LAS VEGAS — For the first time in nearly two decades, virtually no suspense awaits the Arizona Wildcats on Selection Sunday over an expected NCAA Tournament placement.
Even before Arizona faced UCLA late Saturday in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, the Wildcats appeared all but certain to receive a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed and a first-round date on Friday in San Diego.
Arizona won the Pac-12 regular-season title by three games, lost only three times during the regular season and on Saturday was ranked No. 2 overall behind only Gonzaga in the NCAA’s NET ratings.
Arizona was last a No. 1 seed in 2014, though a top seed wasn’t a complete certainty entering that Selection Sunday, and a No. 2 in 2015. It hasn’t really been a certain No. 1 since 2003, when the Jason Gardner-Luke Walton-Rick Anderson-led Wildcats were ranked No. 1 most of the 2002-03 season.
This time, the only real question is where the Wildcats will play during the second weekend, if they win their first two games in San Diego.
The NCAA’s first-weekend “pod system” assures top seeds of playing first-and second-round games as close to home as possible, and San Diego is by far the closest to Tucson.
But Gonzaga’s likely status above Arizona on the top seed line — unless the Pac-12 Tournament results bump the Wildcats up to No. 1 overall — means Arizona will likely have to move out of the West to play second-weekend games in San Antonio (as a No. 1 seed in the South Region) or Chicago (as a No. 1 in the Midwest) since the Zags are expected to be the No. 1 seed in the West.
UA athletic director Dave Heeke indicated the Wildcats would prefer to play in San Francisco, but that only the top overall seed is guaranteed its choice of location.
“We’d like to stay as close to the West as we can for the convenience of our fans and convenience of travel, but you’re somewhat at the mercy of those selections,” Heeke said. “You’re in the (Pac-12) footprint in San Francisco but San Antonio is fine. At this time of year, as long as we keep playing, we’ll play anywhere.”
