The Arizona Wildcats picked up their No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed in true Selection Sunday fashion.
Still wearing the Pac-12 Tournament championship hats and T-shirts they received Saturday after beating UCLA, the Wildcats sat in a courtyard full of fans at St. Philips Plaza, in front of a giant screen that beamed the CBS show telling them they would open Thursday against 15th-seeded Princeton in Sacramento, California.
In previous seasons, under a variety of coaches, the Wildcats often held private team gatherings or just watched the show on their own somewhere. Not this bunch.
“It’s great,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “The community is a huge part of what we do, so we wanted to find a way to share this experience with the community.”
Nobody may have been soaking up the moment more than UA forward Cedric Henderson Jr., who played a year of junior college ball and three at low-major Campbell before joining the Wildcats as a grad transfer this season.
Arizona guard Cedric Henderson Jr., top, and UCLA guard David Singleton (34) vie for a rebound during the first half of the Wildcats’ win over the Bruins in the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament championship game Saturday in Las Vegas. The win gave Arizona a 2-1 season edge over the Bruins. Both teams were afforded No. 2 seeds — UCLA in the West Region, Arizona in the South — when the NCAA Tournament brackets were announced Sunday afternoon.
“It’s big. It means a lot to me,” Henderson said. “This is my first time going to the big dance so I’m excited. I can’t wait to play.”
The mood was so festive that the one potentially sour note for the Wildcats couldn’t break it.
Arizona’s No. 2 seed was actually in the South region, while UCLA was given the West’s No. 2 seed — meaning the Bruins will have a chance to return to Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena for Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games two weeks after the Wildcats beat them there Saturday for the Pac-12 Tournament championship.
While Arizona’s Pac-12 Tournament run ensured the Wildcats (28-6) would not be sent to a distant first-weekend site — they will actually cross paths with UCLA at a different pod at Sacramento — UA finished two spots behind UCLA (29-5) on the seed line as the seventh-rated team overall.
That apparently prodded the NCAA selection committee to put the Bruins in the West while the Wildcats were put in the South.
Arizona, if it beats Princeton and the winner of a first-round game between 10th seeded Utah State and seventh-seeded Missouri in a second-round game Saturday, will head to Louisville for the Sweet 16 on March 24.
Despite soaking up a red-bathed T-Mobile Arena crowd on Saturday, telling fans to “BTFD” during the postgame celebration, Lloyd shrugged when asked about the fact that UCLA might get a chance to play at the Las Vegas arena instead.
“You know this about me — I’m not living in that world,” Lloyd said. “I’m happy we beat them last night, but they won the regular season by four games. I think they got rewarded for that, which is rightfully so.”
The decision over whether to place UCLA or Arizona in the West was one of the bigger decisions the NCAA selection committee had to make in addition to figuring out who would receive the final few at-large bids, one of which was given to ASU (22-12).
Rated slightly ahead of UCLA during the NCAA committee’s early reveal on Feb. 18, Arizona slipped below the Bruins after losing to ASU at home and to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, while the Bruins didn’t lose after the early reveal until UA beat them on Saturday.
While the Wildcats beat the Bruins twice in three matchups this season, UCLA went 18-2 in conference play to win the Pac-12 regular season title easily over Arizona and USC, which tied for second at 14-6.
UA had a better record in Quad 1 games — 9-2 to UCLA’s 8-5 — but also had worse losses. The Bruins didn’t lose a single non-Quad 1 game, while UA was 7-4 in Quad 2 games, counting losses to ASU, Stanford, Utah and Washington State.
Guard Pelle Larsson said if he were “in control of the whole thing I’d do it different,” but even he wasn’t too worked up about it. Beaming in the moment alongside his teammate Henderson, with a piece of the T-Mobile net still stuck in his hat, the junior from Sweden said location didn’t really matter
“I don’t really care,” he said. “I’m not from here. So I don’t care where we are. We just gotta win, and beat anybody we play.”
Lloyd, meanwhile, focused on the big picture: A team that lost three starters to the NBA, and played just seven for the bulk of critical minutes this season, was deemed to be one of the best eight teams in the country.
“There’s only so many spots and sometimes, you earn a two-seed but you’re kind of jammed up with some other teams right in your way,” he said. “You might be seeded a little higher than one team but it makes more sense to ship you out. It’s just how it happens. It’s a process that’s beyond me, and I have no complaints about it.
“And for this group of guys to earn a two-seed says a lot about them and what they did this season. We look forward to getting on the court Thursday and proving that we belong.”
The Arizona Wildcats won their second straight Pac-12 Tournament championship after beating the UCLA Bruins 61-59. Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis was named the Pac-12 Tournament's Most Outstanding Player. (Via Pac-12)
