UCLA and Arizona, long each other’s biggest basketball rival in the Pac-12, will meet freshly estranged again on Saturday at the Footprint Center in Phoenix.

It will be a non-conference game. On a neutral court. In an NBA arena that wasn’t sold out by midweek.

“The whole thing is strange,” Bruins coach Mick Cronin said Wednesday of a game that always drew one of the biggest home crowds of the season for any team but is now being played elsewhere to raise funds for names, images and likenesses. The teams are scheduled to meet again next season at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and in Los Angeles in 2027 at a location to be determined.

Adding to the bizarreness is Arizona’s early season greatness. The Wildcats (4-4), now members of the Big 12 Conference, fell out of the national rankings last week for the first time since November 2021 and briefly had a losing record for the first time since the start of the 2009-10 season.

Essentially, they are feeling the same pain that UCLA felt a year ago with massive roster exodus. Guard Caleb Love is the only returning starter on a transfer-heavy Arizona squad that will be looking for its first quality win when it takes on the No. 24 Bruins (8-1).

“They’ve gone through a lot of personnel changes,” said Cronin, whose recent roster overhaul was an initial success. “But they’re still the same, nothing really different in terms of their offensive strategy, the things they do and the way they play.”

Cronin said Arizona’s problems were largely a result of a brutal schedule that included Wisconsin, Duke, Oklahoma and West Virginia, not to mention a long trip to the Bahamas for the final two games.

Some metrics support Cronin’s claim that the Wildcats remain a top-25 team despite their record. According to basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy, Arizona’s offensive efficiency ranks 24th nationally and its defensive efficiency ranks 37th. (For comparison, UCLA’s offensive ranking is 48th and its defensive ranking is 4th.) Pomeroy expects the Wildcats to win the game, 75- 74.

UCLA is painfully familiar with love. A transfer from North Carolina, his late three-point shot helped the Tar Heels to a victory over the Bruins in the 2022 NCAA Tournament after a quiet first half. He continues to be an unpredictable shooter in his second season in Arizona, scoring 18 from 61 three-pointers (29.5%).

But there are other signs that the Wildcats are trending in the right direction. Forward Trey Townsend, a transfer from Oakland University, has averaged 14.5 points in his last four games after a slow start. Center Motiejus Krivas appears to be returning to form after suffering a foot injury in preseason. And guard Anthony Dell’Orso, a transfer from Campbell, has provided a reliable weapon off the bench, making 50% of his three-point shots.

The crowd at the Footprint Center will likely swing heavily in the Wildcats’ favor, but likely won’t resemble what the Bruins are used to at the McKale Center.

“That just didn’t exist before, did it?” Cronin said he was playing a familiar opponent in unfamiliar territory. “You played home and home. But the old days, that’s why they call them the old times.”

Etc.

Cronin on forward Eric Dailey Jr., who is hitting 47.4% of his three-point shots: “He’s the most dedicated player I’ve ever coached, so it’s a product of…his work ethic.”…Cronin said , a failure of fundamentals by guard Sebastian Mack contributed to the failed box-out on a free throw late in the Oregon game, which led to an offensive rebound and a three-pointer by the Ducks. “He didn’t chicken out,” Cronin said of Mack. “Little things that are not little things, but big things.”