLASS Award, Academic All-America of the Year, and several of the National Player of the Year awards. The College Basketball Hall of Fame has inducted one former Arizona player, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has enshrined three. Former Wildcats head coach have also been inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Each year, numerous publications and organizations release lists of All-America teams, hypothetical rosters of players considered the best in the nation at their respective positions. Some selecting organizations choose more than one roster of All-Americans, in which case they use the terms "first team", "second team", and "third team" as appropriate. Some selectors also award honorable mentions to outstanding players who did not make any of their teams. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a college sports governing body, uses officially recognized All-America selectors to determine the "consensus" selections. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors based on a point system computed from the four different all-America teams. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation. The top five totals plus ties are first team and the next five plus ties are second team. Over time, the sources used to determine the consensus selections have changed, and since 1997, the NCAA has used these selectors to determine consensus All-Americans: Associated Press (AP), the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), the Sporting News (TSN), and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).
The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players that were named first, second or third team All-Americans:
Consensus All-Americans
Source: Arizona 2029–21 Media Guide[1]
Fourteen Arizona players have received AP All-America honorable mention:
The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players that were named first, second or third team All-Pac-12:
First team All-Pac-12
Second team All-Pac-12
Third team All-Pac-12
Note
Pac-12 All Freshman Team
Note
Pac-12 All Newcomer
Note
Pac-12 All-Defensive Team
Pac-12 All-Academic Team
All-Pac 12 Tournament Team
Note
Source: Arizona 2023–24 Media Guide [1]
National player of the year[2]
Frank Hessler Award[2]
NCAA Regionals most outstanding player[3]
Julius Erving Award
Karl Malone Award
See main article: Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year.
The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players who have been named Pac-12 Player of the Year:[2]
See main article: Pac-12 Men's Basketball Freshman of the Year.
The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players who have been named either Pac-12 Freshman of the Year (awarded by the league's head coaches, and open only to freshmen) or Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year (awarded by the AP and open to any player in his first year at an Pac-12 school, including transfers).[2]
Source:
The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame has commemorated many of the sport's most outstanding and most innovative personalities. Among them are one former Arizona players and one former Arizona head coaches.
Players
Coaches
To have his number retired, a player must win one of the following six widely recognized player of the year awards:[5]
Players:
See main article: List of Arizona Wildcats in the NBA draft.
The following 28 McDonald's All-Americans listed below have signed with Arizona. An asterisk, "*", Indicates player did not finish his college career at Arizona. A cross, "†", indicates player did not begin his college career at Arizona. 1970–1999
2000–2019
2020–present
The following Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players have represented their country in basketball in the Summer Olympics:
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The following Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players have gone on to win an NBA championship. A Total of 33 NBA championships have been won by 15 former Wildcats players.
| Player (College Years) | Finals Year | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Bret Brielmaier (2004–08) | 2016 | Cleveland Cavaliers |
| Jud Buechler (1986–90) | Chicago Bulls (3) | |
| Quinton Crawford (2011–13) | 2020 | Los Angeles Lakers |
| Bison Dele (1988–91) | Chicago Bulls | |
| Sean Elliott (1984–89) | San Antonio Spurs | |
| Bruce Fraser (1984–87) | 2015 | Golden State Warriors (4) |
| Channing Frye (2001–05) | Cleveland Cavaliers | |
| Andre Iguodala (2002–04) | 2015, 2017, 2018, 2022 | Golden State Warriors (4) |
| Richard Jefferson (1998–01) | Cleveland Cavaliers | |
| Steve Kerr (1983–88) | 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2015*, 2017*, 2018*, 2022* | Chicago Bulls (3), San Antonio Spurs (2), Golden State Warriors (4)* |
| Miles Simon (1994–98) | 2020 | Los Angeles Lakers |
| Jason Terry (1995–99) | Dallas Mavericks | |
| Luke Walton (1999-03) | 2009, 2010, 2015* | Los Angeles Lakers (2), Golden State Warriors* |
| Aaron Gordon (2013–14) | 2023 | Denver Nuggets |
| Zeke Nnaji (2019–20) | 2023 | Denver Nuggets |
Note: *Coach or Assistant coach
| Abbreviations | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positions | Selectors | |||||||||
| G | Guard | ABA | ABAUSA | AP | Associated Press | AW | American Weekly | BA | Basketball America | |
| F | Forward | BN | Basketball News | BT | Basketball Times | BW | Basketball Weekly | CBS | CBS | |
| C | Center | CBSS | CBS Sportline | CNVR | Converse | COL | Collier's Weekly | CP | Central Press Association | |
| ESPN | ESPN | FOX | FOX | HLMS | Helms Foundation | INS | International News Service | |||
| JW | John Wooden Team | NABC | National Association of Basketball Coaches | NAIS | Naismith | NBACO | NBA Coaches | |||
| NEA | Newspaper Enterprise Association | RA | Rupp Award | SI | Sports Illustrated | TSN | The Sporting News | |||
| UP | United Press | UPI | United Press International | USBWA | United States Basketball Writers Association | |||||