Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis unsure of next move after Wildcats' 1st-round exit from NCAA Tourney

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Since the Arizona Wildcats are usually not available for comment after the season, the questions roll in immediately after their final game.

This year, it was Azuolas Tubelis’ turn to answer them. After he led the Pac-12 in scoring and rebounding, being named a second-team AP All-American, Tubelis was asked about his plans for the future following Arizona's first-round loss to Princeton in the NCAA Tournament.

Which is another way of asking, basically, if he planned to declare for the NBA draft.

“My thoughts are now just to get better, take some time off and get back in the gym,” Tubelis said. “I have no idea when I'm going to play, what I want to play, what to do. We just lost a tough game, so you can't really expect an answer right now. I don't know.”

Dalen Terry, Christian Koloko and Bennedict Mathurin faced the same question a year ago after the Wildcats lost to Houston in the Sweet 16.

"We're not thinking about that right now. We just lost a game," Terry said at that postgame interview podium. "We're just going to get back to Tucson and relax for a little bit and get back in the gym."

All three players left for the pros and were taken in the 2022 NBA draft. This year, ESPN doesn’t have Tubelis in its current two-round mock draft but ranks him No. 69 out of 100 top prospects. NBADraft.net has Tubelis going No. 34.

All of UA’s European players also are always a threat to leave for either the U.S. or European pro leagues, though guard Kerr Kriisa said it was too early to discuss what he will do.

History repeats

After playing a role as a player in Princeton’s 1996 NCAA Tournament upset of defending national champion UCLA under legendary former Tigers coach Pete Carril, Princeton coach Mitch Henderson was quite aware of the parallels that could be drawn to Thursday’s game.

So even before questions were taken at his postgame news conference, Henderson tried to shoot them down.

“There's going to be some comparisons from some of you, I'm sure, to coach Carril,” Henderson said. “I want to be really clear that this group did this. That was a really long time ago. This group did something special for its university, for the fans, for the former players and for one another. Very similar way that you see in the tournament, they just came together and did it.

“We were down the whole game and just made big plays. That's a really good team. We outrebounded them. We had more points in the paint. I thought we'd have to have five turnovers to get it done. We had 11. It's a heck of a win, and I'm so proud of them.”

Maybe Carril’s spirit was somewhere in the Golden 1 Center. After leaving Princeton, after all, Carril served as a Kings assistant coach from 1996-2002, 2003-2006 and 2008-2011.

Carril died in August 2022 at age 92, and Henderson was asked what Carril might have told him had he seen Thursday’s game.

“He would be very proud of the group,” Henderson said. “He wouldn't want any attention to be brought other than what these guys did. They played to win. We knew we had to keep the game low possessions. They had eight fastbreak points, mostly off of our turnovers. But that's really good.”

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With “coach (Tommy) Lloyd, (Arizona is) such an unbelievably well-coached team," Henderson added. "I think we just knocked off a terrific basketball team. I'm just really proud of our guys."

Joe no

After the state of Arizona helped carry Joe Biden to the U.S. presidency in 2020, Biden picked the state’s highest-seeded NCAA Tournament team to win it all.

Biden picked the Wildcats to win their second national championship this season, putting them past Utah State in the second round, Baylor in the Sweet 16, Virginia in the Elite Eight and then beating Marquette and Kansas in the Final Four.

The only problem: By the time the Wildcats took the floor at the Golden 1 Center on Thursday, Utah State and Virginia were already out of the field. The fourth-seeded Cavaliers lost after a last-minute turnover turned into a go-ahead 3 in Furman’s 68-67 upset, while Missouri beat Utah State 76-65 in Thursday’s first game in Sacramento.

Oh, and then Arizona lost too.

USBWA honors Tubelis

Tubelis picked up another second-team all-America honor, this time from the United States Basketball Writers Association.

Tubelis joined UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez on the second team, along with Marquette’s Tyler Kolek, Alabama's Brandon Miller and Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe.

The first team featured Purdue’s Zach Edey, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, Houston’s Marcus Sasser, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Kansas’ Jalen Wilson.

On the third team: North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, Iowa’s Kris Murray, Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell and Penn State’s Jalen Pickett.

Furman rocks Golden 1 Center

The biggest cheer during the first Sacramento game between Missouri and Utah State game had nothing to do with what was happening on the floor.

It came instead during a break in the action, when the arena’s gigantic video screen showed fourth-seeded Virginia’s late turnover turning into a go-ahead 3-pointer from JP Pegues that gave Furman a 68-67 upset.