Pac-12 Tournament Champions: Arizona Basketball wins 3 times in 3 days

After beating Colorado in the Quarterfinals, and UCLA in a hard-fought semi-final game in overtime, Arizona Basketball beat the USC Trojans in the Finals to win the Pac-12 Tournament, 75-61.

Just like it was predicted, USC and Arizona Basketball met in the Pac-12 Tournament Finals and Arizona ended up on top. Pac-12 Regular Season Champions and Pac-12 Tournament Champions. This is why Allonzo Trier and Rawle Alkins came back to play for Sean Miller, this is why Dusan Ristic and Parker Jackson-Cartwright stayed with Sean Miller and why Deandre Ayton chose to play for Sean Miller. To win.

Arizona, after their three wins in three days, the irony, deserves a much higher seed than No. 4 or No. 5, they deserve a two or three seed in the West Region.

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Kevin O’Neill (KO) spoke Pac-12 Tournament on the pre-game show. He said that foul trouble will decide the game. What is he, a psychic? O’Neill stated that Metu was the better athlete on the court than Deandre Ayton, this was before the game. After the game, he has to be eating his words.

On the same show, Andy Enfield explained that to win, his Trojans had to hold Arizona to 70 points or under, that his team was 18-0 when doing that. In Transition Arizona is dangerous and they have a big inside presence with Ayton and Ristic, felt his team had to keep their turnovers down and make plays.

Pre-game, Sean Miller said he respected Chimezie Metu and that the Trojans have great team chemistry. Ira Lee played with Metu in the Drew League in the summer, but Miller opted to not play Lee for the third straight game.

Going into the Pac-12 Tournament Championship game, the Arizona Basketball team had won two of the last three Tournaments. They just added a third in the last four season. That means Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Dusan Ristic were playing in their 11th tournament game. And they didn’t disappoint anyone.

YEAR       WINNER             SCORE           OPPONENT    MVP

2018        Arizona            75-61             USC                 Deandre Ayton, Arizona

Highlights first half:

• PJC started the Arizona scoring with a three-pointer.
• Ayton made three rebounds in under three minutes into the game.
• Rawle Alkins had a rough first half but grabbed five rebounds, Ayton eight.
• Usc interior passing was really good.
• USC Nick Rakocevic scored 13 points in the first half, Ayton 13.

Highlights second half

• Arizona scored the first five points including an Alkins three, it would be his better half.
• Elijah Stewart played with ease caused trouble for the Cats.
• Metu committed his fourth foul after sending Parker into the floor seats with 10:34 left in the game.
• KING RAWLE BROUGH THE HOUSE DOWN WITH THE DUNK OF THE PLAYOFFS, assist Ayton (see below for more).
• Deandre followed up Alkins dunk with a dunk of his own, and then another.
• Arizona’s big men, Dusan Ristic and Ayton took over passing to each other for baskets, Cats were ahead by ten points with 4:14 to go.
• Arizona dominated the rest of the game with Dylan Smith filling in for Rawle Alkins and hit some key free-throws to seal the deal for the Cats.

Ayton passed to Alkins after Alkins called for the ball and the court opened up for a dunk, a dunk that will go down in Arizona and NCAA history. That dunk and the following Ayton dunk were momentum changers. Ayton was asked what he told King Rawle:

"“You should go to jail for that, there’s no way somebody should get away with that — I have never seen a dunk like that, that was some 2K animation type stuff — He did this [puts his hands behind his head], I was like, what — It’s what he did in traffic like, nobody expected him to do this [puts his hands behind his head], I don’t even do that!” Here’s all that Dre had to say about that dunk via Ryan Kelapire."

Rawle and Deandre were trending on Twitter all the way in Los Angeles. Here’s the dunk, best dunk in the Pac-12 all year:

Here’s Rawle talking about his dunk:

Photos of the Rawle Alkins dunk: (We aren’t supposed to put full-size photo’s in a post, but I hope I can apologize to my Editor up front, this dunk deserves full-size photo’s!)

LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 10: Rawle Alkins

LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 10: Rawle Alkins

LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 10: Rawle Alkins

Team Leaders

• Ayton 32 points (back-to-back career-highs) and 18 rebounds
• Ristic 16 points and five rebounds
• PJC 10 points five assists
• Trier nine points, and four assists (Note: KO said that Arizona wins when Zo earns four or more assists, yep!)
• Alkins six points, six rebounds

Ayton logged his 23rd double-double, scored back-to-back 32-point games, and won the Pac-12 Tournament MOP award tonight. In addition this season Ayton is earned:

1. Pac-12 Player of the Year
2. Pac-12 Freshman of the Year
3. First-Team All-Pac-12
4. All-Pac-12 Freshman Team
5. All-Pac-12 Tournament Team (Along with Ristic)
6. All Pac-12 Defensive Team

Rawle spoke about Ayton after the game and he said the team tries to find a player to compare him with and they just can’t, the Fox Sports crew reviewed his SCTop10 dunk with him (The dunk came in at No. 4). Trier talked about how special Coach Miller has been, “He has been an unbelievable leader for us, he has been so composed through all this.”

Sean Miller spoke after accepting the trophy:

"“I thought our team, number one had a focus everything was about the next game, the next practice. And I think it really showed because our defense was maybe the best its been all season in this tournament And if it wasn’t, I don’t know if we would have even made the Championship game. So proud of the team!”"

Miller paid special tribute to seniors Ristic and Parker and Keanu Pinder for their third Pac-12 Championship.

Here are some highlights, until we get the video that is…

The WINNING LOCKER ROOM:

Pac-12 Press Conference, Miller feels UCLA and USC should go to the NCAA Tournament, he’s very proud of his team’s accomplishments.

Celebration:

Must Read: More on Arizona Basketball from ZZ..

On to the NCAA Tournament! Tomorrow night is Selection Sunday and will be aired on TBS this year. TBS has decided to use a different format than CBS has traditionally used. They will announce the field of 64 plus four wildcards first, then they will announce the region, bracket, and seed of each team.