Long each other’s biggest basketball rival in the Pac-12, UCLA and Arizona will meet again Saturday at the Footprint Center in Phoenix as newly estranged.
It will be a nonconference game. On a neutral court. In an NBA arena that as of midweek was not sold out.
“The whole thing’s weird,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin said Wednesday of a game that always drew one of the biggest home crowds of the season for each team but is now being staged elsewhere as a name, image and likeness fundraiser. The teams are scheduled to meet again next season at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and in 2027 in Los Angeles at a site to be determined.