With no real hoops over the past month, the Star is in the simulation business. We used Whatifsports.com to simulate the 2020 Pac-12 Tournament champion (UCLA) and 2020 national champion (Michigan State).
Now we’re answering an even bigger question: Who’s the best team in Arizona Wildcats history?
We have picked what we believe are the eight best teams in program history — those from 1988, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011 and 2014 — and have paired them against each other in a single-elimination tournament.
The teams are seeded based on how far they went in the NCAA Tournament. The first tiebreaker for teams that lost in the same round is their seed in March Madness; the next tiebreaker was overall record that year.
Given how talented all eight teams were, the seedings probably won’t matter too much. All eight had the talent to win it all if things had broken right, and any of these eight teams could beat the other seven on a given night.
Lute Olson coached six of the teams in our eight-team event, including the top five seeds. Sean Miller coached the other two, with his 2011 and 2014 Elite Eight teams represented.
Whatifsports.com only includes Final Four teams before 2000, so such powerhouse UA teams such as 1976, 1989 and 1998 will have to sit this event out, and another team just missed the cut, the 2015 Wildcats. We felt the 2014 version that started 21-0 and was ranked No. 1 before Brandon Ashley’s injury was a tad better, and both teams had much of the same personnel.
All games will be played at a virtual McKale Center, of course. And each game will be packed with a raucous crowd of 14,644. No social distancing in this simulation.
Will Simon say championship again? Will Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr capture the ring that eluded them in 1988? How about that uber-talented 2001 UA squad that took Duke to the final minutes in the national title game?
All final scores and play-by-play action come straight from a one-game Whatifsports.com simulation, and we’ll provide a box score from each contest. The color from the game is completely made up, but anything would be possible if an event like this could really happen.
The event starts with the opening-day matchup: The No. 3-seeded 1988 Final Four Arizona team against the No. 6-seeded 2014 Wildcats who lost to Wisconsin in heartbreaking fashion in the Elite Eight.
Today’s game
Tom Tolbert played like a man possessed in the second half of Arizona’s Elite Eight win over North Carolina in 1988, and he dialed it up again in the first round of the eight-team simulated tournament.
Tolbert had 16 points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes as the No. 3-seeded 1988 team routed the No. 6 2014 Wildcats 80-63 in the opening game at McKale.
Sean Elliott added 14 points and Anthony Cook notched 14 points and 10 rebounds as the 1988 team shot 56.4% from the field while holding 2014 to 41.7%.
Nick Johnson scored 18 points to lead the 2014 team, which had routed the 2015 Wildcats 81-58 to determine who would qualify for the event, since both teams were similarly constructed.
Tom Tolbert, right, was a key part of the 1988 Wildcats’ run to the Final Four. In a Whatifsports.com simulation, he scored six quick points after halftime as UA routed the 2014 Wildcats by 17 in the opening round.
As the higher seed, the 1988 team made sure the iconic cactus, mountain and sun logo was back on the McKale floor. That, and the loud ovation for the popular 1988 team, made the 2014 team feel a bit like the visitors for the first time ever in the arena.
It felt even more like that when Steve Kerr drilled back-to-back 3s early to give UA a 10-4 lead, and with the loud STEEEEEEEVE KERRRRRRR blaring out from the crowd each time, 2014 coach Sean Miller was forced into a quick timeout.
The 2014 Cats woke up after that and took their biggest lead of the day at 23-19 on a Kaleb Tarczewski dunk with nine minutes left in the half, as the fans there rooting for the 2014 version made as much noise as they had all game.
With his team down four, 1988 Lute Olson took a timeout that changed the course of the game.
As 2014 UA talked strategy, what was this? Yes, Ooh Aah Man Joe Cavaleri was suddenly there at midcourt. The 1988 version of the Ooh Aah Man quickly whipped the crowd into a frenzy and changed the momentum as the 2014 looked on in stunned disbelief.
The 1988 team played charged-up basketball for the rest of the half, outscoring 2014 by 11 to take a 39-32 halftime lead. Elliott scored six points during the burst and Tolbert added four.
Nick Johnson had 18 points in the simulation opener, but the 2014 Wildcats couldn’t threaten 1988 UA down the stretch.
Johnson hit a shot at the buzzer to cut the lead to seven, but Tolbert answered with four quick points to start the second half to make it 43-32.
Johnson hit a 3 to cut it to 43-35, but that was the closest the 2014 team would get after that. Tolbert added another basket to make it 47-37, and later Craig McMillan found Kerr for a 3 with 13:39 left to make it 54-38 and force another timeout.
The 1988 squad scored only seven points — all by the Gumbies — over the final six minutes, but the 2014 team could only score five during that stretch and could never make a run to get back into the game.
Kerr finished with nine points — on 3-of-6 3-pointers — while Tarczewski and Aaron Gordon scored 10 points for 2014 Arizona. Even with a fully healthy Brandon Ashley, who was held to seven points, the 2014 Wildcats were outrebounded 36-28. They were also held to 4-of-17 shooting from 3-point range.
As the first UA team ever to cut down the nets after clinching a Final Four bid in 1988, the team did so again in clinching a berth in the virtual tournament, even if it took only one win to get to this point. The 1988 team now awaits the winner of 2001 vs. 2005 in a semifinal contest.
The 2014 team accepted it wasn’t their day, although some players were heard muttering that they could’ve sworn the 3-point arc was further away for them than the 1988 Wildcats. Someone was sent to get a tape measure but the 1988 team made sure none could be found.
Weigh in on the Wildcats
Head to Whatifsports.com to replay your own greatest UA tournament. Let us know which Wildcat team won it all, and your format. Was it an eight-team, single-elimination event? How about a four-team bracket that only included UA’s Final Four teams, and was a best-of-seven for each round?
Or, just make it up and let us know how you feel a similar tournament would play out. Which UA team would be left standing at the end?
Send your thoughts/results to sports@tucson.com.
