TUCSON, Ariz. – For the second time in four days, the Arizona Wildcats will welcome an exhibition opponent to McKale Center. UA will host Chico State on Sunday, Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. after defeating the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds earlier in the week.

Arizona vs. Chico State (Exhibition)
Sunday, Nov. 5 at 4:00 p.m. (MST)
TV: Pac-12 Network (Guy Haberman & Matt Muehlebach)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 
The Wildcats topped Eastern New Mexico by 28 points in their first exhibition on Wednesday night in McKale Center. Freshman Deandre Ayton stole the show with 31 points and 10 rebounds on 13-of-16 shooting (.813) from the field in just 24 minutes of action. Arizona sidestepped a slow shooting night from beyond the arc (5 of 15) by knocking down 16 of its 19 free throws (.842). Fellow freshman Emmanuel Akot led the team in assists with six while scoring 10 points of his own.
 
Arizona enters its second exhibition ranked third in the preseason Associated Press poll. The No. 3 ranking going into the season marks just the sixth time in program history the Wildcats have been ranked in the top three in the preseason AP poll. The only other top-three billing in the past 15 season was in 2014-15 when UA entered the season ranked second.
 
UA and Chico State will face off in exhibition play for a third consecutive season and for a fourth time in the Sean Miller era (2009 to present). Arizona is 3-0 in those exhibitions with an average margin of victory of 27.3 points per game. The Cats earned a hard-fought 78-70 win over Chico State last year with just seven players available. Lauri Markkanen led all players with 21 points while grabbing seven rebounds.
 
The Arizona Wildcats enter the 2017-18 season following a 32-5 season one year ago. It was the seventh season of 30 or more wins in program history and the fourth under head coach Sean Miller. UA is the defending Pac-12 regular season and tournament champions after splitting the season title with Oregon with an impressive 16-2 record in league play and defeated a pair of top-5 ranked teams in back-to-back nights en route to the tournament crown. Arizona participated in its 32^nd NCAA Tournament in program history while advancing the program's NCAA record under Miller to 13-6 (.684) and its 18^th Sweet 16 appearance.

Arizona returns a trio of starters and a healthy dose of lettermen in 2017-18. Rawle Alkins, Dusan Ristic and Allonzo Trier are three returning players with a combined 73 games started between them. Arizona's five returning scholarship players, as a whole, bring a wealth of experience back as well. The five returners have appeared in a total of 322 games with 130 starts included in those games played.

Allonzo Trier is tied with Stanford's Reid Travis as the conference's leading returning scorer at 17.2 points per game. Trier is also one of just three returning players in the Pac-12 from the 15 selections from both the first and second all-conference teams.

UA had four players named to preseason award watch lists by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in October. Allonzo Trier (Jerry West Award), Rawle Alkins (Julius Erving Award), Deandre Ayton (Karl Malone Award) and Dusan Ristic (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award) represented the program on the top positional watch lists for shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center. Trier and Ayton also received preseason all-american nods from ESPN on the first and third teams respectively.

The season began unofficially with the annual Red-Blue Game on Oct. 20 as Blue downed Red 55-37 in front of a capacity crowd of 14,644 inside McKale Center. Freshman Deandre Ayton led all players in scoring and rebounds with 21 points and nine boards in just 19 minutes of action. Ayton partnered with junior Allonzo Trier on the Blue team to combine to score 36 points while shooting 15 of 18 (.833) inside the arc. The night's festivities began with freshman Brandon Randolph winning the slam dunk competition.