If Louisville coach Chris Mack wanted to blame someone for missing out on this seasonβs NCAA Tournament, he could turn toward his old boss at Xavier, Sean Miller.
Or maybe his old bossβ bosses.
Because Arizonaβs administrators chose to self-impose a postseason ban, Millerβs Wildcats did not play in last weekβs Pac-12 Tournament. With only 11 teams in Las Vegas, Oregon State β the No. 5 seed β had a first-round bye.
The Beavers took full advantage of the extra rest by winning three games to capture the Pac-12 Tournament title Saturday night and becoming the final βbid stealerβ β earning an automatic bid when they had no chance of an at-large berth. OSU took a spot away from Louisville, which was determined to be the first team out.
Of course, had Arizona allowed its team to play in March, the Wildcats had the credentials to suggest theyβd take a fifth and final spot from the Pac-12. In a parallel universe, Millerβs guys could have effectively bounced Mackβs team out of tourney spot anyway.
Thatβs only one of the ways the Wildcats are intertwined with the NCAA Tournament even though they arenβt in the field, including the site itself: Indianapolis, site of UAβs 1997 NCAA title.
On almost every seed line, the Wildcats are connected to somebody in the tournament, even three of the four No. 1s. As listed by seed, that includes:
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Grand Canyon. Making their first appearance ever, the Antelopes are the only representative from the state of Arizona in the field, still having an odd, armβs length relationship with the Wildcats. GCU has played UA only once in the past 40 years, with the Wildcats winning by 10 at McKale Center during the 2016-17 season.
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Eastern Washington. EWU and the UA met Dec. 5 in what was just the second game of the Wildcatsβ season. The Eagles led by eight points with less than nine minutes to play. But that was also the game when freshman forward Azuolas Tubelis began to emerge, collecting eight rebounds and hitting a 14-foot baseline jumper in the second half to help UA pull out a victory.
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UC Santa Barbara. Gauchos coach Joe Pasternack worked under Miller at the UA from 2011-12 to 2016-17, being promoted to associate head coach in 2013 after James Whitford was hired as Ball Stateβs head coach. In 2017, Pasternack left Arizona for UCSB and reached his first NCAA Tournament as a head coach when the Gauchos beat UC Irvine last Saturday to capture the Big West Tournament title.
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Oregon State. Arizona beat the Beavers by a combined 43 points over two regular-season games before handing OSU a gift for the Pac-12 Tournament.
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UCLA. The Bruins beat Arizona twice during the regular season but didnβt do enough otherwise to justify more than an unusually blue-blooded First Four date with Michigan State. The Wildcats would have likely met UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament if they had been eligible and beaten No. 12 Cal in the first round.
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Georgia Tech. Starting his Arizona career as a walk-on who shagged balls for Mike Bibby in 1996-97, Josh Pastner went on to serve a variety of administrative and coaching roles for the Wildcats until leaving for Memphis in 2008 to work under John Calipari. A year later, Calipari headed to Kentucky and Pastner took over as head coach. He spent seven seasons there before taking over the Yellow Jackets in 2016. This is his first tournament appearance as Georgia Techβs head coach.
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Oregon. Chances are you already know more than you want to about the Ducks, who have beaten Arizona seven straight times.
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USC. There may be nobody in the field the Wildcats want to see do better than the Trojans, since UA upset them on Feb. 20 at Los Angeles in the Wildcatsβ biggest win of the season.
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BYU. Struggling to find playing time on a 17-15 Arizona team in 2018-19, averaging just 3.3 points and 9.6 minutes, Alex Barcello has morphed into an AP honorable mention All-American this season for the Cougars. Heβs averaging 15.9 points and 4.5 assists per game and shooting 52.2% from the field. His 48.6% shooting from 3-point range would lead the country if he had made the minimum of 2.5 3s per game (heβs made 51 in 26 games).
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Colorado. The Wildcats and Buffaloes each held serve on their home courts this season and often play with similar basketball philosophies.
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Alabama. Former Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne had to scramble as Alabamaβs AD to hire Nate Oats just three days after handing Avery Johnson a $5.5 million buyout in 2019. Byrne didnβt really have to look far; Oatsβ profile soared after he led Buffalo to a stunning 21-point upset win over Arizona in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
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Illinois. It really wasnβt that long ago that Arizona beat up Ayo Dosunmu, Kofi Cockburn and the rest of the Illini 90-69 at McKale Center in the second game of the 2019-20 season. The teams were scheduled to play again in Champaign, Illinois, but the game was mutually rescheduled to Dec. 11 of this year.
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Gonzaga. As with Illinois, Arizona also mutually agreed to move a return game at Spokane, Washington, set for December 2020. Both the Illini and Zags had played at McKale Center and didnβt want to waste a chance to face the Wildcats without their own fans, while Arizona also benefited by not playing having to play either of them at a time when they were restructuring. A makeup date is not yet set.
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Baylor. Nobody may be less surprised than the Wildcats to see the Bearsβ emergence as a dominant force in college basketball. It was Baylor, after all, that swept both ends of a home-and-home series with UA over the previous two seasons. Baylor snapped Arizonaβs 52-game nonconference home winning streak in 2018-19 by outrebounding the Wildcats by 31 in a 58-49 win. Then on Dec. 7, 2019, Baylor handed UA its first loss of the season, holding the Wildcats to just 2-for-18 3-point shooting in a 62-58 loss.