Arizona is officially out of the Pac-12 shadows and in the national spotlight
For a team that won 27 regular season games, there wasn't really all that much buzz surrounding the Arizona Wildcats entering the Pac-12 tournament. Most of the focus was on UCLA and super freshman Lonzo Ball. Plenty was on Oregon, which beat Arizona by 27 in Eugene a few weeks ago.
But while the Wildcats might not have gotten the respect they deserved coming into the tournament, they certainly left with it. A night after toppling UCLA in the semifinals, Arizona took down Oregon 83-80 to claim its second Pac-12 title in three seasons.
If folks weren't talking about the Wildcats before, they are now. And certainly will be come Selection Sunday.
But first, let's start with Saturday, where Arizona showed off just how lethal it can be. Sophomore guard Allonzo Trier led the way with 23 points, picking things up for star freshman Lauri Markkanen, who was limited to just 11 points a night after tallying 29 against UCLA. Kadeem Allen — the lone senior on this team — added 13 points, with junior Parker Jackson-Cartwright adding eight points (including a pair of key buckets late) in the win.
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With the victory, Arizona will now sit back and wait to see where it's slotted on Selection Sunday. The consensus seems to be that will be the No. 2 seed in the West, where the Wildcats could very well be matched up alongside No. 1 seed Gonzaga, who they lost to back in December.
Wherever they end up, it's not hard to see this team breaking through with the first Final Four of Sean Miller's career. This is a club which has dealt with all kinds of adversity — a career-ending injury to star Ray Smith, Trier's suspension for PED's — and still managed to come out strong, sitting at 30-4 overall entering the Big Dance. After re-inserting Trier into the lineup, the Wildcats seemed to hit a speed bump, but are now playing their best basketball.
And for Arizona fans, it's hard not to think about the big picture of this season. The school hasn't made a Final Four since 2001, but how sweet would it be to make a trip this year, with college basketball's final weekend taking place in Glendale, Arizona, just down the road from Tucson?
We'll see if every Arizona fan's dreams come true in the coming weeks.
