Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, Joe Lunardi of ESPN and Andy Katz of NCAA.Com all updated their NCAA Tournament Bracketology on Tuesday. Katz and Lunardi project Arizona as five seeds and Palm has the Wildcats as a six if the NCAA Tournament started today.
Palm projects Arizona to play the winner of the First Four game in Dayton, Ohio between Georgia and Wake Forest in Milwaukee. The Georgia-Wake Forest winner would be an 11 seed. The other half of the Milwaukee pod is projected to be third-seeded Michigan State and 14th-seeded Jacksonville State.
Palm projects Arizona as part of the East Regional that will be played the the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on March 27 and 29. Arizona has not played an NCAA Tournament game East of the Mississippi since a 65-55 loss to Wichita State in 2016. Wichita State played in the 2017 First Four.
Lunardi projects Arizona to play 12th-seeded McNeese State in Seattle. The winner of Arizona and McNeese State would play whoever emerges victorious between fourth seed Memphis and 13th seed Grand Canyon. Whoever advances from that pod will move on to the South Regional in Atlanta on March 28 and 30.
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Katz does not specify first and second-round locations. Arizona is projected to play 12th-seeded California-Irvine in the first round. Fourth-seeded Wisconsin against 13th-seed Grand Canyon is projected as the other part of the pod. Arizona would have an opportunity to avenge their loss to Wisconsin or play in-state Grand Canyon.
Katz projects the Arizona pod to play in Seattle. That should provide Arizona with a huge advantage. The projections from all three bracketologists are how the teams are now., Arizona has a lot of opportunities to continue moving up in Bracketology. At 4-5, Arizona was not projected to make the NCAA Tournament.