Report: Arizona women’s basketball to face Baylor in Coast to Coast Challenge

Arizona women’s basketball will get another shot at playing a team from Texas in the Coast to Coast Challenge according to Jeff Goodman of Stadium. The Wildcats were set to play Texas in Las Vegas in last year’s event before a COVID-19 outbreak on the team put an end to that. While Texas will also be in the 2022 event, Arizona will face Baylor this time.

The Coast to Coast Challenge was first announced in 2019, but the event had to be canceled that year due to the pandemic. It was once again disrupted by COVID-19 when Arizona had to bow out last season, but the inaugural event went on with Texas playing San Diego in the women’s half of the event.

This season, the challenge will expand to two doubleheaders featuring four different Pac-12 schools. The games will be held in American Airlines Center in Dallas on Dec. 18, 2022.

On the men’s side, Stanford will take on Texas while Washington State faces Baylor. In the women’s doubleheader, the Wildcats and Bears will join USC and Texas. The games will air on ESPN and ESPN2.

Although Arizona will not face Texas in the Coast to Coast Challenge this year, the Wildcats are still set to host the Longhorns in the second part of a home-and-home arrangement that started in the 2019-20 season. Arizona defeated Texas 83-58 in Austin on Nov. 17, 2019. The Longhorns’ return trip to Tucson was postponed twice, first due to the pandemic and then to accommodate last year’s Coast to Coast Challenge.