Arizona basketball: Arizona's Pac-12 conference schedule for the upcoming season has been announced

The non-conference schedule for the Arizona Wildcats for the 2015-2016 season has been released for quite some time, but today the basic structure of the Pac-12 conference schedule was revealed (via Arizona Athletics):

Note: The exact dates of the games are unknown at this moment, but these are the "windows" the games will be played in.

The Wildcats will not be hosting the mountain schools (Utah and Colorado) at McKale this year, but in return, will not have to make a trip to Oregon or Oregon State.

A hidden bonus is that the road game in Tempe will take place during winter break for ASU students. The Wells Fargo Arena is already "McKale North", but if a decent number of students are absent, it should make the road environment even less hostile. We may not even see the "curtain of distraction" this time!

One of the final games of the year will be against the rebuilt and highly talented California Golden Bears in McKale Center. Many experts project Arizona and Cal as the top two teams in the conference, and if that holds true, Arizona's game against Cal at McKale Center in early March could be the one that decides the Pac-12 champion.

Also, if you haven't see the out-of-conference schedule, here it is:

The road game up in Spokane surely is the highlight here, but don't sleep on that UNLV game. We'll get to see Stephen Zimmerman play in Tucson, just not in the uniform we'd hoped he'd be in.

Keep in mind that since Arizona is in the Wooden Legacy tournament, there's a chance they'll play the Michigan State Spartans too.

Should be a fun year.