This summer, each member of the Star sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona games they’ve covered since joining the beat. This week, Justin Spears will reflect on five football and men’s basketball games:
Spears’ No. 3:
Buffalo upsets Deandre Ayton-led Arizona in first round of NCAA Tournament
What went down: Third-seeded Arizona fell to No. 14 seed Buffalo 89-68 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 15, 2018, at Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho.
What we wrote at the time: The Arizona Wildcats’ season crashed to a halt Thursday, ensuring that it will be forever bookended by two seismic moments: a federal investigation that shook the program before practices even started and an embarrassing blowout loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Or, to put it another way, it went from the arrest and eventual firing of an assistant coach … all the way to this result, cheered loudly throughout Taco Bell Arena on Thursday: No. 13 seed Buffalo 89, No. 4 seed Arizona 68.
It may take a while for that all to sink in.
“It really doesn’t seem real right now,” UA senior guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright said.
But it was: A blur of easy Buffalo drives to the basket, and a storm of never-ending 3-pointers, 15 of 30 in fact, coming on top of a Bulls defense that tore apart the UA guards and contained the impact that star freshman big man Deandre Ayton could have inside.
Arizona coach Sean Miller kneels by the bench during the first half of a first-round game against Buffalo in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Boise, Idaho.
The Bulls “were a team that, quite frankly, we didn’t match up well with,” UA coach Sean Miller said.
That may be true, but … wasn’t Arizona ranked preseason No. 3? Didn’t the Wildcats win the Pac-12 by two games and blaze through the conference tournament just a week earlier?
Who was this team, anyway?
“It kind of felt weird,” UA freshman guard Brandon Randolph said. Buffalo “came out of the gate and just destroyed us. They just kept coming at us and we obviously had no answer for that, so I’m gonna give them a lot of credit for that.”
— Bruce Pascoe
Player of the game: Buffalo guard Wes Clark ended the night with 25 points on 10-for-14 (71%) shooting from the field, seven assists, four rebounds and two blocks. He also went 3 for 5 from 3-point range.
Players react on the Buffalo bench late in the second half of a first-round game against Arizona in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Boise, Idaho. Buffalo won 89-68.
By the numbers: 11.1%, Arizona's 3-point percentage that night after shooting 2 for 18 from beyond the arc. It was Arizona's biggest upset loss in the NCAA Tournament since 1999, when No. 13 seed Oklahoma knocked off the fourth-seeded Wildcats in Milwaukee. The 2018 loss to Buffalo also marked the third straight season Arizona lost to a double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament. The others: 11th-seeded Wichita State in 2016 and Xavier, also a No. 11 seed, the following season. The Buffalo setback was also the largest margin of defeat for Arizona in the NCAA Tournament since Louisville drubbed the Wildcats 103-64 in the 2009 Sweet 16.
Arizona guard Allonzo Trier (35) comforts teammate Parker Jackson-Cartwright (0) as center Dustan Ristic stares onto the court as the clock winds down in the second half during the first-round NCAA South Region game at Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho, on March 15, 2018. Buffalo won 89-68, eliminating the Wildcats from the NCAA Tournament
The aftermath: Ayton became the first top overall NBA Draft pick in UA history and was chosen by the Phoenix Suns. Rawle Alkins and Allonzo Trier went on to pursue NBA and professional careers. Arizona center Dusan Ristic and Jackson-Cartwright have carved out pro careers overseas.
The following season, the uncertainty of the program's future in the postseason steered away top recruits from joining the Wildcats, and Arizona had a rebuilding season in 2018-19, losing in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament and missing out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Miller's third season in 2011-12.
With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down the 2020 season, and the Wildcats on a self-imposed postseason ban from their NCAA infractions case in '21, Arizona never made it back to the NCAA Tournament under Miller. Then Miller was fired after the '21 season and replaced by longtime Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd, who is the winningest head coach in Division I history through his first two seasons with 61 victories.
Personal reflections: Maybe I jinxed Arizona. If the Wildcats would've beaten Buffalo that night, they would've played a Kentucky team, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Knox and PJ Washington, for a rematch of the 1997 national championship. Assuming Arizona and Kentucky would play each other in the second round, I went into the UK's locker room to talk to Wenyen Gabriel and Nick Richards about guarding Ayton.
Even when Arizona trailed, it felt like there was no possible way the Wildcats would lose. I mean, come on, who could guard Ayton? He was Hakeem Olajuwon-dominant in his lone season at Arizona.
The Wildcats were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then-Buffalo coach Nate Oates would know a thing or two about that. Fortunately for the Wildcats, No. 16 seed UMBC one-upped Buffalo the next day and upset top-seeded Virginia, the first and only 16-1 upset in NCAA Tournament history.
Cover 5: Relive the entire list of Justin Spears most memorable games on the Arizona beat
This summer, each member of the Star’s sports team will count down the five most memorable Arizona games they’ve covered since joining the beat. Here's Nos. 1-5 from Justin Spears.
This summer, each member of the Star sports team will count down the five most memorable Arizona games they’ve covered since joining the beat. Here's Justin Spears' No. 1. — Arizona State drubs Arizona 70-7 for Territorial Cup, ends Kevin Sumlin’s tenure as head coach
This summer, each member of the Star sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona games they’ve covered since joining the beat. This week, Justin Spears is reflecting on five football and men’s basketball games. Here's No. 2 — Northern Arizona upsets Arizona in Jedd Fisch’s inaugural season as head coach
This summer, each member of the Arizona Daily Star sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona Wildcats games they've covered since joining the beat. This week, Justin Spears will reflect on five football and men's basketball games. Here's No. 3 — Buffalo upsets Deandre Ayton-led Arizona in first round of NCAA Tournament
This summer, each member of the Arizona Daily Star sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona Wildcats games they've covered since joining the beat. This week, Justin Spears will reflect on five football and men's basketball games. Here's No. 4 — Arizona ends six-year Territorial Cup drought, beats Arizona State
This summer, each member of the Star sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona games they've covered since joining the beat. This week, Justin Spears will reflect on five football and men's basketball games. Here's No. 5 — Arizona outlasts Washington in Pac-12 Tournament before pandemic shuts down season
The sneakers Michael Jordan wore in the infamous ‘flu game’ were sold at auction for a whopping $1.38 million.
