Arizona Basketball ended the season not the way they were hoping and as a result, they will face the Huskies in the opening round of the Pac-12 Tournament.
5th place. After losing to the Washington Huskies on senior night, Arizona Basketball found themselves finishing the Pac-12 season in 5th place at 10-8 behind the USC Trojans. Even though the outcome of the game didn’t matter (because Arizona State had won their game against the Cougars), losing the last game of the season at home on senior night to the last-place team in the conference, not what this team needed heading into post-season. They now get a 2nd chance against the Huskies in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament. Time for some revenge!
It’s been a wild Pac-12 conference season, that’s for sure, but the Wildcats had their chances to secure a bye in the first round of the conference tournament. They were unable though to find a way to get the wins they needed to do so and now have to play in the opening round. Instead of three straight possible days of games, now they would have to play four straight days of games to get the Pac-12 Championship game.
Won’t be an easy task at all, especially with some of the teams in the tournament needing to win it all to get into the NCAA Tournament. Those are the type of teams that playing with nothing to lose. The Wildcats face one of those teams, the Huskies, in the opening round. In the last place of the Pac-12, the Huskies likely have to win the tournament to get into March Madness.
Arizona Wildcats
Having split the series, the Wildcats will have to come out ready and focused right from tip-off. On senior night they didn’t and it forced them to play from behind the entire game. Being down as much as 17, cutting the lead down to 4 and then losing by 6, they can’t afford to do that again. Huskies believe they can beat the Wildcats, which is going to make them a difficult challenge, but one this team can handle and overcome.
If they advance, they would play USC in the quarterfinals. Like the Huskies, the Wildcats split the series with the Trojans as well. I am going to sound like a broken record, but for this team to be successful and advance against the Trojans, they can’t afford any mental lapses on either side of the court and have to play as a team. The Trojans have the talent to take advantage and run away with this one if the Wildcats aren’t 100% focused.
In the semifinals, it doesn’t get any easier as they would face the winner of Oregon vs Oregon State/Utah. More then likely, it will be the Ducks the Wildcats would face. In both games this year, they should have beaten the Ducks, but they didn’t and lost by one point in OT in both games. Again, if the Wildcats shoot the ball well and finally find a way to get it done in the clutch time they have a real shot in advancing to the championship game.
Then in the finals, with how both teams have played as of late, the Wildcats would face ASU or UCLA. Against the Sun Devils, the Wildcats split the series and versus the Bruins, the Wildcats lost both games. But if the Wildcats were somehow able to advance all the way to the finals, they would have the confidence and momentum to have a chance to cut down the nets.
Here are the highlights of how the Wildcats defeated the Huskies on the road back in January. They’ll need the same type of performance to win the opening round:
Game information, per ArizonaWildcats.com
Tip-off: March 11th, 2:30pm MST
Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV
2019 Records: Arizona 20-11 (10-8 in Pac-12), Washington 15-16 (5-13 in Pac-12)
History: Arizona leads overall series 53-51. Last meeting Huskies won 69-63 on the road
TV: Pac-12 Networks
Radio: Arizona IMG Sports Network Arizona Wildcats (Try Tunein Radio)
At Zona Zealots, it’s hard to predict what will happen in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas for Arizona Basketball because it’s been such an up and down season. We do know that if this team plays to its full potential, they could leave Las Vegas as champs. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!