March MADNESS!!

Here we are again, another start to another March Madness and a familiar face is once again in the running for a Final Four berth and yet another National Championship. In the event you haven't heard, the Arizona Wildcats have been chosen by the tournament selection committee to continue their season and compete for a title. Arizona earned a 12 seed, the lowest seed in history for the school (previously a 10 seed was lowest) and is pinned against Utah in a very win-able first round game. Also this is the 25th straight season that the Wildcats will be participating in the tournament, second all time to North Carolina's 27 (1975-2001).

Enough with this history lesson. Let's be frank here, I, as well as many others, felt that the Wildcats had little to no chance to play in this post season tournament (I had them in the NIT). An 0-3 record to rival Arizona State including a loss in the first round of the Pac 10 tournament, a .500 record in conference play at 9-9, a 2-9 road record and finishing the season losing 5 of 6 doesn't spell dancing in March. But what the committee might have seen was the glimmer in Arizona's season. The number of impressive key wins early in the season (SDSU, Kansas, Gonzaga, Washington, USC and UCLA) a 17-3 home record, a notable 7 game win streak and a trio of players that could beat any team on any given night. Now, a lot of skeptics will say that Arizona got in because the committee did not want to see both Kentucky's (17 year) and Arizona's (24 year- now 25 year) win streaks come to an end in the same season. Others say that schools like Creighton, St. Mary's or Penn State were snubbed due to the prestige and honor that Arizona brings to the tournament and not necessarily its basketball play. But supporters will contend that just because Arizona's key wins came early on in the season, doesn't discount their importance.

This counts as the second consecutive year that the Cats have been a bubble team that got in surrounded by controversy (getting in over ASU despite a head to head record of 0-2 a year ago). Five years ago, the idea of Arizona being a bubble team, let alone a controversial bubble team, would have been unthinkable. This just goes to show the decline of the Silver Fox (Lute Olson) and the poor choice in his replacements. Yes, both coaches led the Cats to tournament berths, but the fashion in which Kevin O'Neill and most recently Russ Pennell went about business, going 0-5 against ASU, finishing 7th and 5th in conference and requiring a miracle from the gods of college basketball to make the tournament, have stained the name of Arizona as a national power and as an elite program.

On the bright side, the next Arizona head coach will be a marquee name such as Rick Pitino, Bruce Pearl, John Calipari or Mark Few just to name a few (no pun intended). But names like these will bring Arizona back to where it belongs, a perennial national power, THE elite program in the Pac-10 and correct its place among the college basketball teams in the state of Arizona. Looking forward, things look bright for the Wildcats with several key recruits on the way and a high profile coach heading the program, I look for Arizona to return to the top of the Pac-10 and leave no doubt for the committee to include the Cats in next years version of March Madness. Oh, and just as a playful tidbit, the last time Arizona finished 5th in the Pac-10 they won the 1997 National Championship. Is it in the cards for this years squad? I don't know but it should be fun to watch.

Beardown Cats!