In preparation, the Wildcats have taken advantage of the extra 10 full practices teams are allowed before taking offseason foreign tours.
Teams used to only be able to take foreign exhibition tours once every four years but a rule change was passed this year to allow one every year, and the Wildcats responded by assembling a trip to Lithuania even though they went to the Middle East in 2023.
“I definitely feel like these practices have helped,” Holmes said. “The main thing is just building chemistry with each other. We scrimmage a lot. It’s just learning the feel of the game.”
Holmes said they have also been watching plenty of video.
“This is going to get us prepared for the upcoming season,” Holmes said. “We’re not taking this lightly. We’re preparing to go out there and play three 40-minute games, so we’ve got to watch as much film as possible.”
Arizona guard Cameron Holmes (2) passes the ball during a summer basketball practice inside Richard Jefferson Gymnasium, July 31, 2026.
While many of the Wildcats are adjusting to each other — and Holmes says he’s adjusting to the physicality of the college game — they may not have to worry too much about adjusting to the international rules they’ll be facing on the trip.
They have an ideal tour guide for that: UA coach Tommy Lloyd.
On top of holding deep international recruiting ties — and sometimes attaching his summer vacations around FIBA events — Lloyd coached USA Basketball junior teams to gold medals in the 2024 FIBA U18 AmeriCup and the 2025 U19 World Cup.
“He’s mixed in a little bit of teaching us the rules of FIBA,” Dixon said. “Like that the you can tip the ball off the rim out of bounds, and you can’t go backcourt on sideline out of bounds. It’s just little tips and stuff like that that we’ve gone over, just so we’re comfortable and not caught off guard.”