Pac-12 Tournament: Arizona Wildcats Going to the Championship Game!

Arizona Basketball: Former Arizona Wildcat and now ESPN sports broadcaster Miles Simon reporting he thinks Duke, Arizona, Kentucky, and Wisconsin are the best teams in the country.

Championship Game: Arizona vs. Oregon, Saturday March 14, 2015, 8:00 PM PST on ESPN

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According to ESPN Joe Lunardi still thinks Arizona as a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Well that’s his opinion, while Miles Simon has come around. Miles loves his Wildcats, but as we know, he truly looks at all the facts, he’s not a homer. Remember when he picked Utah to beat Arizona in the regular season and they lost? He received a ton of tweets telling him how wrong he was and how he was a traitor. Hey, he’s a broadcaster, he made a call and I won’t hold it against him.

The game started so slow for the Wildcats, but yes, they did defeat the Bruins, 70-64. The game was as close as 66-64 in the final minutes. The game was tied at halftime, 27-27 after a buzzer beater three-pointer from Bryce Alford. It was beautiful if you were a Bruin fan, if you were Coach Sean Miller, you were livid and trying very hard to control yourself as you were being interviewed.

Photo by @quackarazzi

UCLA was valiant in that they never gave up, even though Isaac Hamilton fouled out and others were in foul trouble. Their player of the game was Norman Powell who scored 21 points and 4 rebounds, but only two assists. Its seemed at times, Powell was a one man team.

T.J. McConnell expressed his frustration with his first half play in the post-game interview, “You could say I was practically playing for the other team in the first half how much I was giving them the ball..[I] just kept playing, that’s what you gotta do.” And about the fans, “I don’t think we win without them here..it’s the red sea out here. I said we have the best fans in America and they prove it time and time again.”

Brandon Ashley’s post-game interview was all positive, “I’ve said it time and time again I think we have the best fans in the country, it doesn’t get much better than this!” On last year’s injury and having to sit out and coming back this year, “Oh man it feels great to be back. It feels good to be out here with my team, it’s a great feeling.”

Photo by @quackarazzi 3/13/15

Brandon Ashley is just a Phenom! He made 82% of his field goals, 86% of his free-throws and ended up with a total of 24 points. In contrast, his team shot 40% FG overall. Per Arizona Wildcats basketball (@aplayersprogram), the Wildcats are at 30-3 and now have won 30 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history!

Stanley Johnson with IMG’s Ryan Hanson on Brandon Ashley, “All American type good. Any game you watch, he’s playing like that for us, we are probably winning that game!” On fan support “In the introductions I feel like I am at the McKale Center..it gives us energy and spark and that’s what we need.” On tonight, “We haven’t won it in a couple years now, we are just focused on winning the game!”

Coach Miller was beaming with pride in his post game interview, “I’m proud of our guys, we haven’t been in a close game for a long time…UCLA is a good team, really proud of our guy’s resiliency”
Sean Miller’s tweet

Oh and Nick Johnson and Jason Terry left their Houston Rockets in Los Angeles to go to Vegas to watch their Wildcats beat UCLA. They play on Sunday against the Clippers. Johnson was able to greet the winning team as they came into the locker room. To watch it on Facebook via the Pac-12 Network, Click here to go to the Video post (MUST WATCH).

On to the next game…our Wildcats are relaxing in their rooms on a floor in the 30’s probably, looking outside over the lights of Las Vegas, looking forward to a big party tomorrow night!

Fans need to be loud tomorrow night and not wait until late in the second half, the players and coach have let us know, we/you are the best fans in the nation!

BEARDOWN ARIZONA!

Next: Read about future Wildcats Chance Comanche and Justin Simons wins!

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