WSU will play in the Arizona Tip-Off’s Desert Division starting the day after Thanksgiving, both organizations announced. Weber will travel to Arizona State’s Mullet Arena and face Bowling Green on Nov. 29 and either Pepperdine or New Mexico State on Nov. 30.

The Arizona Tip-Off is in its second season and will also host the “Cactus Division” with Butler, Mississippi State, Northwestern and UNLV during the weekend.

Weber State has also signed up to fly to Hawaii in November, the first matchup against the Warriors in 49 years.

Those games nearly complete the team’s nonconference schedule to begin the 2024-25 season. Participation in a multi-team event increases a team’s maximum allowed regular-season games to 31 but WSU’s trip to Hawaii is exempt from that count. With 18 Big Sky games on the slate and 13 known opponents, the Wildcats are likely to add a home game against a non-Division I team early in the week of Thanksgiving and play 32 games.

WSU’s slate has the team facing former Big Sky head coaches in Wayne Tinkle (Oregon State) and Todd Simon (Bowling Green).

Based on games announced by opponents and on Standard-Examiner reporting, WSU’s nonconference schedule is as follows (with a home exhibition likely played in the last week of October). Home games are in all-caps.

Nov. 4: NORTHWEST INDIAN COLLEGE

Nov. 8: at Oregon State

Nov. 13: at Nevada

Nov. 17: at Hawaii

Nov. 22: UC IRVINE

Nov. 25: TBD home game

Nov. 29: vs. Bowling Green (Arizona Tip-Off)

Nov. 30: Pepperdine/NMSU (Arizona Tip-Off)

Dec. 4: NORTH DAKOTA STATE

Dec. 7: at North Dakota

Dec. 13: at Utah Tech

Dec. 16: LINCOLN (CA)

Dec. 21: UTAH VALLEY

Dec. 29: at Oregon

Conference play begins on Jan. 2 and 4. The Weber State men start Big Sky competition with three straight on the road (Northern Colorado, Northern Arizona, Idaho State) before the Big Sky home-opening weekend with Montana and Montana State on Jan. 16 and 18.

WSU returns seniors Dyson Koehler, Alex Tew and Blaise Threatt, and brought in transfer seniors Miguel Tomley (Idaho State) and Vasilije Vucinic (Portland) with junior Nigel Burris (Utah State).

WOMEN ADD GAME WITH ARIZONA

Weber State women’s basketball has added another road buy game to its 2024-25 nonconference slate.

The Wildcats will travel to Arizona on Dec. 16, contracts obtained via records request show. WSU is also slated for buy games at Utah (Nov. 7) and Boise State (Nov. 24); the three games combined will bring in $98,000 in guaranteed payouts to the program.

WSU will also travel to Utah Tech on Nov. 16, and to North Dakota on Dec. 4 as part of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge. The Wildcats do not get a home game in the challenge; the Summit League has one less team than the Big Sky, creating an imbalance, and Weber’s one challenge game last season was at home.

The lone known home game for the WSU women so far is a Dec. 20 matchup with Utah Valley.

The Wildcats return five players, brought in five transfers and signed five freshmen to the 2024-25 team. Senior guards Kennedy Eskelson, Kendra Parra and Rita Satini return, with Satini coming off a redshirt season. Transfers Rose Bubakar (BYU) and Kaitlin Burgess (Boise State) are also seniors on the team.