Arizona received a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament but its path to the Final Four is more difficult than expected.
The Wildcats will have to open by facing 13th-seeded Buffalo in Boise, Idaho in a South Region pod, instead of staying in the West and playing in San Diego. The game will start at approximately 6:40 p.m. Tucson time, and will be broadcast on CBS.
If the Wildcats win their opener, they will face the winner of the No. 5 Kentucky and No. 12 Davidson game on Saturday. Arizona coach Sean Miller is a longtime close friend of Kentucky coach John Calipari.
Should Arizona win both games, the Wildcats will have to travel to Atlanta where they could face No. 1 South seed Virginia in the Sweet Sixteen. No. 2 Cincinnati and No. 3 Tennessee are in the other half of the South bracket.
UA received the No. 16 overall seed in the tournament -- the last No. 4 spot -- and enters the touranament at 27-7 following a 75-61 win over USC in the final of the Pac-12 Tournament on Saturday in Las Vegas. Arizona also won the Pac-12 regular-season championship by two games with a record of 14-4.
While UA's win over USC on Saturday didn't appear to help the Wildcats much, it blocked the Trojans from making the NCAA Tournament field.
USC (23-11) was considered a bubble team, but was not announced as one of the at-large selections during a new-format Selection Sunday show this afternoon.
Only UCLA, ASU and UA received bids from the Pac-12 and UCLA and ASU were among the last four teams to make the field, meaning they will play "First Four" games in Dayton, Ohio. UCLA will face St. Bonaventure on Tuesday and ASU will face Syracuse on Wednesday, just for the right to reach the first round of the tournament.
