Arizona men's basketball to wear 1997-style blue uniforms for ASU game

As if there wasn’t already huge anticipation for New Year’s Eve.

Arizona announced Monday it would be debuting its 1997-style blue road uniforms for Saturday’s game at ASU, having former Wildcat great Miles Simon unveil them in a video on Twitter:

‘These are the best uniforms in Arizona basketball history,’ said Simon, who was MVP of Arizona’s 1997 NCAA title run. ‘Arizona fans, you know what that means: national championship #2 is coming.’

Arizona debuted new uniforms for this season–RIP gradient shoulders–that harkened back to earlier years, but their reception was mixed. That wasn’t the case, however, when the Wildcats broke out white ‘97 unis for the Dec. 10 game against Indiana in Las Vegas, and they wore those again for the Dec. 17 home win over Tennessee.

No word on if there’s a red version, or if either the retro whites or blues will become the everyday gear. If the UA beats ASU on Saturday, like it did regularly throughout the Lute Olson era, it may be hard to go back to those other unis.