Arizona Basketball: Pac-12 Tournament Primer with scenarios

The Arizona Wildcats, regular season Pac-12 co-champions with the Oregon Ducks, now move on to the Pac-12 Tournament as the No.2 seed.

One championship down, two more to go! The Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, NV is up next. The Arizona Wildcats victory over Arizona State on Saturday gave them a No.2 seed in the conference tournament. A spot in the finals won’t be easy as they may face UCLA in the semifinals and possibly the Oregon Ducks in the finals – how sweet would that be for the Cats to win it?!

Quarterfinal matchup

As the saying goes, one game at a time. First up for the Wildcats could be a matchup between either the Colorado Buffaloes or Washington State Cougars. The Cats won both games against the Cougars, with strong performances by Allonzo Trier and Lauri Markkanen. When they last played against the Buffaloes, the Cats struggled a little towards the end, but were able to off their opponent and add another notch to their win column.

The potential outcome against the Cougars: Compared to the Cougars, the Wildcats have a clear advantage, with their size and skill level. Cougars leading scorer, Josh Hawkinson, will need support from his team to have any chance of winning. Wildcats are the favorites in this one.

The potential outcome against the Buffaloes: The Buffaloes have a lot more offensive firepower, with Xavier Johnson and George King. For the Cats to advance against the Buffaloes, they would need to play well on both ends of the court not giving their opponent any sort of confidence.

The Buffs are 8-3 since they broke their losing streak at the beginning of the season winning mostly at home. Miller said, in his press conference this week, they Buffs are better now than when Arizona first played them.

Semifinal matchup

In the semifinals, the Cats would face the winner of UCLA vs. USC or Washington. One of the Bruins’ few losses this year was to the Trojans. The way the Bruins having been playing lately, though, they are clear favorites to advance to the semifinals to face the Wildcats.

The Wildcats and Bruins have split their matchups this season with both being very highly anticipated games that received a lot of media attention.

In the first matchup, the Wildcats had Trier back in the lineup which came at a perfect time! The Cats stepped up to the challenge and played one of their best games of the year. Kobi Simmons led the team in scoring, on a night where it seemed none of the Wildcats could miss. Lonzo Ball didn’t have a bad game at all with 24 points – the Wildcats just played better.

The outcome was different in the second matchup of the season against the Bruins at home. This time around, the Wildcats struggled on both ends of the court and played catch-up most of the night. Bruins played zone defense as well, which threw off the offensive rhythm. Wildcats did have a chance at the end to tie it with a 3-pointer by Kadeem Allen but missed. On the plus side, Trier had a season-high 28 points and Markkanen and Cartwright each had ten.

The potential outcome against the Bruins: If the Wildcats shoot and rebound well, limit Ball on the offensive end and Leaf on the glass, they have an excellent chance to win this game especially on a neutral court.

Finals

In the finals, if the Wildcats get to this point, they will have the opportunity for a “revenge” matchup against the Oregon Ducks (if the Ducks get by the winner of Arizona State vs. Stanford and then the winner of Utah vs. Oregon State or  California).

More than likely, the Ducks have a very a good chance to make it to the finals but would have two possible hurdles.

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One of those hurdles will be if they have to face the Devils. During the one regular season matchup, they had a hard time against the smaller lineup and held on to win by just one point.

The second hurdle will be facing the Bears. During the one regular season matchup, the Ducks won another close one. They came from behind and won on a 3-pointer by Dillion Brooks with .2 seconds left. A strong 3-point performance in the second half gave the Ducks the chance to win the game at the end. They will need to perform better on both ends of the court for all 40 minutes.

The Ducks put on dominating performances against the Utes, Cardinals, and Beavers during the regular season and should have no problem against any of those teams.

The Predicted outcome against the Ducks:  If the Ducks play to their full potential in this tournament, the matchup against the Wildcats will happen which everyone wants to see!

In their only matchup of the season, the Cats lost 85-58 to the Ducks. They played against a team on the road, in a hostile environment and they made 16 3-point shots, the odds were not in their favor.

The Wildcats did have an off night and only shot 25 percent from the field. They played against a team that couldn’t miss. Ducks guard Tyler Dorsey was 6-6 from 3-point range!

Since that loss, the Cats only had one more loss against top-ranked UCLA and ended the regular season on a high note. They beat the Devils and took home some hardware!

Keys to Victory

• The Wildcats will need to play much better 3-point defense than during the regular season matchup.
• Limit Brooks from good open looks.
• Make smart decisions on offense, which will lead to high-quality shots.

If the Wildcats do face another opponent in the finals, other than the Ducks, chances are they will win (they won the regular season match up against all the other teams).

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Everyone at Zona Zealots wishes the Wildcats the best of luck as they begin their postseason tournament. Bear Down!