NCAA Tournament bracket: Arizona earns No. 2 seed, will face North Dakota
Mar 12, 2017, 3:07 PM | Updated: 8:08 pm
Arizona coach Sean Miller celebrates as he cuts down the net after Arizona defeated Oregon 83-80 in an NCAA college basketball game for the championship of the Pac-12 men's tournament Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Las Vegas.(AP Photo/John Locher)
(AP Photo/John Locher)
Bill Walton derided ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi for calling it, and by the end of the Arizona Wildcats’ Pac-12 Championship win over Oregon on Saturday, labeled it “balderdash.” Balderdash it is then: Arizona will be the No. 2 seed in the West Region of the 2017 NCAA Tournament as Gonzaga held on to its top seed in the same fourth of the bracket.
The Wildcats will face No. 15 North Dakota with a first-round game Thursday in Salt Lake City, the NCAA Tournament selection show revealed Sunday.
“When you get a high seed, that’s really what you look for,” Miller said at a Sunday press conference. “Staying in the same time zone, that’s positive for your team. But whatever seed we were going to be given and wherever we were placed, we’re fine. It’s about us playing really well and playing together.
“You can make the case we are (playing our best) right now, especially offensively. We’re excited about our seed, we’re excited about playing in the West in Salt Lake City.”
[Check out the entire 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket]
Arizona enters the 2017 NCAA Tournament with a 30-4 record and losses to four teams with RPI’s in the top-15 nationally.
“Our record speaks for itself,” Miller said Saturday after Arizona’s win over Oregon. “The losses that we had, if you do your research, and I know you guys have, we didn’t have a full team. As a matter of fact, Allonzo (Trier) missed two of our four losses. Parker (Jackson-Cartwright) and Allonzo missed one of them.”
Trier, the Pac-12 Tournament MVP, missed Arizona’s 69-65 loss to Butler on Nov. 25 and 69-62 defeat in Los Angeles against Gonzaga, when the Wildcats were also without Jackson-Cartwright. Trier was also a member of the bench unit while attempting to integrate himself into the mix during Oregon’s 27-point victory over Arizona in Eugene, Ore., on Feb. 4.
The Wildcats’ fourth loss of the year came Feb. 25 at home against UCLA, 77-72.
Yet, Miller’s Pac-12 championship squad did all it could to make a case for a No. 1 seed after finding revenge against UCLA and Oregon over the weekend, beating each in the conference tournament.
“The one thing that we did in Las Vegas that we need to continue to do us we didn’t beat ourselves. We brought our style to the table in all three games,” Miller said.
But a nonconference loss — shorthanded or not — to the Gonzaga Bulldogs (32-1) ultimately stung the Wildcats, who will now chase their fourth Elite Eight appearance and first Final Four under Miller.
The Wildcats’ RPI ranked second, just behind 31-3 Villanova.
However, the Wildcats didn’t get high marks in other metrics, mostly because of their strength of schedule playing in a top-heavy Pac-12 that only saw four teams find their way to March Madness.
Arizona is joined in the NCAA Tournament by fellow Pac-12 teams UCLA (No. 3 seed), Oregon (No. 3 seed) and No. 11-seeded USC, which slipped into a play-in game.
KenPom.com rated Arizona No. 22 in the nation with a strength of schedule of opponents that, combined, ranked just 59th in offense and 69th in defense. KemPom, meanwhile, rated Gonzaga No. 1 in the nation and also had Oregon (16) and UCLA (20) ahead of Arizona.
ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index (BPI) was even more critical toward the Wildcats, ranking them 24th.
Ultimately, Arizona went 4-4 against top-50 BPI teams, while Gonzaga went 6-0. Gonzaga has six top-25 wins with three of those coming against Saint Mary’s.
“The seed that we have, the location that we have, we’re excited to have that as our path,” Miller said Sunday.
Villanova earned the No. 1 overall seed at 31-3 on the season, while North Carolina and Kansas earned the other No. 1 seeds.
