If there’s anything worse for Arizona fans than an NCAA Tournament without the Wildcats, it might be one in which longtime rival UCLA makes the Final Four.
But, financially at least, it probably couldn’t have worked out better for the Wildcats that both those things happened this season.
UCLA’s journey all the way from the First Four to the Final Four means the Bruins are responsible for over $12 million of the Pac-12’s conference-record $39.9 million haul from its collective NCAA Tournament success this season.
Since the conference divides the money equally, Arizona and each of the league’s 12 schools will earn about $3.3 million over the next six years for this season’s success alone. Each school can thank the Bruins for about $1 million of that.
Ironically, that $3.3 million total also might be more than Arizona would have earned than if the Wildcats had actually played in the NCAA Tournament. It’s not a given that Arizona, UCLA and Oregon State all would have made the NCAA Tournament if the Wildcats hadn’t self-imposed a postseason ban.
Arizona finished fifth in the Pac-12, but its absence in the Pac-12 Tournament effectively gave sixth-place Oregon State a first-round bye. The Beavers had to win three games instead of four to capture the Pac-12 title and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
While it is possible the Beavers might have pulled off a four-game ride to the Pac-12 Tournament title even if Arizona was participating, that would have likely meant both OSU and UA would have reached the NCAA Tournament — thus potentially pushing UCLA off the bubble and out of the field.
As it turned out, UCLA earned six “units” by reaching the Final Four despite being one of the last teams in the field, and Oregon State earned another four by reaching the Elite Eight. Teams receive units for each NCAA Tournament game appeared in up to the national semifinals, meaning the Pac-12’s total was capped at 19 after also receiving four from USC, three from Oregon and two from Colorado.
The 19 collective units not only break the Pac-12’s record of 17 units set in 2001 — when UA, USC, UCLA and Stanford all reached the Sweet 16 and the Wildcats reached the championship game — but it also is the richest.
Units paid just under $100,000 apiece in 2001, meaning the total payout from that season was only about $10 million, or $1 million per Pac-10 team. In 2021, units are worth $337,141 each but they generally increase a single-digit percentage every season based on NCAA budgets.
Factoring in the annual per-unit increases, the 19 units will generate about $39.9 million for Arizona and all other Pac-12 schools over the next six years. Schools will receive payouts escalating between $6.44 million in 2022 to $7.02 million in 2027 from the 2021 performance, along with payouts from the other five most recent seasons.
For the 2022 payout, which includes units earned from 2016-21, the Pac-12 will have a rolling six-year total of 54 units. Multiplied by the 2022 unit rate of $338,887, that’s $18.3 million — or $1.52 million per school, with 35.2% of that total resulting from 2021 success alone.
The NCAA pays out units on a rolling six-year basis so that revenues won’t sway wildly based on the success or failure of any one season, but the impact of the Pac-12’s 2021 success will be felt each year through 2027.
Murphy: UCLA must slow down Zags
One look at Kenpom.com’s adjusted tempo ratings and it’s clear what the key is to Saturday’s Final Four matchup between UCLA and Gonzaga: The Zags are the sixth-fastest team in college basketball and the Bruins are the 20th slowest.
But while UA associate head coach Jack Murphy said UCLA did a great job dictating the tempo in NCAA Tournament wins over Alabama and Michigan, the Bruins may be running into another sort of beast Saturday.
“Whoever wins the battle of tempo is going to win the game, but Gonzaga has won that in every game that they’d played,” said Murphy, who scouted UCLA this season and Gonzaga last season. “You have to be able to take care of the basketball, you have to rebound and you have to work the shot clock. You can’t get caught up when they’re running up and down, and you have to get back in transition to make Gonzaga play 5 on 5.”
Then Murphy paused.
“Yeah, it sounds simple. But based on me watching Gonzaga this season, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever seen to try and do,” he said. “But UCLA is as good as any team in the country at imposing their will, playing at their tempo.”
While Murphy says the Bruins should be able to at least keep the game within the 14-point line (Kenpom.com has it at 12), there is also the fact that, well, Gonzaga has won 27 straight games by double digits.
“I would say that the way Gonzaga is playing right now, you have to give credit for what they’ve done all year long,” Murphy said. “I’m not saying they’re the greatest team I’ve ever seen, but they’re the most dominant team I’ve ever seen.
“I grew up in Las Vegas. Those old Rebel teams (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) were unbelievable. I’m not saying that Gonzaga would beat those old UNLV teams or the old Kentucky teams or the old Duke teams. But in this year of college basketball, Gonzaga is the most dominant team I’ve seen from start to finish.”
Rim shots
- Arizona has added a home game with Sacramento State for Nov. 27 at McKale Center, setting dates for games against Northern Colorado (Dec. 15) and Cal Baptist (Dec. 18). Both Northern Colorado and Cal Baptist were supposed to play at McKale Center last season, but the games were rescheduled.
The Wildcats have begun re-recruiting high-scoring combo forward Stanley Umude, who hit the transfer portal again this month after finishing fourth nationally in scoring (21.6) this season while playing for South Dakota.
The Wildcats pursued Umude in the spring of 2019 when he entered the transfer portal, but Umude returned to South Dakota. He was a first-team all Summit League pick in 2020-21 and in 2018-19, and a second-team pick in 2019-20.
The Wildcats had also been recruiting Pitt transfer forward Au’Diese Toney, but he committed to Arkansas on Thursday.
