Before the Pac-12 Tournament, Arizona sat firmly in the middle of the three-seed line behind Oregon in line for a preferential NCAA Tournament spot, having only one win over a Top 25 RPI team at that point.
That meant the Wildcats were likely headed to the South or Midwest regions as a No. 3 seed unless they somehow beat both UCLA and Oregon.
Then they beat the Bruins, in part by holding gunner Bryce Alford to just 1 for 10 shooting from 3-point range, while Oregon learned that standout forward Chris Boucher had torn his ACL earlier that evening against California.
The next day, Arizona beat Oregon by three points — a win that may or may not have been different if Boucher played — and moved past the Ducks and to the No. 2 seed line.
That meant, all of a sudden, the Wildcats were headed to San Jose, California, if they could win their first two tournament games in Salt Lake City.
That meant possibly playing Gonzaga on Saturday, within the Pac-12 footprint and presumably before thousands of their own fans, instead of traveling to Kansas City, Memphis or New York for the right to get to the Final Four.
A Final Four that’s in Glendale, no less.
It would be Miller’s first Final Four after four Elite Eight losses, one at Xavier and three at Arizona. As much as the UA coach talks about the importance of the journey and regular-season accomplishments, he also knows the outside world doesn’t always see it that way.
“At the end of the day all of us are judged by what happens in March,” Miller said. “I think for us to duck that or look at that as not being the case is somewhat unrealistic. For us, it’s ‘you have to advance.’ You want to take advantage of a good seed. You want to play your best basketball in March.
“And if that happens and you still don’t advance or win then, I think all of us walk away with our head held high. And we’ll put our ball away and come back next year.”
