The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2024-25 season and the 2025-26 campaigns still a little ways away.
Which makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing and how they’ve handled the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in and what prospects they have for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it is performing under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before he/she arrived and comparing it to now while also evaluating how that program fits into its new conference.
Next up: Ben Loorz’s swimming and diving team
How it looked before
Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois hired Loorz as swimming and diving head coach in May 2024 after a 7-year run by Augie Busch. Loorz took over a legacy program that had fallen off under Busch’s reign. Arizona was once a top 10 program in both men’s and women’s swimming and diving, but sunk towards the middle of the Pac-12 over the last decade plus.
Loorz arrived in Tucson from UNLV, where he guided the Rebels to a total of five conference championships in eight seasons. Given Arizona’s recent history, and Loorz’s lack of experience at the Power 5 level, it was expected that Loorz would need some time and support to get Arizona back to being nationally competitive.
Where things stand now
In Loorz’s first season, the Arizona men’s team achieved a national ranking, earned several All-American honorable mentions and finished runner-up at Big 12 Championships. The men placed 29th at NCAA Championships, a decent result that also left significant room for improvement.
The women’s team followed a similar trajectory in year one under Loorz, also producing multiple All-American honorable mentions, a runner-up finish at Big 12 Championships and a 29th place finish at NCAA Championships.
The top end talent on both the men’s and women’s teams kept Arizona competitive throughout the season, but the program’s lack of depth kept the Wildcats from securing more points at NCAAs. For Arizona to again compete in the upper echelon of the sport, it will need to send far more swimmers to NCAAs.
Big 12 vs. Pac-12
Arizona went down a notch in competition by moving to the Big 12 from the Pac-12, where schools like Stanford, Cal and USC take swimming and diving seriously. Arizona’s biggest competition in the Big 12 is, ASU, which has become a swimming powerhouse over the past decade. The Sun Devils swept the men’s and women’s Big 12 Championships this year and are heads and shoulders ahead of the rest of the conference.
Arizona’s runner-up finishes at conference championships were a positive step for the program, which had fallen towards the bottom of the Pac-12 under Busch. In the big picture, however, Arizona could have a harder time building relevancy competing in a conference that doesn’t value swimming and diving.
One big question
Will Arizona take the leap? There’s no getting around the fact that the Arizona swimming and diving teams are competing at a disadvantage compared to several years ago. Arizona was once one of the destinations for college swimmers but was usurped by rival ASU in the 2010s. Whereas the Sun Devils are regularly competing for national championships (at least on the men’s side), Arizona is looking to regain its place among the sport’s powers.
Loorz’s programs showed some real progress in his first year, with several swimmers and divers earning All-American honorable mentions. The expectations will be higher in Year 2 as Loorz has now had a full calendar year to bring in recruits and transfers, and develop returning swimmers. If the Arizona men’s and women’s teams can reach the top 25 at NCAAs, next season will be considered a step in the right direction.