BYU’s Alex Barcello, in blue, has emerged as one of the West’s best players after transferring from the UA. Barcello would lead the nation in 3-point shooting percentage if he qualified with the requisite number of attempts per game.

 Jessica Hill / the Associated press

If Louisville coach Chris Mack wanted to blame someone for missing out on this season’s NCAA Tournament, he could turn toward his old boss at Xavier, Sean Miller.

Or maybe his old boss’ bosses.

Because Arizona’s administrators chose to self-impose a postseason ban, Miller’s Wildcats did not play in last week’s Pac-12 Tournament. With only 11 teams in Las Vegas, Oregon State β€” the No. 5 seed β€” had a first-round bye.

The Beavers took full advantage of the extra rest by winning three games to capture the Pac-12 Tournament title Saturday night and becoming the final β€œbid stealer” β€” earning an automatic bid when they had no chance of an at-large berth. OSU took a spot away from Louisville, which was determined to be the first team out.

Of course, had Arizona allowed its team to play in March, the Wildcats had the credentials to suggest they’d take a fifth and final spot from the Pac-12. In a parallel universe, Miller’s guys could have effectively bounced Mack’s team out of tourney spot anyway.

That’s only one of the ways the Wildcats are intertwined with the NCAA Tournament even though they aren’t in the field, including the site itself: Indianapolis, site of UA’s 1997 NCAA title.

On almost every seed line, the Wildcats are connected to somebody in the tournament, even three of the four No. 1s. As listed by seed, that includes:

15

Grand Canyon. Making their first appearance ever, the Antelopes are the only representative from the state of Arizona in the field, still having an odd, arm’s length relationship with the Wildcats. GCU has played UA only once in the past 40 years, with the Wildcats winning by 10 at McKale Center during the 2016-17 season.

14

Eastern Washington. EWU and the UA met Dec. 5 in what was just the second game of the Wildcats’ season. The Eagles led by eight points with less than nine minutes to play. But that was also the game when freshman forward Azuolas Tubelis began to emerge, collecting eight rebounds and hitting a 14-foot baseline jumper in the second half to help UA pull out a victory.

12

UC Santa Barbara. Gauchos coach Joe Pasternack worked under Miller at the UA from 2011-12 to 2016-17, being promoted to associate head coach in 2013 after James Whitford was hired as Ball State’s head coach. In 2017, Pasternack left Arizona for UCSB and reached his first NCAA Tournament as a head coach when the Gauchos beat UC Irvine last Saturday to capture the Big West Tournament title.

12

Oregon State. Arizona beat the Beavers by a combined 43 points over two regular-season games before handing OSU a gift for the Pac-12 Tournament.

11

UCLA. The Bruins beat Arizona twice during the regular season but didn’t do enough otherwise to justify more than an unusually blue-blooded First Four date with Michigan State. The Wildcats would have likely met UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament if they had been eligible and beaten No. 12 Cal in the first round.

Former UA player and coach Josh Pastner led Georgia Tech to the ACC Tournament championship last weekend, punctuating the run with a dismantling of Florida State in the final.

9

Georgia Tech. Starting his Arizona career as a walk-on who shagged balls for Mike Bibby in 1996-97, Josh Pastner went on to serve a variety of administrative and coaching roles for the Wildcats until leaving for Memphis in 2008 to work under John Calipari. A year later, Calipari headed to Kentucky and Pastner took over as head coach. He spent seven seasons there before taking over the Yellow Jackets in 2016. This is his first tournament appearance as Georgia Tech’s head coach.

7

Oregon. Chances are you already know more than you want to about the Ducks, who have beaten Arizona seven straight times.

6

USC. There may be nobody in the field the Wildcats want to see do better than the Trojans, since UA upset them on Feb. 20 at Los Angeles in the Wildcats’ biggest win of the season.

6

BYU. Struggling to find playing time on a 17-15 Arizona team in 2018-19, averaging just 3.3 points and 9.6 minutes, Alex Barcello has morphed into an AP honorable mention All-American this season for the Cougars. He’s averaging 15.9 points and 4.5 assists per game and shooting 52.2% from the field. His 48.6% shooting from 3-point range would lead the country if he had made the minimum of 2.5 3s per game (he’s made 51 in 26 games).

5

Colorado. The Wildcats and Buffaloes each held serve on their home courts this season and often play with similar basketball philosophies.

2

Alabama. Former Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne had to scramble as Alabama’s AD to hire Nate Oats just three days after handing Avery Johnson a $5.5 million buyout in 2019. Byrne didn’t really have to look far; Oats’ profile soared after he led Buffalo to a stunning 21-point upset win over Arizona in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

1

Illinois. It really wasn’t that long ago that Arizona beat up Ayo Dosunmu, Kofi Cockburn and the rest of the Illini 90-69 at McKale Center in the second game of the 2019-20 season. The teams were scheduled to play again in Champaign, Illinois, but the game was mutually rescheduled to Dec. 11 of this year.

1

Gonzaga. As with Illinois, Arizona also mutually agreed to move a return game at Spokane, Washington, set for December 2020. Both the Illini and Zags had played at McKale Center and didn’t want to waste a chance to face the Wildcats without their own fans, while Arizona also benefited by not playing having to play either of them at a time when they were restructuring. A makeup date is not yet set.

1

Baylor. Nobody may be less surprised than the Wildcats to see the Bears’ emergence as a dominant force in college basketball. It was Baylor, after all, that swept both ends of a home-and-home series with UA over the previous two seasons. Baylor snapped Arizona’s 52-game nonconference home winning streak in 2018-19 by outrebounding the Wildcats by 31 in a 58-49 win. Then on Dec. 7, 2019, Baylor handed UA its first loss of the season, holding the Wildcats to just 2-for-18 3-point shooting in a 62-58 loss.

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