The Arizona Wildcats are back on the hardwood Wednesday taking on the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the opening game of Battle 4 Atlantis at 5 p.m. MST in the Bahamas.

No. 2 Arizona (3-0) enters with the No. 2 offense in college basketball and No. 18 defense. NC State (4-0) enters with the No. 83 offense and No. 136 defense.

KenPom projects the Wildcats have a 92 percent chance of winning and gives a prediction of 86-71 for the final score.

We gave our three keys for Arizona to win, while the folks at Backing the Pack gave us some insight on what to expect from NC State.

Here is how you can tune in to the game, and we’ll be chatting about it in the comment section below. Join us!

TV info

Game time: 5 p.m. MST

TV (sorta): ESPN3

Live stream: Watch ESPN

Announcers: Kevin Fitzgerald (play-by-play) and Robbie Hummel (analyst)

Radio info

Radio stream: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries and Ryan Hansen)

Satellite Radio: Sirius 126, XM 198

Bracket

If Arizona beats NC State, it will play the winner of SMU-Northern Iowa on Thursday at 1 p.m. MST. If Arizona wins that game, it would play Friday at 10 a.m. MST, possibly against No. 5 Villanova or No. 18 Purdue.

Here is the full bracket:

Arizona Game Notes

• Arizona plays its first game in six days when it takes on NC State. Arizona posted a 91-59 win over CSU Bakersfield in its last game on Thursday, Nov. 16 in McKale Center. Allonzo Trier scored a gamehigh 28 points on a ridiculous eight-of-nine shooting night from the field. Trier was two points shy of becoming just the second Wildcat in program history to score 30 or more points in three consecutive games.
• Freshman Deandre Ayton finished his night with 18 points and 10 rebounds versus CSU Bakersfield. Ayton became the first UA freshman to open his college career with back-to-back-to-back double-doubles. He also became just the fourth Wildcat overall to tally three consecutive double-doubles at any point in his first NCAA season.
• Arizona boasts an all-time record of 25-12 (.676) in games played outside the continental United States, going back to the 1968-69 Rainbow Classic in Hawai’i. The Battle 4 Atlantis will be the first additions to those 37 games not played in Hawai’i or Alaska.
• The Arizona coaching staff feature a pair of former Wolfpack coaches. Head coach Sean Miller served as an assistant to Herb Sendek in Raleigh from 1996 to 2001 while assistant coach Mark Phelps also on Sendek’s staff at NC State from 1996 to 2006.
• UA’s participation in this year’s Battle 4 Atlantis will feature a homecoming for forward Deandre Ayton. The freshman is a native of Nassau where he played soccer and participated in band as a child in the Bahamas before moving to the United States and discovering basketball in high school. Ayton’s homecoming with the Wildcats in the Battle 4 Atlantis comes as a twist of fate as the program signed to play in the event years before Ayton even committed to play for the University of Arizona.