They wouldn’t have long to stew on it.
After a 19-9 regular-season and an 11-7 Pac-12 campaign, the Wildcats entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed in the Southeast Region, behind Roy Williams and Kansas, Mike Krzyzewski and Duke, and Tubby Smith and Georgia. Arizona had finished fifth in a packed Pac-10 — behind UCLA, Stanford, Cal and USC — and the Wildcats felt like their seeding was a slight.
Harris: “There was no recognition for the Pac-10, even though there were some very, very, very talented players before us. But Dick Vitale didn’t like us. I was really offended when I went to Arizona, and he’d talk so horribly about us. I looked forward to the opportunity to play the All-Americans if they were really that good.”
Up first for the Wildcats: No. 13 seed South Alabama, out of the Sun Belt Conference, in Memphis’ Pyramid Arena for the first round. The Jaguars, led by head coach Bill Musselman, had been in the tournament only four times prior.
Big deal.
The Jaguars slogged through the game, slowing the ball down to a crawl, completely taking Arizona out of its game. South Alabama led by 10 with under eight minutes left, but the Wildcats avoided yet another first-round exit by outscoring the Jaguars 22-4 over the last seven-plus minutes.
Rosborough: “We were down with seven minutes to go, and everyone on the bench was sick.”
Harris: “South Alabama was the compete opposite team as us. They always made sure we were seeded in a way that it was nowhere near a fair game. Anything could happen, and they don’t do that for all teams.”
Edgerson: “It was so scary because they played a different style than we were used to playing. They slowed the ball down, shot the ball with one second left on the shot clock, forced us to defend, to play a game we weren’t comfortable playing. We had guys on our team who refused to lose. They just had a will, a desire. That’s what made that team so special. Everybody on the team dug deep down when it really counted. We wanted to get that prize at the end of the tournament which was to raise that trophy in the air as the No. 1 team in the nation.”
Davison: “The first two games seemed to be the hardest games because we were supposed to win, and they were ready for us. The ones we were supposed to lose, we were like, let’s have fun.”
