Arizona Wildcats must play with pride to extend season at Pac-12 Tournament

Pac-12's most intriguing March storylines

LAS VEGAS — The Arizona Wildcats aren’t playing well these days.

By their lofty standards, you could even say they crashed and burned their way to the regular-season finish line, losing 10 of their last 13 games.

They also have the toughest possible Pac-12 Tournament path this week, having to face a USC team that drubbed them by 23 points for the right just to play first-place Washington in the quarterfinals Thursday.

The Wildcats don’t have a reliable go-to scorer, with Brandon Williams still off his game slightly following a knee issue and Brandon Randolph only occasionally visible.

Their defense and rebounding are average, on good days, while they’ve also fumbled away their most reliable strength — taking care of the ball — by averaging 14 turnovers in the past three games.

And there’s no telling if enough of their fans will bother showing up in time for Wednesday’s matinee to turn Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena into “McKale North” the way they usually do.

“It’s just different this year” at Arizona, analyst Don MacLean said on a Pac-12 Networks podcast this week, adding that he doesn’t expect the Wildcats to make a run. “This is not a Sean Miller team that we are accustomed to seeing.”

Maybe not. But they do wear the same uniforms.

The ones that say “Arizona,” representing a program that has won almost two-thirds of its Pac-12 Tournament games, including four titles, since the event was moved, reincarnated and played at neutral sites in 2002.

That’s on top of all the other success Arizona has had in the past three and a half decades.

That’s why, instead of talking about improbably winning four games in four days to capture an automatic NCAA Tournament bid, Miller has been talking to his players about showing pride and effort.

Maybe that will count for something.

“It has to come within you as an individual player,” Miller said. “It’s gotta mean something to wear the Arizona uniform and to be playing in a prestigious conference tournament like we have in T-Mobile.”

Will it? The Wildcats’ body language will answer that question shortly after noon Wednesday, when the Wildcats and Trojans will tip off the first game of the postseason event.

It will be the first time in the Miller era that the Wildcats have ever had to play a first-round game, and they’ll have to wake up quickly: On Jan. 24 in Los Angeles, USC held them to 27.8 percent shooting and destroyed them inside, with big men Bennie Boatwright and Nick Rakocevic each collecting 12 rebounds.

Maybe it’ll help the UA this time that it has center Chase Jeter back to normal, after Jeter missed the Los Angeles games with a back injury and was limited for several more after that.

Jeter is also one of the few Wildcats with experience in high-level conference tournaments. Of the current UA team, only Dylan Smith played in all three Pac-12 Tournament games last season, with Alex Barcello and Brandon Randolph only playing in a game each while Ira Lee sat out following a concussion.

But Jeter (at Duke) and forward Ryan Luther (Pitt) have both played in ACC Tournaments, while point guard Justin Coleman (Alabama) played in the SEC event.

“They’re familiar with what that feels like in these tournaments,” Miller said. “That’s also a part of what they bring.”

Mostly, though, Miller said it will take effort to get through the tournament this time. Effort that leads to key defensive stops, defensive rebounds that prevent an opponent’s second shot, and stamina to sustain that effort for multiple days.

“If you’re a team that’s trying to win it, it’s ‘Can you do it again the next day without any rest? Can you do it again a third day, and maybe this year, can you do it again for a fourth day?’” Miller said. “It’s the effort-level guys who’ve given their heart and soul.

“It’s being the harder-playing team, and if you’re a team who takes care of the ball, you have to be able to do the things that make you a good team. … In our case, there’s a lot that we didn’t do well (this season). So can we be a better defensive team in this tournament than maybe we’ve shown recently?”

Can they?

Who knows?

But maybe a little history, and pride in that history, can help. Under Miller, the Wildcats have won 74 percent of their Pac-12 Tournament games, captured three championships and only lost their first game once before: During Miller’s first season of 2009-10, the Wildcats lost to UCLA in the quarterfinals.

“We’ve played well in the Pac-12 Tournament, we really have,” Miller said. “In losses, I feel we’ve always played very, very hard. Sometimes playing hard isn’t good enough, but I don’t think we’ve ever really left there with regrets. We’ve played to win and we’ve always looked at that tournament as having great meaning.”

