Arizona a consensus 1-seed for March Madness entering conference tournament week

Arizona men’s basketball rounded back into form after a two-game losing streak and enters conference tournament week as one of three consensus 1-seeds for the NCAA Tournament.

Bracket Matrix aggregates predictions for the March Madness field, and all 101 brackets tracked by the site have the Wildcats on the 1-line.

The other two consensus top seeds are Duke and Michigan, and they faced off on Feb. 21, the same day that Arizona played Houston in a rare late-season pairing of games that both featured top-four opponents. Duke and Arizona came out on top.

The Wildcats (29-2, 16-2 Big 12) dropped consecutive games to Kansas and Texas Tech in February, both of which joined them in the top four of the Big 12 standings at the end of the year. They’ve won six straight games since then, including a blowout win over Kansas to avenge the earlier loss.

Koa Peat suffered a lower-leg muscle strain in the Texas Tech loss after going 2 of 11 from the field in the Kansas loss. Peat has played in three games since returning, including a 25-point, four-assist showing in the regular season finale.

His fellow star freshman, Brayden Burries, has scored at least 20 points in three of the last four games, and he averaged 17.5 points (50.2% from the field, 38.2% from 3) over 18 Big 12 games.

If the projections hold and the Wildcats stay on the top line, it will be Tommy Lloyd’s second time leading a top seed into the tournament. His first was his debut season in 2022, when the Wildcats lost to Houston in the Sweet 16, prior to the two programs becoming conference foes.

Arizona was a 2-seed in 2023, when it was upset by Princeton in the first round, and in 2024, when Clemson came out on top in the Sweet 16.

Last season’s tournament was the only time so far that a Lloyd-coached group of Wildcats bowed out to a higher seed, falling to Cooper Flagg’s Duke in the Sweet 16.

What’s next for Arizona before NCAA Tournament?

The Wildcats earned a double-bye in the Big 12 tournament, and they will face the last remaining team of UCF, Cincinnati and Utah on Thursday. The latter two face off in the first round on Tuesday with a Wednesday matchup against the Knights on the line.

Already with a regular-season conference title in tow, the Wildcats will try for their first Big 12 tournament championship since joining the league last season. They last won the Pac-12 tournament championship in 2023, ahead of the Princeton upset.

The NCAA Tournament bracket reveal will be Sunday, March 15 at 3 p.m. MST on a Selection Show broadcast on CBS.

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