Arizona’s 93-65 first-round NCAA victory over Akron could’ve been titled “40 Minutes of Chaos.” The undersized and talent-challenged Zips made the game look like a 4x100 relay with people running in the wrong lanes, organized mayhem, hoping the Wildcats would get caught up in a rush of bad shots and worse defense.
Arizona maintained its poise and won with ease.
Arizona forward Carter Bryant (9), left, forward Trey Townsend (4), guard Anthony Dell’Orso (3) and forward Henri Veesaar (13) celebrate a late 3-pointer fired in by reserve Grant Weitman during the second half of their NCAA Tournament game against Akron in Seattle on March 21, 2025.
Sunday’s foe, the Oregon Ducks, are the opposite of the Zips. There are no extremes. Dana Altman is a master at the controls with Top 25 talent, size and depth. He uses as many as four defenses a game, slow and go, and has probably won more games 77-72, or thereabouts, than any coach alive.
The Ducks are as boring as their quirky coach, but they don’t gamble.
Seven-foot center Nate Bittle, who has made 35 3-pointers (that’s as many as Jaden Bradley and KJ Lewis combined), and point guard Jackson Shelstad are good enough to start for this Arizona team. TJ Bamba is a rough-and-tumble, 6-5, 215-pound double transfer from Washington State and Villanova who was a big part of Wazzu’s stunning 74-61 upset of No. 5 Arizona at McKale Center two years ago.
About the only true advantage Arizona holds is history.
The Wildcats are 19-3 in Round of 32 games dating to 1988, which has to be some sort of record. As many times as Arizona has been ambushed in the NCAA Tournament (Santa Clara, Buffalo, Princeton, Miami (Ohio), East Tennessee State), none have come in the Round of 32, which has been the UA’s sweet spot.
Arizona’s only Round of 32 losses were to Villanova, 2006, when ’Nova was the No. 1 seed and Lute Olson‘s program had begun to decline, a 2000 loss to Final Four-bound Wisconsin and a 1990 loss to Alabama, both of which are easily explained.
In 2000, Arizona played without injured 7-foot All-Pac-10 center Loren Woods. Nor did it help that Luke Walton scored just one point that day, and Michael Wright two.
In 1990, Arizona’s best player, Bison Dele, inexplicably had the worst game of his college career against a —Bama team with future NBA star Robert Horry. Dele did not score in the 77-55 wipeout.
But that’s it. In Arizona’s other 19 Round of 32 games, all victories, the Wildcats survived every challenge: a missed-shot-at-the-buzzer game with College of Charleston in 1997, an unforgettable double-overtime victory over Gonzaga in 2003, a last-possession upset over Texas in 2011 and a pulsating overtime triumph over TCU in 2022.
I’m riding with history. I’ll take Arizona in a tension-filled finish, 77-72.