Arizona’s skid and unusual position as a No. 9 seed is only one storyline in the Pac-12 Tournament, of course. Others include:

The hot team: Oregon

After having to figure out how to play without potentially the conference’s best player, center Bol Bol, Oregon is finally looking like the team that was picked to win the conference before the season. The Ducks have won four straight games, including 20-point-plus home wins over ASU and UA, while also pulling off a road sweep at WSU and Washington last weekend.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to play them,” Miller said. “I had that feeling when we played them (at Eugene), watching them do what they did to Washington on the (Huskies’) last home game. They have talent, depth and they’re a really hard-playing team. They have a lot of versatility. They’ve had success in Vegas. I could see them being a tough out.”

The dark horse (three-game edition): Utah

Picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12’s preseason poll after losing four starters from last season’s NIT runner-up, the Utes went 11-7 with explosive guard Sedrick Barefield and a cast of ever-improving role players.

Utah won three of its final four games, including a home sweep of UCLA and USC last weekend, earning a bye in the tournament, so they’d only have to win three games this weekend to capture the conference’s automatic bid.

The dark horse (four-game edition): Colorado

Only one team in the Pac-12 era has made a four-game sweep of the Pac-12 Tournament to earn the auto bid, when Colorado did it during its first season in the league. The Buffs beat No. 4 seed Arizona to earn the automatic bid.

While the Buffs aren’t likely to repeat it this time, they have won eight of their last 10 games and have a toughness embodied by point guard McKinley Wright, who has played through the conference season with a separated shoulder. CU also has the player voted the league’s most improved, forward Tyler Bey.

The Buffs also picked up the No. 5 seed, allowing them to play last-place California on Wednesday, with Oregon State awaiting the winner on Thursday.

California showed signs of life toward the end of conference play, but if the Buffs get ahead comfortably, they can both build momentum and possibly even rest key players down the stretch.

The scary underachievers: UCLA and USC

Do-or-die tournaments can sometimes bring out the best in talented teams that have underachieved all season, whether because of chemistry, developmental or physical reasons.

UCLA played so poorly that coach Steve Alford was fired before conference play even began, despite having likely draft pick Kris Wilkes and a number of fringe NBA prospects. USC has stumbled along puzzlingly, despite having two of the conference’s best frontcourt players in Boatwright and Rakocevic, plus a number of pro prospects on the wings.

The scouts’ choice: The 6 p.m. games

Even if they opt to golf or hit the tables during the day, NBA scouts aren’t likely to miss Wednesday’s 6 p.m. game between UCLA and Stanford.

The Bruins have Wilkes, center Moses Brown and guard Jaylen Hands, all of whom are potential draft picks. Stanford features mismatch monster KZ Okpala, who possesses a rare combination of size, shooting and basketball IQ as a 6-foot-9 forward.

On Thursday at 6, the winner of that game will face ASU, which has potential first-rounder Luguentz Dort and fast-rising forward Zylan Cheatham.

The “utopia” scenario

Only Washington (at 38) has a NET rating under 60, so there’s no guarantee the Pac-12 can get more than one team in the NCAA Tournament field.

ASU also has the conference’s best wins — but also a brutal home loss to Princeton — so the Sun Devils (21-9) could be in position for an at-large bid, especially if they can win at least one more Pac-12 Tournament game. Oregon (61) might also have an argument if it can win a game or two.

The key to multiple bids is if Washington doesn’t win the tournament. And if the Huskies and ASU each win a game to lock up an at-large spot, yet fail to win the tournament, they both could get bids on top of the tournament winner.

“I would like to think that Washington has certainly done enough to be an at-large team,” Miller said. “I think they’re a team that can certainly win in the NCAA Tournament … and then ASU’s done a lot. They played a great nonconference schedule, have a premier win over Kansas, have played well at the end of the year. I’d like to think again that they would be rewarded by their total nonconference and the fact that they’ve done a good job in the Pac-12.

“And maybe if a team like Oregon can get all the way to the championship. … Utopia would be three teams. I sure hope we could get at least two in, but there’s some other conferences that have a pretty good argument.”

Miller’s idea of utopia might also include Arizona being that third team by winning the championship Saturday, but nobody on the outside will be expecting the Wildcats to do that.

That belief will have to come within themselves.